Free Republic

Peter Sagal, host of NPR's highly entertaining "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," is planning a new PBS special on the US Constitution. In an interview with Politico, Sagal explains that he will be using the show to "educate" Americans about our government's framing document . The tax-payer funded show, "Constitution USA with Peter Sagal," sounds harmless enough: … We talked to people who were basically living the Constitution whether they wanted to or not, as opposed to the usual array of pundits or activists who have opinions about it. But as Sagal reveals his personal views of the constitution, a...

What a beautiful racket the left has going. Those of us who dare not be liberal are literally paying, through our tax dollars, for NPR to smear us like this: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Partial transcript: "The thinking, as we have been reporting, is that this is a domestic, extremist attack and officials are leaning that way largely because of the timing of the attack. April is a big month for anti-government and right-wing individuals. There's the Columbine anniversary, there's Hitler's birthday, there's the Oklahoma City bombing, the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco."(continued)

The puppeteer who gave Sesame Street's Elmo his voice allegedly threw a crystal meth sex party for a teenage boy in 2004, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week. Sheldon Stephens, now 24, is the fourth man to sue Kevin Clash, but he was the first one to publicly claim he had a sexual relationship with him as a teen. Stephens' lawsuit is "meritless and barred by the statute of limitations," Clash lawyer Michael Berger told CNN Tuesday. "Mr. Clash continues to deny any wrongdoing, and we intend to defend this case forcefully." (...) "I am a gay man,"...

Image from Tundrabuggy.com – comedy added by WUWTFrom NPR: The Inconvenient Truth About Polar BearsIn 2008, reports of polar bears’ inevitable march toward extinction gripped headlines. Stories of thinning Arctic ice and even polar bear cannibalism combined to make these predators into a powerful symbol in the debate about climate change.The headlines caught Zac Unger’s attention, and he decided to write a book about the bears.Unger made a plan to move to Churchill, Manitoba, a flat, gray place on the Hudson Bay in northern Canada accessible only by train or plane. For a few months out of the year,...

The PBS broadcast of the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize on Oct. 30 was a festival of tributes to Ellen DeGeneres -- which is fine, since she is quite talented comically. But it wasn't so much a tribute for the comedy as it was for her pioneering work promoting homosexuality. For laughs, consult top producer Cappy McGarr, who insisted Ellen wasn't picked for political reasons: "The Kennedy Center is apolitical. We have had so many people who have their own brand and type of humor. We don't pick winners because of any advocacy they do. It is all about funny...

TWO days after President Obama’s first debate against Mitt Romney, Stephanie Cutter, a deputy campaign manager for the Obama re-election effort, decided to tweak Mr. Romney for his attack on federal funding for PBS. On Twitter, Ms. Cutter, known for her dry sense of humor and sharp edge, circulated a photo of Big Bird outside an Obama rally with the hashtag #ProtectSesameStreetNotWallStreet to her 42,700-plus followers. The Big Bird attacks started to take on a life of their own. The following week, the Obama campaign introduced a tongue-in-cheek ad that compares Big Bird to Bernard L. Madoff and other corporate...

<p>Romney was a liberal in Massachusetts, we all know that. Romney wasn't on board with the Reagan Revolution. That's a deal killer and a game changer with me.</p> <p>Yet now he mouths all the right conservative things (kill big bird-- yeah I like that).</p> <p>SO THE QUESTION IS...</p>

Mitt Romney's rally in Mansfield, Ohio, on Monday began the way every political event begins. "Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and our country's national anthem."This is always an uncomfortable moment for me. While I sat at my laptop, most of the reporters around me stood and put their hands over their hearts. This time instead of just sitting and working, I tweeted what I was feeling: @Ari_Shapiro: As a reporter I'm torn about joining in the pledge of allegiance/national anthem at rallies. I'm a rally observer, not a participant. And then: "Yet most reporters around me stand for...

Chris Bram is the author of the novel Gods and Monsters. Gore Vidal was famous for his hates: academia, presidents, whole portions of the American public and, most notably, Truman Capote. Yet he could be incredibly generous to other writer friends. He wrote beautiful, appreciative essays about Tennessee Williams and Dawn Powell. He was a man of many facets and endless contradictions. He achieved his first notoriety in 1948 when he was only 22, for his novel, The City and the Pillar. It was the fullest, most frank portrait of gay American life at that time. The book wasn't autobiographical...

You know, it's bad enough that a percentage of Americans admit to getting "the news" from Comedy Central's Daily Show and host Jon Stewart. But when a legal affairs correspondent from National Public Radio starts citing highly-edited videos created by this comedy show to bash presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney while defending President Obama, citizens should be tremendously concerned about their tax dollars funding this media outlet (video follows with transcript and commentary, file photo): Nina Totenberg Cites Highly-Edited Jon Stewart Video to Bash Romney and Defend Obama CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Because it captures the essence of Obama’s view of...

The recent firing of longtime news analyst Juan Williams of National Public Radio was a wake-up call for many Americans to the political correctness and liberal bias at the station. However, it's not so much the bias that offends me, but the fact that my tax dollars are funding it. On its website, National Public Radio describes itself as "an independent, self-supporting media organization ... that receive(s) no direct federal funding for operations." That carefully worded statement is disingenuous and hides the truth about the extent to which taxpayers are supporting the station and its liberal agenda. NPR is a...

Juan Williams gives a talking points memo to npr. And how.

Two weeks ago, a handful of bloggers wrote scathingly about Ken Burns’ use of former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin — two prominent writers who have faced credible plagiarism and fabrication charges that you can read about here, here and here — as prominent interview subjects in Burns’ most recent documentary about baseball, “The Tenth Inning.” Tom Scocca, a blogger for Slate, headlined his September 30 post “Mike Barnicle, Fraud and Plagiarist, Helps Guide America Through Baseball’s Era of Shame.” Scocca, to put it mildly, writes in anger.Speaking of baseball and its scandals, the other...

Tens of thousands of Glenn Beck fans and Tea Party supporters are expected to descend on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Saturday for an event the conservative talk show host has promoted as a celebration of America's "heroes and heritage." But as is usually the case with the histrionic Fox News Channel host and national radio personality, his actions have not come without controversy. A countermarch is being planned at a different location in Washington to protest Beck's decision to schedule his event on the same site and on the 47th anniversary of civil rights hero Martin Luther King...

Grover, the charismatically blue character from the classic televised children's show Sesame Street, seems to be playing both sides of the Israeli-Arab conflict of late. The furry 'muppet' is hosting a new version of Jewish-themed Shalom Sesame to be aired on Hanukkah – but has also been heard declaring “We're off to Palestine!” in an introduction to a Sesame Street video. The video segment named “A Gift from Grandma,” features a Palestinian Authority girl named Salwa who says that she lives in "Palestine" before she helps her grandmother embroider a dress for her. Some viewers were incensed at the use...

If you were in the presence of a man having a heart attack, how would you respond? As he clutched his chest in desperation and pain, would you call 911? Would you try to save him from dying? Of course you would. But if that man was Rush Limbaugh, and you were Sarah Spitz, a producer for National Public Radio, that isn’t what you’d do at all. In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed...

It's a practice so hidden, many don't realize it exists: the shackling of incarcerated women during childbirth. Across the U.S., there are stories of women going from jails or prisons to hospitals, where they labor and sometimes even deliver while restrained with handcuffs, leg shackles or both. In recent years, a growing number of states have moved to ban the practice. Ten states now have anti-shackling legislation: California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia — and as of two weeks ago, Pennsylvania. There have also been lawsuits in a number of states. On Thursday, a...

There's less than four months to go before the November midterm elections, and by the looks of things now, Republicans have a legitimate shot at capturing control of the House. That's the sense of Stuart Rothenberg, the widely respected political analyst who publishes the conveniently-titled "Rothenberg Political Report." Stu sat down and talked politics with All Things Considered host Robert Siegel for an interview that will air this evening. Of the 435 seats in the House, Democrats currently hold 255, Republicans 178, and there are two vacancies — the Republican seat in Indiana where Mark Souder resigned and the Democratic...

Pro-lifers have long understood the issue of media bias. Years ago, the late, pro-choice David Shaw wrote a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times showing how biased his own newspaper was when reporting on abortion. Shaw showed that bias came through not just on stories about abortion. Shaw showed how even stories that related to surgery on unborn children were skewed or spiked to avoid anything that might have a pro-life message.Now, we have National Public Radio (NPR) lining up to support the pro-abortion side in the ongoing struggle over this issue. Managing Editor David Sweeney recently issued...

If you're born in the U.S.A., you're an American citizen. Some lawmakers, however, plan to challenge that basic assumption. In what might be the next great flash point in the nation's ongoing debate about immigration policy, legislation has been introduced in Congress and a pair of states to deny birth certificates to babies born of illegal-immigrant parents. "Currently, if you have a child born to two alien parents, that person is believed to be a U.S. citizen," says Randy Terrill, a Republican state representative in Oklahoma who is working on an anti-birthright bill. "When taken to its logical extreme, that...

On the day after his historic primary win, National Public Radio rabidly went after Rand Paul, newly minted GOP nominee for Kentucky Senator, trying to make him out to be a KKK sympathizer or perhaps a racist that would have agreed to keep Jim Crow alive and well in 1964. This rabid, left-wing attack is uncalled for and, further, is meant only to stir anti-Republican hatred and not to help voters discover anything relevant about nominee Rand Paul. Nearly at the top of the interview the host of NPR's All Things Considered tried to paint Mr. Paul as some sort...

Public supported National Public Radio (NPR) posted a report on March 17 during its "All Things Considered" radio show that warns its listeners that "patriot groups" are dangerous and are apparently increasingly prone to attacking government officials and facilities. Oddly the two examples it uses to prove its case have no ties whatsoever to any "patriot groups." Headlined, "Hostility Against Federal Workers Troubles Officials," NPR blames "patriot groups" on these attacks and worries that "anti-government hate groups" are on the "upsurge." And what does NPR use to prove its case? Nothing but the say so the left-wing Southern Poverty Law...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has nominated the sister of National Public Radio legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg (TOH'-ten-burgh) for a federal judgeship. Obama on Wednesday tapped Amy Totenberg for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She has been in private practice and has served as an arbitrator in Atlanta since 2000.

Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network’s top political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network’s political bias, two sources familiar with the effort said. According to a source, Liasson was summoned in early October by NPR’s executive editor for news, Dick Meyer, and the network’s supervising senior Washington editor, Ron Elving. The NPR executives said they had concerns that Fox’s programming had grown more partisan, and they asked Liasson to spend 30 days watching the network. At a follow-up meeting last month, Liasson reported that...

Did you miss it? Last month the country celebrated national Blasphemy Day! According to NPR.com, atheists marked Blasphemy Day last month at gatherings around the world, celebrating the freedom to denigrate and insult religion. Activities included de-baptizing people with hair dryers and an art exhibit in Washington, D.C., which showed, among other titles, Jesus Paints His Nails, in which "an effeminate Jesus after the crucifixion [applies] polish to the nails that attach his hands to the cross." The atheist group Center for Inquiry hosted the exhibit. Addressing a capacity crowd at the University of Toronto, columnist Christopher Hitchens elicited enthusiastic...

In August, National Public Radio's flagship music program All Songs Considered published "The Best Music of 2009 (So Far)," a rundown of the top 30 songs and albums of the year-to-date as voted by the show's listeners... On the Best Songs list, there are no songs that cracked the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and none by African-American performers. Two black artists, Danger Mouse and Mos Def, made the Best Albums list, at numbers 20 and 23, respectively. None of this is a surprise, of course. NPR's audience skews white and college-educated; so does Animal Collective's fan-base....

... one starts to wonder if the country wouldn't be better off without them and if Republicans should be cut out of the health-care system entirely and simply provided with aspirin and hand sanitizer. Thirty-two percent of the population identifies with the GOP, and if we cut off health care to them, we could probably pay off the deficit in short order.

The two words said -- shouted, actually -- in the Capitol last night that are getting much of the attention this morning are "you lie!"

... a Miss California joke, on NPR: When Axelrod was asked if he had weighed in on the Obama family’s dog choice, "the Rasputin in this kingdom" (as Sagal jokingly refered to him) sassed back, “I was only called in for the final three, and one was Miss California.”

Taxpayer-funded PBS journalist Bonnie Erbe has some advice for Democrats: politicize the 2010 Census, then use the biased numbers to jam pack Congress full of left wing wackos. “Depoliticize the Census?” PSB “journalist” she wrote in her blog at US News & World Report. “Surely they jest!” “The Census is part of the spoils of victory.....

NEW YORK - The Al Jazeera Network plans to announce on Thursday that it has signed a deal to run its news on Worldfocus, a syndicated nightly news program produced in New York and distributed throughout the United States. The deal would help the international news network, one of the top services in the Arabic-speaking world, broaden its reach in the United States, where it so far has been available to only a limited audience. Worldfocus, hosted by former NBC News correspondent Martin Savidge, is produced by New York City public broadcaster WLIW and syndicated to a number of Public...

A team of journalists working for U.S. media company National Public Radio (NPR) narrowly escaped a car bombing in Baghdad after Iraqi soldiers warned them a device had been attached to the bottom of their armored car, NPR said. NPR correspondent Ivan Watson, Iraqi producer and translator Ali Hamdani, and two Iraqi drivers who did not want to be named had stopped on November 30 to conduct interviews in a kebab shop, a few yards from an Iraqi Army checkpoint, NPR said. They spent around 45 minutes interviewing people and eating lunch in Rabiye Street, once a major shopping area...

If you have any voting problems, NPR wants to hear about them. As part of Twitter Vote Report – a project born out of a collaboration of volunteer software developers, bloggers and the NPR social media desk – we'll be monitoring voting irregularities, everything from long waits and broken voting machines to polling places with insufficient ballots. An interactive map will track election problems reported by voters. The map will display eyewitness reports as they come in, so most of them will not be verified by NPR. As reporters look into some of them, you'll find stories on our voting...

In the final lap of the U.S. presidential race some believe Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) attacks against Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) character have gone too far and, for some, are even racist. McCain was sharply criticized after the debate between the two candidates at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., for referring to Obama as "that one" — a reference that many interpreted as racially loaded. Our weekly Political Chat takes on this issue as well as apparent attempts by the McCain campaign to de-Americanize Obama. McCain surrogates have taken to drawing attention to Obama's middle name, Hussein – a tactic...

The Obama campaign has gone on the offensive against a multi-million dollar ad campaign by the American Issues Project, a conservative group tying the Democratic candidate to Bill Ayers, a one-time leader of the Weather Underground. This new ad from the Obama campaign asks why John McCain is "talking about the '60s" -- a direct message that he's ignoring current problems and a subtext that he's stuck in the past. And because this is a campaign finance issue, there's also action on the legal front. Obama's lawyer Robert Bauer has done what lawyers do -- dispatch letters, both to the...

THE DISGUSTING ['APPEASEMENT'] SONG BY NPRAugust 11, 2008 What is it about the bad guys that provoke "compassion" from NPR type of journalists? Regarding the case against Bin Laden's driver: Salim Hamdan, though only having a short time to serve under the current verdict, he still might be held indefinitely according the Bush's administration as an 'enemy combatant', John Mcchesni of NPR 'lamented' that the jury will be very disappointed if that happens. Juror Questions U.S. Pursuit Of Salim Hamdan : NPR's John McChesney has this exclusive interview ... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93483533 Rhetorical question, Does Mr. Michesni think that these type of...

Weigh your attitudes and beliefs about homosexuals on the "Homophobia Scale" and see how you rank.

An internal Justice Department investigation released Monday has concluded that senior officials broke the law by hiring immigration and other officials based on partisan considerations. The report — issued by the inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility — culminates an investigation that lasted more than a year, stemming from the firing of seven U.S. attorneys in one day in 2006. The report focuses on some of the senior officials in the circle of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Specifically, the report names senior counselor and White House liaison Monica Goodling and Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Both...

All Things Considered, July 17, 2008 · A generation ago, the livelihood of Gloria Nunez's family was built on cars. Her father worked at General Motors for 45 years before retiring. Her mother taught driver's education. Nunez and her six siblings grew up middle class. Things have changed considerably for this Ohio family. Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job. Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government...

Juan Williams Says Daily Kos Is In The Political Center By Noel Sheppard | July 22, 2007 - 13:19 ET Sometimes when you see NPR's Juan Williams on Fox News, you are left scratching your head wondering what planet he lives on, and what the color of the sky is there. Such questions must certainly have been raised in the minds of right-thinking "Fox News Sunday" viewers this morning when Williams suggested that the liberal blog Daily Kos "is now center." I kid you not. What precipitated this extraordinary lapse of reason on Williams' part was a rather accurate observation...

Banned by PBS: Muslims Against Jihad Saturday, June 23 at 9 p.m. ET Repeats Sunday, June 24 at 3 a.m. ET Hosted by E.D. Hill Tune in this weekend, as FOX News Channel presents the documentary the Public Broadcasting System didn't want you to see.

Where on Earth are the moderate Muslims? Thanks to PBS, they’re not on public television.-Deroy Murdock, National Review Wednesday, I happened to catch Dennis Prager mention a free screening of Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, Thursday evening. I emailed in for tickets, and within moments, my name was added to a shrinking list. I must say, my schedule has been packed (hence, the light blogging and blog-visits) and this opportunity coming up was throwing a monkey wrench into the tire of my tired schedule. I almost talked myself out...

There’s a foul wind blowing off Cape Cod. The clean-energy project known as Cape Wind makes more sense than ever, what with the mess in the Middle East and the earth getting warmer by the minute. But resistance to the proposed wind-farm — which would place 130 windmills in Nantucket Sound and provide up to 75 percent of the Cape’s energy at any given time — proves that it really isn’t easy being green. Since Cape Wind was first proposed in 2001, the project has made plenty of powerful enemies (see the sidebar “Enemies in High Places”), including Ted Kennedy,...

Morning Edition, August 7, 2006 · Sectarian strife continues to worsen in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. John Hendren is wrapping up the latest of more than a dozen visits to the war zone since early 2003. He sends us this reporter's notebook about Iraq.

Part of New Orleans's southern charm comes from its green canopy of live oak trees. Many of those trees have been standing in water for more than a week, depriving their roots of oxygen. (this is lead-in. Audio .wav file of the report at NPR site)

(CNSNews.com) - National Public Radio has decided to use a philanthropist's generous donation for a "major expansion" of its news operation. NPR announced on Tuesday that it would spend $15 million over the next three years on additional reporters, editors, producers and managers; as well as new domestic and international bureaus. The 2004-2007 expansion will be funded in part by interest from the $225 million in bequests that NPR received from the late philanthropist Joan Kroc, the widow of the man who founded McDonald's. Joan Kroc died in October 2003. NPR has described her bequest as "the largest monetary gift...

LOL...James Randi, the magician and debunker of paranormal hoaxes, observes on his website that ...(Currently, my local PBS-TV stations are featuring both Dr. Wayne Dyer and Dr. Gary Null in their pledging period, to take advantage of the public's taste for quackery. Both these men flaunt degrees, both deal in nonsense. Dyer makes incredibly naïve statements such as that if you just summon up enough determination, "anything is possible," and Null prescribes magnets and other medieval tools to prevent aging. He preaches eternal youth. Now, Null is less than 60 years old, but I recognize dyed hair and make-up, and...

&#8216;We're in trouble; and he means public TVMoyers' program an issue with McCain, Hollings warnsOriginally published in Current, Jan. 19, 2004By Karen EverhartSouth Carolina Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings warned pubcasters that the upcoming Senate reauthorization of the Public Broadcasting Act will be a tough fight. "We&#8217;re in trouble," said Hollings, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. During a Jan. 11 [2004] luncheon at the National Educational Telecommunications Association Conference in New Orleans, Hollings suggested that public TV will take hits for the PBS series Now with Bill Moyers. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) views Moyers,...

Should Saddam Hussein be executed? Poll being conducted by San Francisco PBS TV station KQED. Know that if you answer YES, you will be asked: Are you sure?....and asked to vote it up or down again. If you vote YES, you will be asked: What if you knew that the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), and many of the world's spiritual and political leaders are opposed to the death penalty?.....and asked to vote it up or down again. If you vote YES, you will be asked: What if you knew that most international human rights organizations oppose the...

Moyers a flash point in balance talks led by CPBOriginally published in Current, July 14, 2003By Karen Everhart CPB has revived debate within public TV about balance and fairness in public affairs programs, citing specifically Bill Moyers' dual roles of host and uninhibited commentator on his Friday-night PBS show.After a vigorous debate among station reps and producers June 9 [2003] at the PBS Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, CPB President Bob Coonrod proposed to broaden discussions within public TV on standards of fairness. In a widely circulated letter exchange with PBS President Pat Mitchell, he put topics from the...