Free Republic

CNN Host Grills Wasserman Schultz About Thinking Christie’s Hiding Something While Obama Always Claims to Be in the Dark Bridget Johnson CNN host Don Lemon grilled Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on how it’s OK to assume Chris Christie is hiding something while assuming that President Obama is always forthcoming. Wasserman Schultz was eager to spread the message that the New Jersey governor had committed wrongdoing, a news drop that conveniently steered attention away from former Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ revelations a day earlier about Hillary Clinton. “I think the investigation that is ongoing is going to —...

gq published the story. No one put a gun to their head. Why isn't the interviewer having to answer questions? Weren't they the ones holding the weapon?

CNN’s Piers Morgan, who as a top tabloid newspaper editor in Britain for years had his reporters ask tough questions and write hard-hitting exposés, thinks the U.S. press has been too easy on the Obama administration. “I would say actually they’ve been probably quite soft and could have gone harder. The financial crisis was inherited by the president, but he’s been there long enough to try to work it out himself. Unemployment’s still comfortably over 7 percent—really completely unacceptable,” said Morgan, 48. … “Issues like Benghazi have exposed some of the limitations of his leading from behind on foreign policy...

The federal government shutdown damaged the reputations of Washington politicians but proved good business for the cable television news networks—and taught some reporters new benefits of virtually instant communications. CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC saw their viewership increase during the 16-day partial shutdown, peaking at more than five million Wednesday evening when Congress passed a compromise bill to put the government back online. … MSNBC, which has struggled in this post-election year, saw its average prime-time viewership jump 35 percent to 978,000 this month through Wednesday, compared to the first nine months of the year, the Nielsen company said....

Nothing says “patriot” like waving around the Battle Flag of the Confederacy in front of the White House.I’m still trying to wrap my head around this scene: Yesterday, in Washington, a group of angry white people—it was billed as the “Million Vet March” but numbered in the hundreds, maybe the thousands, and who knows how many were actual veterans—led by Tea Party-aligned Texas senator Ted Cruz and former half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin, marched on the Lincoln and World War II memorials, tearing down the barricades and demanding that President Obama reopen these sites, which, of course, are closed because...

'Marco Rubio threatens everything in his path'

The Obama-loving media are totally apoplectic about revelations of a rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask during a bull riding competition Saturday at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. Maybe these folks should report that these things aren't that unusual at such events, and that in 1994, a bull attacked a dummy wearing a George H.W. Bush mask without the world coming to an end, anybody being fired, or any press outrage.

ABC News is being accused of deceptively editing, or at least misrepresenting (intentionally or not), some of the comments made by Juror B29, the lone “nonwhite” juror in the George Zimmerman murder trial. Further, the media as a whole are being accused of manipulating some of her statements. These allegations come not from a conservative news source, but rather from Slate.com. The key phrase latched onto by most media outlets, due to its sensational nature, was “George Zimmerman got away with murder” — words that were, in fact, said by Juror B29. But the full unedited video of the comment,...

Everything I initially wrote about the Trayvon Martin killing was based on network news reports. And it was almost entirely wrong. In my KOMO radio commentary of March 23, 2012, I said the following about the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman: “Thinking of 17-year old Trayvon the way we’d think of our own kids is exactly how to view this tragedy. The man who police say shot him, George Zimmerman, is a 28-year old CrimeWatch volunteer, who apparently did just about everything a Crimewatch volunteer SHOULDN’T do, such as following the 17 year old teen when a 911...

The story fed to the press would outrage anyone…and, predictably, it outraged everyone. The family provided a picture of Trayvon at age 12 or 13, which the media ran with the ugliest picture of Zimmerman they could find. The meme of a huge armed adult “stalking” a “helpless child” was born fully grown, to a Godzilla-like size. It loomed over America unopposed. The investigating officers and the State’s Attorney’s Office knew that the evidence showed something else: Zimmerman attacked by Martin, who towered over him, beat him to the ground, clearly smacked his head into the concrete, and might have...

Attorney General Eric Holder blasted "stand-your-ground laws" in the wake of the acquittal of George Zimmerman for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin—saying such laws cause more violence than they prevent. Mr. Holder, speaking to the NAACP Annual Convention in Orlando, Fla., not far from where Mr. Zimmerman was acquitted last week, took direct aim at stand-your-ground laws, which say a person can use force in self-defense without first attempting to retreat from the situation. "Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation´s attention, it´s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow

Attention gay people: Stop posting all those kissing photos on Facebook. Or Pat Robertson’s gonna hurl. The 83-year-old televangelist said Monday on his Christian Broadcasting Network show “The 700 Club” that he wishes Facebook had a “vomit” button he could use when he sees same-sex couples kissing. That was his response to a viewer who asked how to deal with those images on social media. …

A last-minute no-show by Pope Francis at a concert where he was to have been the guest of honor has sent another clear signal that he is going to do things his way and does not like the Vatican high life. The gala classical concert on Saturday was scheduled before his election in March. But the white papal armchair set up in the presumption that he would be there remained empty. Minutes before the concert was due to start, an archbishop told the crowd of cardinals and Italian dignitaries that an "urgent commitment that cannot be postponed" would prevent Francis...

Here it is ... the Michael Jackson death scene ... every single shocking photo taken, from the doll he slept with, Propofol bottles, Dr. Murray's mysterious medical bag, portentous writing on the wall, old costumes ... everything. The photos were taken by LAPD investigators on June 25th, 2009, the day Michael died. A few of these photos trickled out during Dr. Murray's criminal trial, but now they're all here in one gallery ... ALL 155. The gallery is a fascinating window into how Michael lived ... and how he died.

On Wednesday, Qusair fell to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Qusair is a strategic town that connects Damascus with Assad’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean, with its ports and Russian naval base. It’s a major strategic shift. Assad’s forces can now advance on rebel-dominated areas in central and northern Syria, including Aleppo. For the rebels, it’s a devastating loss of territory, morale and their supply corridor to Lebanon. No one knows if this reversal of fortune will be the last, but everyone knows that Assad now has the upper hand. What altered the tide of battle was brazen outside...

In a bizarre television and spatial anomaly on CNN this morning, the blanket coverage of two true-crime stories led two news anchors to conduct an odd "satellite" interview from the very same parking lot, background traffic and all. The two suspects are Ashleigh Banfield of CNN and Nancy Grace of Headline News, who were updating viewers on the latest from the ongoing and increasingly ugly Cleveland kidnapping story. (Grace being TV's leading expert on deviant crime.) At first it seems like a normal TV "remote," as Banfield interviews Grace from another location. Then the channel's graphics alert viewers: both anchors...

MSNBC contributor Joy-Ann Reid is either grossly misinformed, ignorant or just willing to lie to NBC's audience. In an effort to enhance her glowing praise of President Obama's response to the Boston Marathon bombings, Reid contrasted it with her memory of President Bush's response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I guarantee you that if a Republican were in the White House, the media would be talking to you about one thing today, and one thing only, and it is what happened Saturday in Cyprus and what might happen in Italy. I'm gonna take a little test here. Mr. Snerdley, do you know what happened in Cyprus on Saturday? You gotta be kidding me. You read a headline and you don't know? Brian, do you know what happened in Cyprus on Saturday? Yeah. Not just savings accounts. He said they took money out of people's savings accounts....

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The cruise ship passengers are back. They finally made it back, and they're all pooped. It's exactly how I feel at the end of a busy broadcast week, ladies and gentlemen. He-he. Did you hear, these poor people, their towline broke late yesterday afternoon. They were towing that giant Carnival cruise ship and the towline broke so they got the towline fixed. They finally tow the thing back into port, they put these people on buses to take 'em back to New Orleans, and one of the buses broke down. One of the buses broke down on...

They’re at it again. The latest public rant against Michelle Obama’s effort to promote low-calorie school lunches was recently caught on tape in Alabama — the usual protest against the federal government meddling in local business. And then it quickly found its way around to the first lady’s posterior. “Fat butt Michelle Obama,” said Bob Grisham, a high school football coach who was surreptitiously recorded by one of his students. “Look at her. She looks like she weighs 185 or 190. She’s overweight.” Grisham, who was suspended Monday, is neither the first nor the most high-profile person to feel moved...