Free Republic

In September, 1934, William Randolph Hearst, the most famous journalist and publisher in the world, visited Berlin and interviewed Adolf Hitler. At the time, Hearst admired Hitler, and was rather taken aback when the Fuhrer asked why he was so ‘misunderstood’ in the English-language press. Hearst replied that Americans love democracy and distrusted dictatorships, to which Hitler answered that he had been democratically elected by a vast majority of Germans. Hearst then said that Americans were concerned about the treatment of a certain unnamed minority. Hitler duly pointed out that Americans had mistreated Native Indian tribes and assured Hearst that...

We have been following a slew of defamation lawsuits by political figures over the last few years. (See, e.g., here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). For torts scholars, it has been a bonanza of interesting issues touching on every element of defamation law. There is now an important ruling out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that could have enormous implications not just for the media but anyone who retweets stories or claims. The appellate panel ruled unanimously for Rep. Devin Nunes against journalist Ryan Lizza...

F. Lee Bailey, the no-nonsense criminal defense attorney who helped win an acquittal in the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson as part of the former NFL star’s legal “Dream Team,” died Thursday in Georgia. He was 87. His cause of death was not immediately revealed. Superior Court Judge Kenneth J. Fishman, Bailey’s former partner, confirmed the news to The Boston Globe. Simpson, who was found not guilty in the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, posted condolences to his former lawyer Thursday on Twitter, calling Bailey “a great friend,” and “one of...

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Hariri's resignation, the Saudi purge, and the Houthi missile fired at Riyadh are interconnected.Saturday night was a busy one for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The kingdom’s 32-year old heir to the throne excelled himself. He surpassed the high levels of chaos and human misery he had already achieved as the defence minister who launched the air campaign on Yemen. First up was the sudden resignation of the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri after just one year in office. Hariri made his announcement from Riyadh, which is a curious place...

PRESIDENT CLINTON should stay in office, at least for now. Independent counsel Kenneth Starr, in his 445-page report to Congress, presented a disturbing portrait of a president who engaged in a stunningly reckless affair with a White House intern, and then took extraordinary means to conceal it. It is now clear that Clinton not only lied about his sexual relationship under oath, but he repeated that lie in a memorably emphatic public statement and in private conversations with his closest advisers.For seven months, Clinton went to great lengths to avoid a confrontation with the truth about his relationship with Monica...

One of Connecticut’s largest newspapers on Friday published an editorial calling on President Trump to resign, citing “damning evidence” that surfaced this week surrounding his interactions with Ukraine. “Even given the incredibly fast pace of news in the Trump era, the speed with which the Ukraine scandal has moved from vague complaint to impeachable offense has been stunning,” reads the editorial published by the Connecticut Post, the state’s second-largest newspaper by circulation. “Though we’re still at the beginning of the process, there is already a mountain of evidence implicating President Donald Trump with conduct far outside the accepted norms of...

I watched a 1988 movie about the Patty Hearst kidnapping in 1974 last night and her SLA(Symbionese Liberation Army) kidnappers had the same political rhetoric as most modern day democrats, IMO.

Vanity Fair has fact-checked the recent viral outrage over Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot supposedly being paid 46 times less than Man of Steel star Henry Cavill for their work on similar films.....(BREAK)....Despite Vanity Fair’s explanation, the exaggerated facts, which were pushed by Elle Magazine, have since gone viral, with Teen Vogue‘s Lauren Duca receiving over 10,000 retweets and 20,000 likes on an outraged Twitter post, which was also shared by Piers Morgan, who responded, “Now THIS is sexism.”

From Breitbart article: The granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, of the multi-national media empire Hearst Corporation, and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) are launching a campaign that demands Cosmopolitan Magazine be displayed behind blinders or in an opaque wrapper and not sold to minors. Victoria Hearst, who is also the founder and president of Praise Him Ministries in Montrose, Colorado, and Dawn Hawkins, executive director of NCOSE, will be joined by child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist and author Dr. Miriam Grossman on Wednesday, April 22 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to launch their new campaign...

"Death to the Fascist Insect" Proclaimed the Revolutionary Cohorts of the Symbionese Liberation Army as they Bravely Murdered the Humble Christian Woman, Myrna Lee Opsahl This Day Forty Years Ago.  A photographic exhibition once featured the resolute face of a late 1930s murder suspect as he was marched into a paddy wagon. I ve often searched for that image as an example of dedicated unrepentance. No more. We have the face of Emily Harris and her colleagues in domestic terrorism, waiting in court. We can see arrogant unrepentance, and yet hidden fear in the faces of Myrna's murderers.  Dr. Trygve Opsahl received news of...

The granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, of the multi-national media empire Hearst Corporation, and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) are launching a campaign that demands Cosmopolitan Magazine be displayed behind blinders or in an opaque wrapper and not sold to minors. Victoria Hearst, who is also the founder and president of Praise Him Ministries in Montrose, Colorado, and Dawn Hawkins, executive director of NCOSE, will be joined by child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist and author Dr. Miriam Grossman on Wednesday, April 22 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to launch their new campaign titled “Cosmo Harms...

How does one celebrate the 39th anniversary of the day one was convicted of armed robbery and use of a firearm to commit a felony? Long walk with your prize-winning dog? A cake? A shot and a beer? I'm sure that whatever Patty Hearst does today, it'll be done in style, for it's her conviction about which I'm talking. Yup, it was this day in 1976 when a jury of her peers (as much as anyone can be the peer of a wealthy socialite) came back from 12 hours of deliberation and delivered that verdict. You know her story, of...

Exactly forty years ago Patricia Hearst stunned the nation when she turned up as a bank robber, a mere two months after she was kidnapped by the violent cult that called itself “The Symbionese Liberation Army.” Her astonishing transformation was documented by bank cameras on April 15, 1974.

Just thought I'd let people know who owns A&E, the channel that fired Phil Robertson.A&E is owned by Hearst Corporation and DISNEY-ABC Television.A+E's sister stations are:History H2 The Biography ChannelLifetimeLifetime Movie NetworkLifetime Real Women.Separate from A&E, but owned (80%) by Disney and (20%)Hearst is ESPN inc.: ESPN ESPN International ESPN2 ESPN Australia ESPN Brasil ESPNews ESPN Classic ESPN PPV CTV Specialty Television (2001–present, owns 20% of this subsidiary of Bell Media) TSN TSN2 RDS RDS2 RDS Info ESPN Classic Canada Through CTV Specialty Television, ESPN also has an indirect interest in several channels operated in partnership with Discovery Communications, and...

Helen Thomas, whose career covering the White House dated back to the Kennedy administration, died on Saturday at the age of 92, the Gridiron Club announced in an email to members on Saturday. Thomas was the the first woman to join the White House Correspondents' Association, and the first woman to serve as its president. She was also the first female member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's historic press group. Present at the press briefings of ten consecutive presidential administrations, Thomas's career in journalism ended in 2010 after controversial remarks she made about Israeli Jews were caught on camera. "Former...

Hearst TV local blackouts On July 9, 2012 Hearst Television chose to black out their signals from Time Warner Cable customers rather than continue negotiations, and despite their CEO saying just two weeks earlier that broadcaster blackouts are unfair to consumers. Time Warner Cable has reached hundreds of agreements with other broadcasters without broadcaster blackouts, but Hearst’s demand for a nearly 300% increase is way out of line. That kind of outrageous increase is unfair to our customers and unsustainable for our business. We believe broadcaster blackouts are wrong. Despite Hearst’s blackout, we stand ready to continue negotiations and are...

It took less than 24 hours for the political Left to seize upon the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of six people on Saturday to blame the political Right for the shooting. Perhaps the most egregious example came from Paul Krugman of the New York Times, who wrote "We don't have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was." (The newspaper that published plagiarized and fabricated accounts of the "D.C. sniper" by affirmative-action hire Jayson Blair in 2003 is still publishing unsubstantiated suppositions without "proof," eh?) "[Giffords'] father says that ‘the...

We are told by careful pollsters that half of the American people believe that American troops should be brought home from Iraq immediately. This news discourages supporters of our efforts there. Not me, though: I am relieved. Given press coverage of our efforts in Iraq, I am surprised that 90 percent of the public do not want us out right now. Between January 1 and September 30, 2005, nearly 1,400 stories appeared on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news. More than half focused on the costs and problems of the war, four times as many as those that discussed...

As of today this morning, White House news reporter Helen Thomas, whose remarks in recent days telling “Jews to leave Palestine and go back to Germany and Poland”, has made it offical she is retiring from the Hearst Coporation as of today. She will be 90 in August. Ms. Thomas’s remarks are a reminder of the intolerence often expressed by liberals. Ms. Thomas’s retirement cannot come soon enough.

Nine Speakers, the agency that represents Helen Thomas, has dropped her as a client. This comes in the wake of controversial remarks on the Middle East.