Free Republic

Every day it is becoming clearer that CNN, the once proud ratings giant and unquestioned cable network news leader, has abandoned objective journalism to cultivate obsessive hatred for President Donald Trump. It has “jumped the shark,” meaning that a once distinguished broadcaster has become absurd. The original definition referred to the fifth season premiere episode of the hit TV show Happy Days, in which the main character, Fonzie, literally jumped over a shark while water skiing with his signature leather jacket. It is also a perfect reference to a broadcast network like CNN that has diminished greatly in quality and...

On his CNN show this morning, Jake Tapper prematurely ended his contentious interview of senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller, in the course of which Miller repeatedly criticized CNN's biased coverage of President Trump. Abruptly ending the interview, Tapper: “There’s one viewer that you care about right now, and you’re being obsequious, you’re being a factotum in order to please him, okay? And I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time. Thank you, Stephen.” Get the rest of the story here.

(CNN) - After almost a full year of Donald Trump's presidency, and with a new year freshly started, I think it's safe to say that we're all exhausted. I remember thinking after the first few months of 2017 went by, "He can't possibly keep this pace up -- governing by tweet -- it's unsustainable." Clearly, I was wrong. Just three days before 2018 began, in an impromptu interview with The New York Times, President Donald Trump declared that one of the reasons "I'm going to win another four years is because newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if...

Don Lemon officially loses it and starts yelling NO NO NO NO NO about Anthony Weiner's files (3,000 get released tomorrow to Judicial Watch). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn6PVbguL_M&feature=youtu.be

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders isn't a big fan of the media. Which is, of course, her right. The relationship between any White House and any press corps tasked with covering that White House is almost always fraught and fractious. But, on Monday, Sanders made an accusation that went way, way beyond the pale of the usual give and take between White House and press corps. Here's what she said: "There's a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposefully misleading the American people. Something that happens regularly. You can't say -- I'm not done. You can't say...

David Frum, former President George W. Bush speechwriter, appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter today to discuss media in the age of Trump.The current Atlantic senior editor started off his monologue by making the following claim.  “The mistakes are precisely the reason people should trust the media. Astronomers make mistakes all the time because science is a process of discovery of truth. Astrologers never make mistakes or at least they never own up to them because what they are offering is a closed system of ideology and propaganda," Frum told Stelter.  On the surface, this sounds accurate. Astronomers...

Research by the Columbia Journalism Review shows that people in three other countries increasingly believe that the "mainstream" media peddle fabricated stories.

On CNN's "Twitter & Trump" special Tuesday night, CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta recounted his Wikipedia page being vandalized after being called "fake news" by President Donald Trump. "The President of the United States called me fake news and on the day he called me fake news, somebody went on my Wikipedia page and changed my Wikipedia page to say that I had died that day, that I had died on January 11, 2017," Acosta said. "Really," host Bill Weir flatly replied. "That had to be taken down. I turned off my Twitter notifications because it became sort of...

Chief political analyst Gloria Borger said: "He was not a member of the Congress at the time this occurred. He was just a comedian.”

LaVar Ball's nationally televised interview about President Donald Trump's demands for gratitude went just as people who know Ball would've expected: ridiculously. During the interview, the 49-year-old Ball often provided circular answers to CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, but ultimately resisted giving Trump thanks for the Chinese government's pardon of his son LiAngelo Ball and two other UCLA basketball players. At one point during LaVar Ball's response to Trump — which is essentially what the interview had been billed as — the father seemed to chastise Trump for even asking for thanks. LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley, and Jalen Hill were arrested...

San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN)Whitefish Energy is stopping its work to restore Puerto Rico's broken electricity grid because the company says it is owed more than $83 million by the island's power authority. Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski told CNN that repeated requests for agreed payments were not met and there was no choice but to suspend work. ---snip---

CNN is airing a bizarre new advertisement with the motto "Facts First," which insists that the network calls an apple an apple, even if critics of its "news" reporting argue it's a banana. You see, CNN is interested in objective truth, not opinions. This would be like McDonald's advertising with an apple and saying the company is all about health food. Our "news" networks don't deal with facts first. They sell us narratives, and the favorite is the wild speculation about what might happen next to President Trump. For months, they have speculated about how meetings with powerful Russians would...

The journalists on MSNBC and CNN on Tuesday continued to be annoyed that Donald Trump hasn’t connected Hurricanes Harvey and Irma to global warming. MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle offered a snide aside in a story on Pope Francis. She began,“ In the wake of Hurricane Irma, Pope Francis is criticizing climate change deniers.”  Going off script, Ruhle mocked the head of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency: “You hear that, Scott Pruitt?” The co-anchor continued, “Speaking to reporters as he flew over devastated areas in the Caribbean, the Pope warned history will judge the world leaders who do not act.” Snide MSNBC Uses Pope...

RUSH: Now, I want to say here at the start that I know the vast majority of you in this audience have at best a passing interest in the approaching hurricane, Hurricane Irma. If you live anywhere west of Florida or Georgia or South Carolina, North Carolina, you probably don’t care that much. I remember when I grew up in Missouri, the weather would tell us when hurricanes hit, but it was nothing that was ever gonna affect us, and so there was not a direct emotional connection to it. We knew of it. We didn’t get mad at it...

CNN and MSNBC journalists on Tuesday freaked out over Donald Trump’s decision to end DACA, deriding it as “cold hearted.” Talking to Sarah Huckabee Sanders at a White House briefing, an agitated Jim Acosta fussed at the way in which Barack Obama’s questionably constitutional program is being phased out: “Why did the President not come out and make this announcement himself today? Why did he leave it to his Attorney General? It's his decision. These kids, their lives are on the line because of what he's doing?” Later, NBC/MSNC journalist Kristen Welker hyperventilated, “The President vowed to treat dreamers with,...

CNN has reacted very badly to the political rise of President Trump, promulgating fake news and presenting an echo chamber of negative commentary. Now, the struggling news channel appears to be trying to manipulate the ratings. Even if it’s not the originator of the Fake News model that now largely defines the MSM, CNN has certainly perfected it. This past week, the situation seemed to rise to a shocking new level with the CNN programs that followed President Trump’s prime time address to the nation on Afghanistan on Monday and his 80 minute speech Tuesday night to a campaign-style rally...

Thursday night CNN (the first Fake News outlet bestowed a “press” bureau by Cuba’s totalitarian regime) ran a “documentary” on Elian Gonzalez. You know that look on your pooch’s face when he promptly fetches a Frisbee, tail-waggingly returns it, and you’re massaging his face and neck while cooing: “GOOD-BOY!” Well, please don’t take this personally, amigos: but (very briefly) picture your joy and gratification in the pooch-scene on the faces of Castroite apparatchiks-- and your quivering, slobbering, tail-wagging pooch as CNN. CNN really outdid themselves this time. They satisfied every lust of their Cuban suitors, ignoring over 15 years of...

Many Christian organizations are fearful for their safety after CNN published a bogus “hate map” concocted by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Here are all the active hate groups where you live,” CNN’s headline declared. The list included among others American Family Association, Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom, Liberty Counsel and Pacific Justice Institute. American Family Association blasted the CNN story calling it a “sham news article that could easily incite violence and place AFA employees and supporters in harm’s way.” Liberty Counsel President Mat Staver demanded an immediate retraction – calling CNN’s report “false, defamatory and dangerous.” “Liberty...

Only those who are so-called “woke” (I just threw up in my mouth) are deserving of statues in American history. That’s what CNN commentator Angela Rye said during a panel discussion with CNN’s Kate Bolduan. As the nation descends into chaos concerning political commentary over the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia that left scores of people injured and one woman dead, we’re on the discussion of statues. White nationalists descended into the city last Saturday to supposedly protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue. Far left counter protesters arrived and skirmishes broke out. It culminated when a...

After Tuesday’s heated press conference over Charlottesville, the media has been in a renewed frenzy over Trump’s comments. Over at CNN, the outrage seemed to be at its worst, with hosts sounding just like their radically left-wing guests. On the 7am hour of CNN’s New Day, fill-in host Poppy Harlow actually asked liberal reporter and CNN analyst April Ryan if Trump's slogan “Make America Great Again” was referring to the days when the KKK terrorized the South. The panel discussion started between the Daily Beast’s John Avlon, CNN political analysts David Gregory and April Ryan, and hosts Chris Cuomo and...