Free Republic

Students at George Mason University (GMU) signed a petition early this month asking President Obama to listen in on the "private conversations" of all Fox News employees and their families. -video at link- The petition, which was circulated on GMU's flagship campus in Fairfax, Va, near Washington D.C., by Media Research Center video reporter Dan Joseph, described the right-leaning news channel as “a threat to media integrity and an informed populace.” “We want the to be able to legally read their private e-mails and listen in on phone conversations between Fox News employees and their associates and their families," Joseph...

John Oliver began his second week guest-hosting The Daily Show welcoming Sarah Palin back to Fox News. Okay, maybe “welcoming” is a strong word. In fact, Oliver realized that rather than spending the whole show piling on every single folksy thing Palin says, he might as well just ignore her instead. Oliver first noted that Palin only left Fox News five months ago, and now she’s back, so “she has now effectively quit quitting!” He played clip after clip of Palin saying what she’s been up to, and he was ready to mock every single word that came out of...

As video becomes available, we’ll be adding them to this thread throughout the day. Governor Palin made her return to Fox this morning. She was very comfortable — especially when she was able to do what she loved which is talking about smaller government and solutions to putting our country back on the right track. My personal favorite segment was when Senator Cruz dropped in. And of course when she learned of CBS’s Elizabeth Palmer comparing the tea party to Iran’s presidential candidates. Governor Palin accurately described Palmer as putting “the ‘BS’ in CBS.”

The three minor children of a man whose suicide was broadcast live on television are suing Fox News Channel, claiming that watching the footage of their father shooting himself in the head has left them emotionally traumatized. In a lawsuit filed in Phoenix, Ariz., earlier this month, the three children of JoDon Romero, ages 9, 13, and 15, claim they have suffered emotional distress after watching a clip of the video posted to the internet. The two older children claim that since watching the video, they have been unable to attend school and suffer flashbacks, "sleep disturbance and obtrusive thoughts,"...

A trio of Republicans in the so-called Gang of Eight huddled with leading figures at Fox News Channel on the bipartisan effort in the Senate to reform the nation's immigration system, according to a piece published in this week's issue of The New Yorker. The story, written by Ryan Lizza, indicated that Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had discussions with "top hosts" at the conservative cable news network, including Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Neil Cavuto, all of whom are " now relatively sympathetic to the Gang’s proposed bill."

The Bradley Foundation, a private, independent grant-making organization based in Milwaukee, recently handed out its annual Bradley Prize to four men who have, in the words of the organization's mission statement, "(preserved and defended) the tradition of free representative government and private enterprise that has enabled the American nation and, in a larger sense, the entire Western world to flourish intellectually and economically." Among the winners at the Kennedy Center event in Washington, D.C., was Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News, the bête noire to the broadcast networks and other media elites. In his acceptance remarks, Ailes noted that Fox...

Sarah Palin’s back! Back on national TV as a regular, that is. Fox News announced Thursday that they’ve rehired Ms. Palin as a paid contributor. Her (undoubtedly triumphant) reappearance is set for June 17 on the network’s morning show “Fox and Friends.”“I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to our programming. I hope she continues to speak her mind,” Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes said in a news release. The former GOP VP candidate and ex-Alaska governor added that the “power of Fox News is unparalleled” and that...

Tony Blair denied outrageous internet rumours today linking him with the divorce of Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng. The internet was awash with unfounded suggestions that the former Prime Minister may have been romantically involved with 44-year-old Miss Deng, who is a close friend. The feverish speculation followed a Twitter claim by BBC business editor Robert Peston, who has close links with senior Murdoch empire insiders, that he had been ‘told that undisclosed reasons for Murdoch divorcing Deng are jaw-dropping - & hate myself for wanting to know what they are’. The rumours are understood to have been emphatically rejected...

With the stroke of a pen, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin returns to Fox News as a contributor while liberal bombast Chris Matthews of MSNBC loses his weekend syndicated show in July. Does this spell the resurrection of the political street bona fides of Palin who has been a lightning rod for conservatives and the national Tea Party movement since its inception? What seems clear is that Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News has reached a conclusion that the scandal beleaguered administration of President Barack Obama is fair pickings for conservatives. And what better conservative to have on your...

Ms. Palin became a national celebrity after her unsuccessful 2008 vice presidential turned into a media career as a paid Fox News contributor from January 2010 to January of this year. The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Ms. Palin wouldn't be renewing her contract with the cable news networking, citing a person familiar with the matter. "I've had several conversations with Governor Palin in the past few weeks about her rejoining Fox News as a contributor," Mr. Ailes said Thursday. "I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to...

Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren says she is “delighted” Sarah Palin is back as a Fox News contributor and that the former Republican vice presidential candidate will be “part of the national debate.” “I am delighted to have her back at Fox,” Van Susteren told POLITICO in an email. “She has a big impact (check out the number of Facebook followers! 3.5 million!) and should be part of the national debate.” And, Van Susteren noted, “It is free promo for Fox since it will drive her TV critics crazy! They are obsessed with her!”(continued)

June 13, 2013 Sarah Palin set to return as Fox News contributor Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and self-professed 'Mama Grizzly,' is rejoining Fox News as a contributor. The return of the outspoken 2008 vice presidential candidate, who appeared on the fair and balanced network for three years ending in January, was announced by Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. “I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to our programming," Ailes said. "I hope she continues to speak her mind.” Palin will make her latest debut on the...

Sarah Palin rejoining FOXNEWS as contributor, DRUDGE has learned, announcement expected this afternoon... Developing...

Ailes delighted the house by slamming President Obama, To vigorous applause, he implied that the Obama administration had abandoned its duty to protect American diplomats and personnel during last year’s attacks in Benghazi, Libya. “I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t even care what the president of the United States was doing that night,” he said. “However, I would like to know what the commander-in-chief was doing that night.” He also told a shaggy-dog story about the difference between liberals and conservatives. It seems a liberal in a hot-air balloon is lost and late for an appointment and descends...

Should the government's phone and Internet surveillance program continue? No, dismantle the whole thing and start over. This is a blunt invasion of privacy Yes, it's the price we pay for security It should continue, but with more oversight and a bit less intrusion

A dying girl who needs a lung transplant and only has weeks to live has will receive the long-awaited lung transplant she so desperately needs. Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl dying of cystic fibrosis, received national attention after HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius refused to help.

Sarah Murgnahan, the 10-year-old girl dying of cystic fibrosis, is getting a brand new pair of lungs.

In 2007, John McCain’s “comprehensive” immigrant-legalization bill failed after opponents flooded the Senate with calls, shutting down the switchboard. Despite considerable press hype, the bill didn’t even muster a majority on the crucial cloture vote. It won’t be that easy this time. For one thing, they have a better switchboard, I’m told. For another, the Republican consultants–e.g. Gillespie, Rove–who helped Mitt Romney lose the 2012 election have taken their own failure as an excuse to push what they’ve wanted all along–a business-pleasing immigration policy guaranteeing a supply of inexpensive labor from abroad and a stream of campaign donations to pay...

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: I would describe this man as an American hero, as a person willing to risk life, limb and liberty in order to expose to the American people one of the most extraordinary violations of the American principles, value judgments and the Constitution itself in all of our history. A person so familiar with the intelligence community, as you just heard from the excerpts that you just played. He's aware of the personal danger to himself. He knows of the likelihood of prosecution. But he also understands that the government listening to half the country is not what...

(and of course I would never be in his shoes!) I would be on a plane to Iceland right now. I would not wait another day….not a minute. He is in a heap of trouble.

... Bill Hemmer asked the judge what he thinks we need to understand about what Snowden is telling us. Judge Napolitano explained that the government has granted itself this sweeping authority without a national debate about how much privacy Americans are willing to sacrifice... He said the government wants Americans to sacrifice liberty in return for the promise of security... ...

On Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol cautioned against conflating the various Obama scandals with the new revelations of NSA surveillance. "Conservatives and Republicans are making a huge mistake," Kristol predicted.

‘Under This Logic, They Can Do Anything!’ In the last 24 hours, it has been revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been indiscriminately monitoring all Verizon phone records for the past seven years. The stunning revelation sent Fox News host Shep Smith and Judge Andrew Napolitano into a frenzy on Thursday. In fact, Napolitano said it represented the “most extraordinarily broad search warrant ever issued in the history of the federal courts of the United States.” Lawmakers like Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday tried to downplay the bombshell report, arguing that such surveillance...

Glenn announced this morning that Laurie Dhue is officially joining TheBlaze as anchor for TheBlaze TV News. Dhue will will continue to host “For the Record”, TheBlaze’s original documentary series and anchor prime time news updates and breaking news coverage throughout the network. “I relish this rare opportunity to be on the ground floor of an organization that could change the industry as we know it. The Blaze, a truly independent network, is ever-expanding, and an exciting phenomenon in this time of cutbacks and uncertainty,” Dhue said. Dhue is the only anchor to have hosted shows on the three primary...

<p>WASHINGTON, June 6, 2013 — Al-Jazeera is about to bring jihad to American cable TV.</p> <p>Al-Jazeera bought Al Gore’s unwatched Current TV earlier this year and plans to convert it to Al-Jazeera America. That’s right, the alleged news organization that gets much of it’s funding from the Qatar government is coming to American TV screens.</p>

Roger Ailes doesn’t think homosexuals are out to get him. He frequently jokes about his weight. He doesn’t believe Rupert Murdoch calls him “cuckoo,” but brags that his boss does call him “paranoid” - and he’s wealthier for it. If Fox News headquarters is under attack, Ailes plans to stay behind, with a monitor to watch others scurrying out of the building.

President Obama appointed Susan Rice as Chief National Security Adviser on Wednesday, attracting renewed scrutiny to the administration’s handling of the attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of ambassador Chris Stevens and three others. Fox News’ Senior White House correspondent Ed Henry brought up the scandal and General Petraeus’ conclusions that the assessments of the Intelligence Committee on the issue changed so much and were no longer worth anything. Press Sectary Jay Carney tried to slap down the comment. “In every iteration of this, Ambassador Rice made clear as I did that, these...

There was an interesting little nugget just lying around in a Salon autopsy examining what might be going wrong at MSNBC, which has seen its ratings collapse over the last three months: In the key 25-54 year-old demo, Fox News' Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld enjoys more viewers than MSNBC's Morning Joe. Key point: Red Eye airs at three in the freakin' morning. Morning Joe airs between six and nine in the morning. During the month of April, in all of cable news, Morning Joe ranked 44, with 133,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo. Red Eye ranked 37, with 155,000...

The entire pretext by which the Obama Justice Department justified spying on James Rosen was flimsy enough. They trumped up the notion that they might charge him as a criminal co-conspirator to justify the warrant that allowed them to read his e-mails and access his phone records. This was always absurd, based on ridiculous notions about how Rosen approached his reporting work.

'On his show Thursday, anchor Lou Dobbs highlighted a new study showing that four in 10 households now have female, rather than male, breadwinners. One of Dobbs' guests, Erick Erickson, called it "anti-science" and said women should not be competing for a "dominant role" in a family. "Having moms as the primary breadwinner is bad for kids and bad for marriage," Erickson continued'

Scandal: Before he lied to Congress while under oath about what he knew about targeting reporters, he lied about Fast and Furious. As early as the New Black Panthers case, Eric Holder had a problem with the truth. That the House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether Attorney General Eric Holder lied under oath during his May 15 testimony on Department of Justice (DOJ) surveillance of reporters comes as no surprise. People have forgotten about the New Black Panther case, perhaps the most clear-cut case of voter suppression and intimidation ever. On Election Day 2008, New Black Panther Party members in...

Perhaps these Obama administration scandals (popularly referred to as "so-called scandals" in liberal media circles) lack the explosive drama of a Watergate and the entertainment value of Bill Clinton's peccadilloes, but for those who are less obsessed with the political consequences and more troubled by constitutional fallout, there's plenty to see. To begin with, the Internal Revenue Service scandal isn't just about the abuse of power; it's a byproduct of an irrational fear of free speech, which seems to permeate much of the left these days. The unprecedented targeting of conservatives wasn't incidental to this administration as much as it...

Bret Baier �@BretBaier 2m Decision: Fox News’ Executive Vice President Michael Clemente has said that Fox News will NOT attend the DOJ meeting if it is OFF the record

Fox News Is Attending The Controversial Eric Holder Meeting That Other Media Organizations Are Boycotting Brett LoGiurato May 30, 2013, 9:30 AM A Fox News spokesperson told Business Insider that the network will attend an off-the-record meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss the Department of Justice's guidelines for handling leak investigations. The meeting has been pushed back against by other news organizations because of its off-the-record nature. CNN, the New York Times, the Associated Press, and the Huffington Post have all said they will not attend the meeting unless it is on the record. In addition to Fox...

Why didn't the IRS answer the Northeast Tarrant Texas Tea Party? The IRS is legitimately overwhelmed with IRS business The IRS is dissing them

The Associated Press says it will not attend this week's off-the-record meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder unless the Justice Department decides to change its mind and conduct the meeting on the record. "We believe the meeting should be on the record and we have said that to the Attorney General’s office. If it is on the record, AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll will attend. If it is not on the record, AP will not attend and instead will offer our views on how the regulations should be updated in an open letter," AP spokesperson Erin Madigan said in a...

News Corporation said on Sunday that it had no record of being notified by the Justice Department nearly three years ago of a subpoena for the telephone records of a reporter at its Fox News cable channel. The company’s chief legal counsel at the time also said that he had never seen material from the government related to the subpoena. The Justice Department has signaled that it notified News Corporation on Aug. 27, 2010, that it had seized the phone records of a Fox News reporter — who turned out to be the Washington correspondent James Rosen — after one...

Attorney General Eric Holder has been under intense fire lately, having to answer for his involvement in several scandals, including two separate media cases with the Associated Press and a Fox News reporter. But now a new report paints him as deeply convicted — even sorry — over at least one of them. Although Holder had recused himself of the case where phone records of several Associates Press editors and reporters were obtained, he personally signed off on the search warrant that allowed emails from Fox News’ James Rosen to be released. Rosen was not made aware of the warrant...

Attorney General Eric Holder felt “a creeping sense of personal remorse,” aides say, after it was revealed last Monday that the Department of Justice had seized a Fox News reporter’s personal emails. The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that the weight of a “press feeding frenzy” forced Holder to reconcile his progressive views with his direct involvement in orchestrating the investigation against Fox’s James Rosen. In 2009, Holder personally signed off on the affidavit used to justify the seizure of Rosen’s communications in a leak investigation. As a part of the “damage-control” the Department of Justice is now undertaking, Holder will...

According to an interview with the Daily Beast, Attorney General Eric Holder felt a sense of "remorse" when the Washington Post ran a story about "how agents had tracked Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, perused his private emails, and traced the timing of his calls to the State Department security adviser suspected of leaking to him." Aides reportedly told the publication that Holder felt "a creeping sense of personal remorse" upon reading the affidavit obtained by the WaPo describing Rosen as "at the very least ... an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator." I guess Holder didn't feel...

I can't wait for Chris Wallace of Fox News to ask - really ask - a Democrat if JFK could get the nomination today, and/or if the Democrat Party really is big-tent (accepting of Dems who are pro-second amendment, pro-across-the board tax cuts, pro-life, pro-traditional marriage), etc... If one could go back to JFK's time and ask him personally if he would support same-sex marriage, I wonder what he would say. And JFK supported across-the-board tax cuts, too, btw. One thing that we could take from the interview though is that there is no reason for the GOP to say...

May 27, 2013 THE AILES MANIFESTO: AMERICA RALLIES AROUND ROGER AILES AND FOX NEWSby STEPHEN K. BANNON, LARRY SOLOV, & ALEXANDER MARLOW Fox News CEO Roger Ailes’ May 23 stirring letter to Fox employees will be remembered as a turning point in the battle for freedom of the press in the age of Obama. The Ailes letter, denouncing the Obama administration’s trampling on the First Amendment, should be seen, of course, as a strong defense of Fox correspondent James Rosen. In addition, the Ailes letter--in truth, a manifesto--is a staunch vindication of Fox News and its “speak-truth-to-power” approach to journalism....

Fox News Channel hosts Eric Bolling and Geraldo Rivera blew up at each other on Rivera’s radio program on Tuesday amid an argument over the appropriateness of President Barack Obama’s response to the attacks on American diplomatic and service personnel in Benghazi in 2012. Bolling and Rivera battled over Obama’s personal culpability in the attacks until Bolling hung up after being accused by Rivera of alleging that the president was “a damn murderer.” Rivera opened the interview by criticizing Bolling’s focus on Obama’s actions on the night of the attack. He said that Bolling is buying into a “false narrative”...

It was Friday, May 17, and officials at the Department of Justice had gotten word that The Washington Post was working on an explosive story: a reporter had obtained an affidavit for a search warrant to seize a Fox News journalist’s personal emails. Controversy was already swirling around the DOJ over the recent revelation that federal prosecutors had seized the phone records of reporters and editors from the Associated Press in a separate leak probe. Media organizations, civil-liberties groups, and members of Congress were in an uproar about the AP case, which they regarded as an appalling intrusion on freedom...

It is impossible to understand the Obama administration's uniquely hostile treatment of Fox News without understanding the self-image of the Obama team. On the one hand, the targeting of Fox News for isolation and surveillance suggests an administration so lacking in competence that it cannot tolerate criticism or scrutiny. On the other, the attacks suggest hubris, a confidence that few would ever object to its conduct. That contradiction has a religious quality to it. Indeed, President Barack Obama has led an administration that has, at times, been more of a religious movement than a governing body. Obama has made miraculous...

Yes, there is life after Fox News. Sarah Palin “parted ways” with the network in January. Dick Morris was gone the following month. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were suspended as contributors in March 2011 while they considered presidential runs. They haven’t come back. Being escorted — or, in some cases, shoved — off Fox News’s big stage has tested the ability of the four to find ways to stay relevant, whether through social media, books, radio shows, public appearances or other projects. In the time since these former high-profile paid commentators departed the most-watched news channel in the country...

The “tonight’s news” referred to by The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza comes via the New York Times: Wow, tonight's news dramatically escalates the war between DOJ and Fox. Somebody is not telling the whole truth.— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 27, 2013 News Corporation said on Sunday that it had no record of being notified by the Justice Department nearly three years ago of a subpoena for the telephone records of a reporter at its Fox News cable channel [James Rosen]. The company’s chief legal counsel at the time also said that he had never seen material from the government related...

The Justice Department begged a federal judge to not tell Fox News reporter James Rosen that it was tracking his telephone calls and emails in a probe regarding a national security leak. U.S. Attorney Ron Machen argued in 2010 that the traditional 30-day notice period did not apply to Rosen as Justice secretly monitored his Gmail account, according to new exhibits unsealed this week and disclosed by The Hill. “Where, as here, the government seeks such contents through a search warrant, no notice to the subscriber or customer of the e-mail account is statutorily required or necessary,” Machen wrote in...

Holder has already lied under oath. Does anyone think this won’t be another way to just cover everything up? Check it out: President Barack Obama has asked his friend Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate Holder’s unprecedented investigation of a Fox News reporter. Holder approved the Justice Department’s extraordinary 2010 investigation of contacts between a Fox News reporter and a State Department official who has since been charged with leaking classified information, according to NBC. The Justice Department searched the reporter’s e-mails and phone calls under the legal claim that he may have contributed to a crime. The Fox News...

I got my head taken off for saying that back then. Funny, none of my politically naive and self-important colleagues are stepping up now to say it's not true. And, by the way, Team Obama picked the wrong guy to treat like a criminal for doing his job as a journalist. James Rosen is one of the best journalists - broadcast or print - that I have ever covered or met. Here's what Ailes told his troops today: The recent news about the FBI’s seizure of the phone and email records of Fox News employees, including James Rosen, calls into...