http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/ivorytower/ en-us Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:40:58 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2407315/posts Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz presented quite a paradox in a Charlie Gibson profile Monday. The retiring ABC World News anchor said that "it’s time to move on" since objectivity is "less of a marketable commodity." But Kurtz also underlined how Gibson dared to keep airing live coverage of Ted Kennedy’s funeral until they were able to broadcast the reading of Ted Kennedy’s letter to Pope Benedict. These passages came late in the article: Gibson worries whether broadcast networks will be able to support sizable editorial staffs in an era of declining audiences, when cable news channels are louder... Newsbusters.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2407315/posts#comment Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:40:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387625/posts Gay newspapers in several U.S. cities, including the Washington Blade, shut down on Monday, as the company that owned them, Window Media, abruptly went out of business. Window Media had been in serious financial trouble, but employees said they had expected a reorganization or sale, not a liquidation. “We found out when two of the corporate officers were waiting for us when we got to work this morning,” said Kevin Naff, editor of the Blade, a 40-year-old paper that was one of the most important publications written for a gay audience. “It’s not a complete surprise. The abruptness of it... The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387625/posts#comment Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:21:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383947/posts Dan Calabrese notices a scolding tone coming from the Associated Press in reporting its latest polling. It headlines the report by noting that “a grouchy public [is] sticking with Obama,” having seen a 54% job approval rating in its survey — but some bad numbers on the issues. Does the AP report those falling levels of support as a consequence of Barack Obama doing a poor job? No, as emphases from Dan and myself show: The public grew slightly more dispirited on a range of matters over the past month, including war and the economy, continuing the slippage that has... Hot Air http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383947/posts#comment Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:07:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2371158/posts If Fidel Castro and Sean Penn are in the same room, which one do you think hates America more? Such a question doesn't seem to concern Vanity Fair who according to the website TMZ has hired Penn to write an article about how Barack Obama and his administration have impacted Cuba. Newsbusters.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2371158/posts#comment Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:21:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2339463/posts JOHN KING (host): If you pick up Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times this morning, she goes through Congressman (Joe) Wilson's statement, some of the other things, and she says in her -- she has come to the conclusion, quote: "Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it." Does the president believe that some of these attacks are based on his race? WHITE HOUSE PRESS SEC. ROBERT GIBBS: I don't think the president believes that people are upset because of the color of his skin. I think people are upset because... CNN transcript via Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2339463/posts#comment Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:31:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2333570/posts Tom Brokaw: "It's frightening, frankly." M eet The Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2333570/posts#comment Sun, 6 Sep 2009 22:18:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2331276/posts Michelle Malkin: Independent TV documentarian Jan Helfeld asks California Democrat Rep. Pete Stark about the national debt and the economy. Stark tells him repeatedly to “shut up, breitbart.tv http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2331276/posts#comment Thu, 3 Sep 2009 15:47:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2325708/posts Political figures are said to be remembered in one line. George Washington was the father of his country. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot. Ted Kennedy let a woman die at Chappaquiddick and tried to cover it up. If obituaries rightly remember the Massachusetts solon as America's third longest serving senator, they do history a disservice by downplaying why he served so long in the Senate and not a day in the White House. Human events http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2325708/posts#comment Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:49:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2320561/posts When George W. Bush was President, ABC and Charles Gibson, like most media members, couldn't get enough of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan. Now that Barack Obama is in the White House, the host of "World News Tonight" is no longer interested in Sheehan, even telling WLS radio in Chicago, "Enough already." I guess she served her purpose as reported by the Washington Examiner's Byron York Thurday: In an appearance August 18 on WLS radio in Chicago, ABC News anchor Charles Gibson was asked about anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan's plans to travel to Martha's Vineyard next week, where she will protest... Newsbusters.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2320561/posts#comment Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:35:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2312673/posts The L.A.Times' Dan Neil is confused. He thinks that the so-called progressive movement is right on all the issues, but he just cannot understand why they can't win the public debate. Neil laments that they have all the "English majors" on their side but cannot win "any war of words." Just what is going on here, he wants to know? He's so frustrated that he took to his keyboard to ask these questions in a Pittsburgh Gazette article from August 9. In his piece, Neil wonders, for instance, why the "progressives" are so inept at debate and cannot convince the... Publius Forum http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2312673/posts#comment Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:57:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2307097/posts GOJRA, Pakistan — The blistered black walls of the Hameed family’s bedroom tell of an unspeakable crime. Seven family members died here on Saturday, six of them burned to death by a mob that had broken into their house and shot the grandfather dead, just because they were Christian. The family had huddled in the bedroom, talking in whispers with their backs pressed against the door, as the mob taunted them. “They said, ‘If you come out, we’ll kill you,’ ” said Ikhlaq Hameed, 22, who escaped. Among the dead were two children, Musa, 6, and Umaya, 13. The attack... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2307097/posts#comment Mon, 3 Aug 2009 15:22:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2306839/posts An attorney for Sarah Palin has delivered a letter threatening legal action against an anti-Palin blogger who was the source of a divorce rumor that the attorney for the former Alaska governor called "categorically false." Publication of the letter at a Web site that repeated the rumor has uncovered circumstantial evidence that the anti-Palin blogger "Gryphen" is a kindergarten teacher at an Anchorage elementary school.... CNN stringer/anti-Palin blogger Dennis Zaki published ... a copy of a letter from Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein, ordering "Gryphen" to retract the allegations -- calling them "complete fabrications, false and defamatory" -- or face... American Spectator http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2306839/posts#comment Mon, 3 Aug 2009 03:18:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2305534/posts Via Breitbart, consider this a video companion to Karl’s post. She’s totally right, incidentally: It’s certainly possible that we halfwit proles with private insurance might have misjudged where our true self-interest lies. But the same could be said of virtually any group involved in any issue — e.g., anti-war types “may not know what’s good for them” in opposing the effort to counter jihadism with democracy — and yet, curiously, it isn’t. To think, Megan McArdle was worried about elitist liberals using health care to dictate to the masses what’s in their best interest. As for the current state of... Hot Air http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2305534/posts#comment Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:38:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2294224/posts In an era when slides and negatives are no longer the coin of the realm, the case of Usher v. Corbis-Sygma may seem to have lost much timeliness. Except for this: one member of the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals that most recently heard the case was Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The portfolio included photographs Mr. Usher had taken during the 2000 presidential campaign. “The value of these images is certainly more than $7 each,” Mr. Usher, 47, said in a telephone interview Tuesday from Alexandria, Va., where he lives. “But I’d so much rather have the... NYT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2294224/posts#comment Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:38:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284286/posts In early May, National Public Radio, a supposed bastion of liberal media bias, found itself in the cross hairs of the lesbian and gay community over an online review of "Outrage," a documentary chronicling the hypocrisy of prominent, purportedly closeted politicians with staunchly anti-gay voting records. What sparked the controversy was not the documentary itself, but the fact that NPR's review failed to name names. In fact, while Nathan Lee, the review's initial author, had included the identities of those fingered in the film, NPR editors took it upon themselves to censor the review prior to publication. Would a review... http://www.nydailynews.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284286/posts#comment Thu, 2 Jul 2009 18:32:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281655/posts For much of the Bush administration, the media splashed stories of neoconservative conspiracies and cabals. Exposés about mostly Jewish liberals-turned-conservatives charged that they were adherents of the philosopher Leo Strauss and embraced the Platonic notion of the “noble lie.” In his Republic, Plato outlined an elaborate, ranked utopia, a good city (“Kallipolis”) run by a sort of benign natural selection. The philosopher-kings sat atop hierarchies in which occupations were assigned for the citizenry. To justify arbitrary selections, the rulers would make up “noble lies” about divine edicts, making clear that the occupations chosen for lesser folk were god-given. Once the... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281655/posts#comment Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:21:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281640/posts Back in 2008, New York Times correspondent David S. Rohde, along with Afghan reporter Taki Luden, were abducted in Pakistan by the Taliban. Because they felt it might adversely affect hostage rescue efforts, the Times requested a news black-out. The Associated Press and other news agencies respected the request and only broke the story recently, after Rohde and Luden had scaled a wall and made their escape. It would be nothing other than a story with a happy ending, except that the Times has time and again ignored the government’s requests that it not report the specific ways in which... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281640/posts#comment Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:01:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271977/posts Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who is likely next year to face the first real election battle of his 30-year Senate career, lashed out against media reports suggesting that his wife's lucrative positions on the boards of four health-care companies could be inappropriate. "It's offensive to my wife that you'd be even talking about it," Dodd complained on "Fox News Sunday" yesterday. Dodd, who is a key player in President Obama's health-care reform efforts, said there is "no reason" for his wife to step down and claimed she is a victim of sexism. "We don't hear these questions being raised about... NY Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271977/posts#comment Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:56:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268864/posts Key quote from this interview (must-see!): "If the Fed examiners were set upon the Fed's own documents—unlabeled documents—to pass judgment on the Fed's capacity to survive the difficulties it faces in credit, it would shut this institution down," he said. "The Fed is undercapitalized in a way that Citicorp is undercapitalized." This guy is not a "nobody" either - he's a major force in the bond market, editor of a very well-recognized publication since 1983. Ignore him at your peril. Yeah, I know, The Fed issued some new disclosure today. It of course shows them "well-capitalized". So did Bear Stearns'... The Market Ticker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268864/posts#comment Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:57:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2264503/posts States can not only ban guns, they can ban self-defense. That's what a court just ruled. And we're told it is the "conservative" position: Today, Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook, appointed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago by President Ronald Reagan, took the same hands-off as Sotomayor. They joined a 3-0 ruling that upheld weapons ordinances in Chicago and suburban Oak Park, Illinois, and rejected challenges by gun rights advocates. Don't let the raising of the Reagan mantra persuade you. The reverence gun owners have for the man is based more on illusion than substance. He... Gun Rights Examiner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2264503/posts#comment Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:48:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267465/posts SAN FRANCISCO, CA-- The two reporters for Al Gore’s TV Current, an on-line journal based in San Francisco, who have been held since March, were found guilty of illegal entry and sentenced to 12 years hard labor, the North Korean news agency said on Monday. Al Gore and his on-line network have yet to speak out on the actions by the North Korean government -- the arrest and now the sentencing. Examiner.com/San Francisco http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267465/posts#comment Mon, 8 Jun 2009 21:01:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2253990/posts HEY, Sarah P., big congratulations on the memoir deal! I am so excited that you're joining our booky-wooky club! I know this is new for you, this book-writing thing, so do you mind some suggestions - just a few pointers? First, the story thing. You might not like that word "story," what with how it sounds like news story and might make you think about nasty interviews and so on, but I know you can get all creative about it. Important to remember: Your story is just what you want to tell - no more. You get to control every... Boston Globe http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2253990/posts#comment Tue, 19 May 2009 16:13:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2248422/posts On Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough nailed the Washington press corps for its sycophantish performance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner this past Saturday night: “like a bunch of teenage girls waiting for a Bay City Rollers concert, waiting to scream at the top of their [lungs].” Mika Brzezinski, agreeing with Joe, lifted the veil on the goings-on behind the scenes, describing an enraptured TV production crew scrambling to get the most flattering shots of the prez and First Lady. View video here. FinkelBlog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2248422/posts#comment Mon, 11 May 2009 12:33:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2236108/posts JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- A Justice Department attorney said U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., should be immune from a defamation lawsuit filed by a former Marine from western Pennsylvania. Murtha Essentially, Murtha's attorney said the lawsuit filed in September by Justin Sharratt, of Canonsburg, should be dismissed for the same reasons that a federal appeals court struck down a similar suit by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., last week. The court ruled that Murtha couldn't be sued because he was acting within the scope of his employment when he accused Wuterich's squad of killing innocent civilians "in cold blood"... WTAE-TV http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2236108/posts#comment Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:20:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2236012/posts According to a report in the New York Post the venerable New York Times is much worse off financially than anyone predicted. Boycott The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2236012/posts#comment Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:28:42 GMT