Free Republic

In a rare entrance into a politically charged controversy, first lady Michelle Obama used a commencement speech Saturday at Jackson State University in Mississipppi to directly target the state’s recently-passed "religious freedom" bill. "We see it right here in Mississippi -- just two weeks ago -– how swiftly progress can hurtle backward," Obama said. "How easy it is to single out a small group and marginalize them because of who they are or who they love." Obama made the comment following an impassioned revival of the state and university's stained history with regard to civil rights. "So we've got to...

During 2003 the seemingly constant journalistic scandals at the New York Times caused reporters and editors who were busy corrupting the news at less notorious outlets to be overlooked. In addition to the Jayson Blair scandal, there were the newspaper of record's l'affaires Rick Bragg, Lynette Holloway and Maureen Dowd; the resuscitation of the Sally Hemings Hoax; the matter of the non-existent terrorist attack in Iraq reported by "Pfc. Jose Belen"; the newspaper's postmortem castration of photographer Marvin Smith; its premature burial of dancer Katharine Sergava; and editorialist and Jefferson-hoaxer Brent Staples' baseless smear, claiming that Strom Thurmond had raped...