Free Republic

Harry Reid may have deserted Pres. Obama over the Ground Zero mosque, but PBO can count on at least one stalwart defender: Norah O'Donnell. On today's Morning Joe, the MSNBC "correspondent" declared that the prez is deserving of praise for his position. Then, dancing a quantum leap further, O'Donnell accused mosque opponents of acting "like the people who attacked America and killed 3,000 people." View video here.

On the seventh day of Journolist, Daily Caller gave to me — the party line on post-debate sensibility. The latest from Jonathan Strong looks at the access by political operatives of Journolist and their sometimes-naked attempts to push the members into political advocacy. The strongest evidence comes from a posting by Jeff Hauser, who advocated to Journolist members to skew their opinions on an upcoming debate between Barack Obama and John McCain: The single biggest thing journolist can do is to lay the analytical framework within the media elite necessary for an actual Obama debate win to be viewed as...

Newt Gingrich and Howard Dean both left pants on the ground regarding the Shirley Sherrod Racism incident in their interviews with Fox News Chris Wallace. We learned earlier this month that a leftwing group affiliated with the website “Journolist” have plans in place to defeat those who they consider enemies by hurling the Leftwing invective “Racist” at enemies whether they are Racist or not and whether there is evidence of the charge or not. Many of these “Journalists” write for major newspapers around the country so they regularly access and influence the public square of ideas. In fact they may...

The following 75 names are confirmed members of the now-defunct JournoList listserv. 1. Ezra Klein - Washington Post, Newsweek, The American Prospect 2. Dave Weigel - Washington Post, MSNBC, The Washington Independent 3. Matthew Yglesias – Center for American Progress, The Atlantic Monthly 4. David Dayen - FireDogLake 5. Spencer Ackerman – Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect 6. Jeffrey Toobin – CNN, The New Yorker 7. Eric Alterman – The Nation, Media Matters for America 8. Paul Krugman – The New York Times, Princeton University 9. John Judis – The New Republic, The American Prospect...

It was the moment of greatest peril for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s political career. In the heat of the presidential campaign, videos surfaced of Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, angrily denouncing whites, the U.S. government and America itself. Obama had once bragged of his closeness to Wright. Now the black nationalist preacher’s rhetoric was threatening to torpedo Obama’s campaign. The crisis reached a howling pitch in mid-April, 2008, at an ABC News debate moderated by Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. Gibson asked Obama why it had taken him so long – nearly a year since Wright’s remarks became public –...

On her Bravo TV show Tuesday night, left-wing comedian Kathy Griffin referred to Sen. Scott Brown's two daughters as "prostitutes," and a CNN reporter apparently thought it hysterical. [Audio available here.] Griffin, who was readying herself for a trip to Washington, DC to rally and drum up support for a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," brought CNN reporters (husband and wife) Dana Bash and John King onto the show to "coach" her for handling Washington. Bash is a congressional correspondent for CNN, while King anchors the news hour "John King, USA." When the couple showed Griffin a picture of...

You think there are problems now with the mainstream media? Just wait. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger joins the drumbeat of those proposing fixes that are guaranteed to make the MSM much, much worse — and he wants to do it with your tax dollars.In a July 14th op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Bollinger argues that the time has come to rescue the declining fortunes of newspapers and broadcast news with “enhanced public funding for journalism.” He envisions the future of American journalism as a “mixed system,” part public, part private. Otherwise, worries Bollinger, Americans might not get the news...

If you limit your news sources to mainstream news outlets, such as ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, or leftwing newspapers like The New York Times, you’re missing something important – news. For instance, very few outlets chose to cover how a very solid case against Black Panther Party ruffians who were intimidating voters at a polling site during the 2008 election just got dropped by the Obama administration. A video of the same charming Black Panther was just released showing a tirade of hate speech against white people, which included telling a crowd that they would, “have to kill some crackers”...

Several video clips of the Lamestream Media obsession with Governor Sarah Palin. What these idiots do not seem to realize is they are making her into a NATIONAL HERO! Keep it coming!

Been wondering which American industry is next to be consumed by our ravenous federal government? You may find the answer in a report released this month suggesting that the news media can only survive if it is a public media. This suggestion is contained in a paper titled “New Public Media: A Plan for Action,” in which the authors say: “Take a close look at the American journalism landscape in 2010, and the scene is grim. Ad revenue is down; job cuts are up; and new business models have yet to prove sustainable. In recent decades, media consolidation, poor business...

MSNBC coverage of the NYC Bomb is bizarro..

On ABC’s This Week, when retired ABC newsman Sam Donaldson recommended that President Barack Obama nominate, to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, someone who “is going to stand up for the principles – on the left, if you will – that he believes in,” Cokie Roberts jumped in: “I’m not so sure he is so far to the left.” Donaldson agreed: “Well, I’m not sure either.” Minutes later, Roberts contended the efforts of state attorneys general, to get a federal court to rule unconstitutional ObamaCare’s requirement every citizen get health insurance, reminded her of the “nullification” which led...

The mercury is running high, all right, and it has nothing to do with the weather. Public displays of political anger have been a staple of the American scene for the last eight months or so, but in recent days a handful directed at members of Congress have gone a bit further than noisy, sign-carrying assembly to window-smashing, spitting, threatening faxes and phone calls, even a cut propane line on a barbecue grill. ..." VARYING DEGREES OF RAGE - The Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, second from right, during the Days of Rage in 1969, and anti-health reform protesters in Washington...

The Democratic victory in the protracted health care debate has brought the expected rejoicing from the liberals in government, the universities, and in the prestige media. The current slant on the story follows the idea that America has now climbed aboard the progressive express, joining enlightened lands such as Britain, Cuba and North Korea in guaranteeing health care for all. The triumphalism extends now to the next few tiles in the liberal mosaic, namely amnesty for illegal aliens, a comprehensive energy bill, and a staggering tax increase to start paying for these goodies. At the nation’s newspaper of record, the...

The Hutaree militia and the rising risk of far-right violence By Eugene Robinson Tuesday, March 30, 2010 ....By contrast, there has been explosive growth among far-right, militia-type groups that identify themselves as white supremacists, "constitutionalists," tax protesters and religious soldiers determined to kill people to uphold "Christian" values. Most of the groups that posed a real danger, as the Hutaree allegedly did, have been infiltrated and dismantled by authorities before they could do any damage. But we should never forget that the worst act of domestic terrorism ever committed in this country was authored by a member of the government-hating...

You can’t spell “hate” without “T,” “E” and “A.” This has been the media meme on the Tea Party movement from the beginning. Since the day of Rick Santelli’s cable-TV rant in support of capitalism, the default assumption of the left has been that Americans who show up to protest the Obama administration are all just one pillow case and pair of scissors away from joining the Klan. If it were merely poor reporting, that would be bad enough. But the cry of racism is being used against these concerned citizens, not because it’s true, but because it’s an effective...

Conventional wisdom on the right and left has been that President Obama and the Democrats will pay a heavy price in the November mid-term elections for passing the deeply unpopular health care reform bill. But Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino isn't so sure. Gasparino appeared on the network's "Imus in the Morning" on March 25. "They can all get even in November then," Imus said of conservatives and Republicans. But Gasparino pointed out the indispensable weapon liberals have their side: the "cheerleading" news media. "You know, listen - there's not a lot of good reporting on this stuff, and that's...

There's a media pile-on afoot. Led primarily by the New York Times, a variety of news organizations are attacking the National Tea Party Convention, scheduled to begin Feb. 4 in Nashville, Tenn., with Sarah Palin as the keynote speaker. The Times claims the event is a "profiteering" enterprise, suggesting that the convention violates the grass-roots nature of the "tea party" movement. "Fractiousness," territorial disputes and suspicions have cast a shadow over the effort, the paper says. Yet the event is sold out. There's a waiting list, even among those seeking entrance to Mrs. Palin's speech alone. Eight sponsors include Judicial...

Led by the Democratic party front group Media Matters which issued a posting headlined "We've already donated to Haiti, it's called the U.S. income tax", the media is smearing Rush Limbaugh with a despicable lie accusing Rush of telling his listeners to not donate to Haiti earthquake relief efforts.Rush was warning listeners of being taken in by the Obama administration by going to WhiteHouse.gov, as Obama instructed, to make donations to Haiti earthquake relief. He was concerned the donations made there would go to the Obama administration. It was that concern that prompted his remark that has been taken out...

A reporter trying to question Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley was involved in a scuffle with one of her aides. John McCormack of the Weekly Standard fell Tuesday night as he tried to speak with the Democrat while simultaneously videotaping her and trying to pass a metal grate on a Washington sidewalk. Photos and video of the incident show Coakley aide Michael Meehan trying to help McCormack up. A scuffle broke out as Meehan tried to block McCormack and determine if he was an operative of a rival campaign. Coakley is seen ignoring McCormack. The trip prompted criticism, since Coakley...

As cynical as I have become about the news media, even I never thought I would see the day where "60 Minutes" provided far more comedy than "Saturday Night Live," but Sunday’s edition of the formerly respected news magazine gave the educated viewer infinitely more laughs than SNL delivered (although Charles Barkley’s pathetic performance may have still somehow been even worse than that of Anderson Cooper). Specifically I am referring to the segment that was allegedly devoted to the new book “Game Change” about the 2008 Presidential election. Quite simply, (partly because it dealt with subjects about which I have...

...MS-NBC spent much of its Monday prime-time promoting the spurious contention that intelligence agencies may have deliberately allowed the attempted Christmas Day plane bombing to proceed in order to make Obama look bad. This contemptible idea was floated during the "Countdown" comedy hour when The Sportscaster reported "Breaking News" that White House sources believe the intelligence community's failure to stop the plot "might have been intentional and not accidental." Further, "the information was in some way deliberately withheld from some higher or broader authority to make someone look bad," leaving little doubt that the victim of this new, vast right-wing...

"The Bottom Line: NPR is using taxpayer money to call those who have participated in Tea party events and their supporters idiots. With the liberal Democrats in Congress in charge of NPR’s purse strings, those who make NPR’s decisions have calculated that they can get away with it scot-free."

As you start to read all this, you'll laugh at how incestuous it all gets. Let's start with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which as I've noted in the past is tied in with the Soros foundation. Together, the two worked on something called The Project on Death in America.(PDIA) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2341083/posts And speaking of Mr Soros, he himself(his foundations) have given directly to NPR. Compared to some of the other numbers I'm seeing, it's a small amount of $250,000. But it doesn't matter. Soros money is soros money in my book. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2396058/posts Additional information about RWJF can be found here....

Perhaps there is something obstructing the view overlooking Rockefeller Plaza, where MSNBC broadcasts "Countdown" nightly because the show's host, Keith Olbermann fails to see the existence of a news media with a liberal bias. On MSNBC's Dec. 14 broadcast of "Countdown," Olbermann came to the defense of NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" executive producer and noted left-winger Dick Wolf. The Dec. 9 episode of Wolf's program featured a killer who targeted the children of illegal immigrants and in that episode, one of the characters, played by John Larroquette, blamed conservatives "like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck"...

Want to know how does the left really feels about free speech? Look no further than Huffington Post editor and co-founder Arianna Huffington. Huffington appeared on MSNBC's Nov. 19 "Countdown" to discuss a report by the Anti-Defamation League that alleges Fox News host Glenn Beck is "the most important mainstream media figure who has repeatedly helped to stoke fires of anti-government anger" and therefore endangering society. "It would be nice to think of Glenn Beck just as a joke, as fodder for this show and the "Daily Show" and others that point out how stupid some of this stuff is,"...

Left-wing media matters Cliff Kincaid, November 17, 2009 A professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Robert W. McChesney has said that “media reform” should be part of the march toward socialism in America and that capitalism has to be dismantled “brick by brick.” Van Jones, the ousted communist “Green Jobs Czar” of the Obama Administration, served with McChesney on the board of Free Press, a George Soros-funded organization, in 2007 and 2008. Despite its socialist orientation, Free Press is financially supported by extremely wealthy individuals such as George Soros, the leftist billionaire, and Marcy Carsey, one of the creators...

Ever since Sarah Palin entered the national political arena last summer as the Republican VP nominee, she has caused sheer panic in the hearts and minds of the Leftist Liberals in America. Accordingly, the Leftist media is hell-bent on doing all they can to discredit Palin’s accomplishments and destroy her character at any cost. Even now, much effort and energy is being expended to deceive the American people regarding her considerable achievements. Her popularity among conservatives is astounding, and many believe that she will get the 2012 endorsement for the presidency. The Left and its State-Run Media Minions are now...

The Governor just posted this to her Facebook page: "As you probably have heard, the AP snagged a copy of my memoir, Going Rogue, before its Tuesday release. And as is expected, the AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book. Keep your powder dry, read the book, and enjoy it! Lots of great stories about my family, Alaska, and the incredible honor it was to run alongside Senator John McCain. We can’t wait to hit the road and meet so many on the book tour! See you in Michigan first... -...

As you probably have heard, the AP snagged a copy of my memoir, Going Rogue, before its Tuesday release. And as is expected, the AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book. Keep your powder dry, read the book, and enjoy it! Lots of great stories about my family, Alaska, and the incredible honor it was to run alongside Senator John McCain. We can't wait to hit the road and meet so many on the book tour! See you in Michigan first... - Sarah Palin

snip It is not only the demise of big-name papers that should raise concern; the rapid decline of the newspaper industry is playing out quietly, with small, reasonably responsible dailies in cities and rural regions across the country disappearing without widespread notice. Dozens of daily and weekly newspapers have closed this year. Cities that once enjoyed the fruits of newspaper competition (Denver, Seattle) are starving. "Surviving" publications -- and many have filed for bankruptcy -- are cutting reporting staffs to the bone (this month, the New York Times said it would cut 100 more newsroom jobs). International bureaus, statehouse bureaus...

Here is video of White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett on CNN telling Campbell Brown that Fox News is biased. Campbell Brown asked Jarrett "do you think Fox News is biased?" She answered "of course they're biased." Brown then asked her "do you also think that MSNBC is biased?" She avoided the question and would not say that MSNBC is biased.

There have been a lot of bad days recently for what’s come to be known as the Mainstream Media – or MSM – but Monday was one of the worst. New circulation figures showed that big city papers had lost as much as a quarter of their circulation in the last six months. And new TV ratings showed that CNN, the cable network that prides itself on news coverage down the middle, finished dead last in prime-time against more partisan rivals like Fox News and MSNBC. Are the two connected? Eric Alterman, a media columnist for the Nation, and a...

I guess this is about as close to fairness as NPR is capable of in its reporting on ACORN. The first few paragraphs of today's NPR story on ACORN, by Kevin Whitelaw, tell you all you need to know about Whitelaw's perspective on the embattled radical advocacy group: ACORN, the community organizing group, is fighting for its survival these days, but its current plight has been years in the making. Part of the story is the group's own missteps. ACORN was founded to help low- and middle-income Americans, but its edgy tactics and a series of gaffes fed the notion...

Here's a curious turn in the White House vs. Fox News fight. On Monday, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow were among several people who attended an off-the-record briefing with Pres. Obama at the White House. Sources tell us other attendees at the two-and-a-half hour chat included Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, Gwen Ifill of PBS and Gloria Borger of CNN. Perhaps not surprisingly, no one from Fox News was in the room. ...Update: The White House has sent TVNewser the complete list of those who attended the off-the-record briefing Monday: Eugene...

CNN’s Carol Costello began a new series on political talk radio on Monday’s American Morning, suggesting it was unfairly dominated by conservatives, and brought on a liberal psychiatrist who theorized that Rush Limbaugh has an audience because he’s “operating like the bully, and if you’re on the playground...you want to be...under the bully’s wing and go along with him and get...some power by proxy.” The correspondent’s report, which aired just before the bottom of the 7 am Eastern hour, was the first installment in a “special series on talk radio,” according to anchor John Roberts. Costello zeroed in on the...

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has introduced S. 673, - "Newspaper Revitalization Act," that would the news outlets tax deals if they were to restructure as 501(c)(3) corporations, it has one cosponsor, - Maryland colleague Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D). The White House is playing down the idea of government assistance for news organizations, due to dwindling ad revenue in the economic climate. They are now LAME - this means Fox, Limbaugh, Hannity, Malkin, Free Republic and Drudge are the MAIN STREAM MEDIA. The paradigm has now completed it's shift! Use the term "Lame Stream Media" anytime you can and pass it...

The news media's credibility is sagging along with its revenue. Nearly two-thirds of Americans think the news stories they read, hear and watch are frequently inaccurate, according to a poll released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. That marks the highest level of skepticism recorded since 1985, when this study of public perceptions of the media was first done. The survey found that 63 percent of the respondents thought the information they get from the media was often off base. In Pew Research's previous survey, in 2007, 53 percent of the people expressed that...

Most of the major news outlets, like The New York Times and The Washington Post, ignored the swelling heat surrounding former White House environmental adviser Van Jones and the videos surfacing of his controversial statements. CBS News became the first of the three broadcast networks on Friday to note the controversy, but ABC's "World News" and "NBC Nightly News" again failed to report the story. After Jones' midnight resignation over the weekend, all three networks aired the story on their Sunday evening newscasts. The Washington Post offered its first story on Saturday yet The New York Times' print edition didn't...

Did you know that Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" on MSNBC is the highest rated news program on cable? You didn't? Well, it is according to Keith Olbermann. Honestly. Even worse, in his view, folks that watch Fox News are "tin foil hatters, conspiracy theorists, paranoids and racists."

The ABC television network is at it again. This time they're refusing to air an AD from the League of American Voters regarding Health care. The AD, which as put together by former Clinton advisor, Dick Morris has been running on local stations around the country, but when media buyers attempted to place the AD on ABC, the network refused the buy and the much needed revenue. The AD features a Neurosurgeon, Dr. Mark J. Cuffe, who runs down a litany of reasons why the current bills sitting in the House and Senate are not good for health care in...

In an August 17 piece on former DNC Chair Howard Dean's appearance on a morning news show, the Associated Press did its best to downplay the high passions and anger showed by thousands of average citizens at townhall meetings across the country. Dean was heard insisting that Obama not back down from including the "public option" in any healthcare bill, saying that such a feature is "indispensable" to its success at reforming our healthcare system. After the opening paragraphs, the AP characterized the possible removal of the public option by emphasizing Republicans and downplaying the outrage seen by citizens themselves....

Its obvious, the Leftist/MSM is trying to bait these "Hate Groups" in hope of growing another McVeigh, Waco or Ruby Ridge so they can have something to point to to further demonize "Conservatives" by blaming us, you know the God, Guns and Religion types. Make no mistake about it, this is why we are seeing these stories, the left wants something to happen!

<p>You are going to learn one thing by the end of August: the media are engaged in a mostly successful conspiracy to deny you a say in the American political process.</p> <p>You have been shut out. And if they are willing to fabricate news stories which say you either don’t exist or are a paid advocate of insurance companies, then they, and the administration, are clearly willing to also literally steal your vote at the ballot box.</p>

Bad Economy, Obama Fuel Rise in Militias: Report Fears of a return to anti-government violence of the 1990s Updated 2:15 AM CDT, Wed, Aug 12, 2009 The election of America's first black president, fears of a secret Mexican plot to take over the Southwest and a painful recession have combined to fuel a rise in violent right-wing militias, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The leading civil rights group is not the only one worried that the country could be on the verge of another domestic terror attack by a lone wolf hatemonger or radical militia...

The media have repeatedly stated how "angry," "hostile" and "ugly" town hall meetings across America are becoming. They are of course largely ascribing the nastiness to conservatives voicing their opposition to (among other things) President Barack Obama and Congress' proposed government takeover of the health care system. The press has been particularly offended by the "extreme" use of references to Adolf Hitler specifically and Nazis generally. One image they have repeatedly used as an example of this alleged right-wing extremism is a poster of President Obama - on whose face a Hitler mustache has been Photo Shopped - bearing the...

Here is another racist charge being thrown at those protesting the socialism, this time being compared to the KKK: [VIDEO AT SITE] And Charles Krauthammer says everyone should all just stand up quietly and ask questions: [VIDEO AT SITE] The Democrats are pulling a rabbit out of a hat, and the Republicans (or conservatives) are handing the Democrats the rabbit. The Democrats have no argument. They have no facts. They don't even really have a bill. And if people were just to stand up and quietly and civilly raise questions — "the money doesn't add up," "the CBO has said...

<p>MSNBC is having an on air meltdown over a man their camera crew videotaped openly carrying a handgun at an anti-Obama protest in Portsmouth, New Hampshire this morning near where Barack Obama will be holding a town hall meeting later today.</p>

At the top of the 4:00PM ET hour on MSNBC Friday, fill-in co-anchor Monica Novotny issued a dire warning about protests at health care town hall meetings: "The town hall confrontations are turning violent....Where is all of this heading? New fears for the safety of America’s first African-American president."

Here is video of Bill O'Reilly tonight talking with Bernie Goldberg about the mainstream media's attacks on anti-ObamaCare protesters who have been showing up at Health Care Town Hall Meetings. They discussed the fact that the media has presented them as being some kind of organized mob, but in the past they have not done the same regarding liberal protesters when they were going after President George W. Bush. Goldberg pointed out the outrage that would have existed if Bush had ever asked people to email him the names of liberals who were against his proposals. How true that is!...