Free Republic

Any freedom-loving person would be outraged at the attempt by the Federal Communications Commission to inject itself into monitoring the practices of print and broadcast media organizations, but the outrage came almost exclusively from conservatives, which is highly instructive. But liberals and conservatives are on such different planets that they don't even agree that this development -- that only conservatives objected -- is instructive, which is also instructive. The Washington Post was hoist with its own petard in reacting with a subtly pointed headline, "Proposed FCC study of news organizations sparks conservative outcry," and exposing its own biases rather than...

Republican legislators, stop this Fed takeover of the newsrooms in it's tracks! They already control around 95% of Big Media. We are hedging toward 100% Pravda reporting! STOP BEING WIMPS!!

The FCC is launching a new study, taking upon itself the task of deciding what news the public “needs” to hear, versus the news the public wants to hear. The agency will conduct a “General Population Survey” that will “measure community members’ actual and perceived critical information needs.” Got that? What you think (perceive) you need to know is different from what the government says you need to know. Next, the FCC will send monitors to newsrooms across the country who will ask questions regarding the “philosophy” of the newsroom, inquire about possible conflicts between reporters and their bosses, and...

Last week, a little noticed clash took place on Capitol Hill involving the fundamental values underlying the First Amendment. The issue was the lawfulness of publishing the secrets that were given to reporters by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden. The disputants were Cong. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and FBI Director James Comey. Rogers is the chief congressional apologist for the massive NSA spying apparatus. He is the current chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and in that capacity, he is one of the dozen members of Congress from both houses who were privy to much...

Dinesh D'Souza is accused of giving too much money to a candidate who sought to replace former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Producer Gerald Molen tells The Hollywood Reporter the charges are politically motivated. Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, whose documentary 2016: Obama's America took a critical look at President Barack Obama and was a surprise hit in 2012, will be arrested in New York on Friday for allegedly violating campaign-finance laws, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Federal authorities accuse D'Souza of donating more than is legal to the campaign of Wendy Long, who ran in 2012 for the U.S. Senate...

So holds today’s Obsidian Finance Group v. Cox (9th Cir. Jan. 17, 2014) (in which I represented the defendant). To be precise, the Ninth Circuit concludes that all who speak to the public, whether or not they are members of the institutional press, are equally protected by the First Amendment. To quote the court, The protections of the First Amendment do not turn on whether the defendant was a trained journalist, formally affiliated with traditional news entities, engaged in conflict-of-interest disclosure, went beyond just assembling others’ writings, or tried to get both sides of a story. As the Supreme Court...

At the heart of the Duck Dynasty controversy is a modern paradox: those who most loudly celebrate the gay lifestyle seem to go into a Victorian swoon whenever anyone even obliquely mentions actual gay sex practices such as anal sex. As we watch the corporate clusterduck swirl around the alleged wrongs of reality TV star Phil Robertson concerning homosexuality, it may be instructive to take a step back. Image control has been crucial to gay activists. In 1980 Hollywood produced, Cruising, a big budget film that showed the seamier side of gay life. It got pretty good reviews because it...

It's not lost on me that I find myself just a stone's throw from Boston Harbor where the greatest of wars -- the fight for freedom and individual rights -- broke out here in 1774. Nowhere, at no time, has there been a more righteous of cause in the history of humankind. Then, as today, an out-of-control government took outrageous and egregious actions against our most basic individual rights -- and in this case, the most precious of all freedoms, the freedom of speech. Today Robert Spencer and I went to court in Boston. David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise represented...

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Breitbart columnist, Ken Klukowski. “The power to tax involves the power to destroy,” the Supreme Court wrote in 1819, shortly after America began. Now in 2013, President Barack Obama is launching a frightening attack on free speech, using one of the most feared agencies in all the federal government: the Internal Revenue Service. One of the most roundly-condemned aspects of Richard Nixon’s malfeasance in office was his use of the IRS to target his political enemies with audits. If people shudder at Nixon’s abuses with the IRS, what Obama is doing should drive...

CNN has made significant cuts to its interview with the Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, most notably his comments on the number of people that actually support Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"The popular and unrelenting support received to those who are borderline obese (not just 30 to 40 lbs overweight) frustrates me as a fitness advocate who intimately understands how poor health negatively effects a family, a community and a nation," Kang wrote, according to News 10. According to Kang, her post was taken down within three hours of going viral. Facebook then shut down her account, saying her words constituted “hate speech.”

HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Veterans are rallying around a local bar whose owners say they have been ordered to removed a sign that salutes their service. “Thank a veteran for your freedom!” says a large sign perched above Johnny’s Booze and Pool. Vets love it and make up a significant part of the establishment’s clientele. “I love this place. The sign gives me the pride back that I lost … I struggled a lot when I first came back,” an Army vet told CBS2′s Stacey Butler. But someone complained to the city about the sign, and now the bar’s owners...

The Department of Justice, on behalf of the National Security Administration (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has threatened to criminally prosecute a novelty store owner for selling mugs and t-shirts that say, among other things, “Department of Homeland Stupidity” and “The NSA: The only part of government that actually listens.” The novelty items are sold online at Zazzle.com, which is operated by merchant Dan McCall. The NSA and DHS sent “cease and desist” letters to Zazzle stating that the parody products violate statutes that protect their official seals from misuse. The NSA and DHS, through the Department...

It's a small sign with a big message, but Bartow residents are now being ordered to uproot their "God Bless America" yard signs. About 300 of the signs were handed out at First Baptist Church of Bartow following a Fourth of July sermon. But three months later, City of Bartow Code Enforcement says the temporary signs have worn out their welcome. Residents have three days to pack it up or pay a minimum fine of $25 a day. "Being a veteran, I felt like I was just kicked in the gut. I couldn't believe it, that I couldn't display my...

The state news agency says a farmer in southern Egypt has been arrested after putting the military chief’s name and an army-style cap on his donkey while riding it through town. MENA news agency said that Omar Abul-Magd was arrested late Friday in Qena province for allegedly insulting Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the popularly-backed coup against President Mohammed Morsi. …

Palm Beach County Public Affairs staffer John Jamason is being investigated for a Facebook post about Islam. There is every chance that he could be disciplined for making a "critical" statement about Islam on 9/11. Since when is it a crime to post a statement like this on one's personal Facebook page? Where is the man's right to free speech? Apparently free speech is a secondary issue when one of Florida's leading Muslim groups is offended.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)John Jamason incited the wrath of Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida, Inc because of a Facebook post about Islam. On Friday, September 13, the group...

“Die Gedanken sind frei.” —“Thoughts are Free,” famous German song about freedom of thought, 1810-1820, author unknown Shortly after I arrived in the U.S., I realized that the freedom of speech Americans thought they had, was, let’s just say, with no intention of offending anyone, a figment of their naïve imagination. I was naïve too, having escaped a communist dictatorship, I felt free to speak my objective opinion, thinking that there would be no harmful consequences since my freedom of speech was guaranteed. I felt elated. I did not have to fear the security police day and night; and I...

The pinnacle of military blogs was about the 2006-2008 time period. Troops were encouraged to share their Army stories and talk about their life. Sometimes it’s not pretty, but we’ve learned that most of the time it is,” said then-LTC Kevin Arata. And he was right. The majority of stories coming from bloggers were positive because the military was a great place to be. We loved serving our country and believed in the things for which we were fighting. However, in 2009, something changed. Leaders stopped supporting troops if they were critical in their blogs of anything. It got to...

Hi guys. Any car lovers out there? China watchers? I discovered this little interesting tid bit on China. It's going to subsidize R&D to build the next Tesla. Thing with China is, they wont go broke doing it...

British police forced a Newport shopkeeper to remove his “Obey Our Laws” T-shirts. The shirts might “incite racial hatred.”ARREST THREAT: Matthew Taylor and the T-shirt police have forced him to remove from display (SW Argus) Police threatened to arrest Matthew Taylor if he did not remove the T-shirts. South Wales Argus reported, via Tundra Tabloids: A NEWPORT shopkeeper has been forced by police to remove a T-shirt from his shop window because they felt it “could be seen to be inciting racial hatred.” Matthew Taylor, 35, the owner of Taylor’s clothes store on Emlyn Walk in the city, printed up...