Free Republic

Obama, speaking to CBS in Beijing, says he's "furious' about the stream of leaks characterizing the Afghanistan deliberations... CHIP REID: “Firing offense??” THE PRESIDENT: “Absolutely" M What's odd about this is that many of the leaks (though certainly not all) have seemed deliberate, in tandem with Flickr photo releases from the meetings and in line with a message that Obama is considering deeply. And indeed, leaking has been a signature of the transition from the Plouffe/campaign era to a governing era run by Rahm Emanuel, who talks frequently to the press and whose hiring was one of the first major...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is planning a Public Workshop/Roundtable on December 1-2, 2009 entitled: From Town Crier to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age? Your comments are invited. Federal Trade Commission Chairman John Liebowitz says by “…bringing together stakeholders — bloggers, journalists, economists, university faculty — who have thought about this issue, we might be able to come up with some ideas about what policy makers or lawmakers might think about doing, or refraining from doing, going forward.”emphasis added

Evan Smith, the longtime editor of Texas Monthly, was helping a wealthy friend put together a nonprofit news site and search for the right person to run it. As it turned out, Smith...quit his job and is launching the Texas Tribune, which is designed to fill the gap left by the shrinking number of newspaper reporters at the state capitol in Austin. "We'll be flooding the zone on this stuff," says Smith, who has hired 11 journalists, half of them lured from the state's top papers with salaries as high as $90,000. That reflects a reality that separates the Tribune...

ABC News fields at least one real reporter. He’s White House correspondent Jake Tapper. Most AT readers, like many Americans, are thoroughly convinced that the legacy media reports with a bias toward Obama and the policies of his administration. So, when a notable exception surfaces, it’s only right that he or she be acknowledged. Jake Tapper has a front row seat at the White House (WH) briefings. He shows all the signs of being a for-real reporter. Here’s visual evidence of that. Remember the cell phone irruption episode back on May 19th during one of Robert Gibbs’ press conferences before...

snip It is not only the demise of big-name papers that should raise concern; the rapid decline of the newspaper industry is playing out quietly, with small, reasonably responsible dailies in cities and rural regions across the country disappearing without widespread notice. Dozens of daily and weekly newspapers have closed this year. Cities that once enjoyed the fruits of newspaper competition (Denver, Seattle) are starving. "Surviving" publications -- and many have filed for bankruptcy -- are cutting reporting staffs to the bone (this month, the New York Times said it would cut 100 more newsroom jobs). International bureaus, statehouse bureaus...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:Last Friday on the Washington Post blog, “On Faith,” English atheist Richard Dawkins said the Catholic Church was “surely up there among the leaders” as “the greatest force for evil in the world.” He labeled the Eucharist a “cannibal feast,” adding that “possession of testicles is an essential qualification to perform the rite.” He also blamed the Church for sending missionaries “out to tell deliberate lies to AIDS-weakened Africans” regarding condoms. The Church’s outreach to Anglicans, he said, makes it “a common pimp,” noting that those who convert “will be joining an institution...

Jayson Blair, who was at the center of a major journalism scandal as a New York Times reporter in 2003, will be the featured speaker at Washington and Lee University’s 48th Journalism Ethics Institute on Friday, Nov. 6. The title of Blair’s talk is “Lessons Learned.” The public is invited to the presentation at 5:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons. Blair resigned from the Times after an investigation found that he had plagiarized and fabricated major portions of stories that he had written during four years with the Times. Some of the stories that he covered in this manner...

<p>EUGENE, ORE. – When I began examining the political affiliation of faculty at the University of Oregon, the lone conservative professor I spoke with cautioned that I would “make a lot of people unhappy.”</p> <p>Though I mostly brushed off his warning – assuming that academia would be interested in such discourse – I was careful to frame my research for a column for the school newspaper diplomatically.</p>

His name was Richard "Ricky" Ramirez, but the nation knew him as "The Night Stalker," a silent menace who cut window screens and crept into homes at night to murder more than a dozen people in California. Ramirez, 49, is being held on death row at San Quentin State Prison after being convicted in 1989 in Los Angeles of 13 murders. His body count is likely going to grow, now that he's been linked by DNA to the 1984 murder of a 9-year-old San Francisco girl. In 1989, I found myself face to face with Ramirez in a Los Angeles...

A report on funding 'accountable' reporting recommends a mix of philanthropy and familiar ideas on leviesTHE SKIES grow heavy with portent when a former editor of the Washington Post and a distinguished professor join forces to write aColumbia University report on "The Reconstruction of American Journalism". And the same skies weep, perhaps, over Len Downie and Michael Schudson's complex prescription for funding "accountability" reporting, interwoven with foundations and philanthropists, rather as though exposing corruption in City Hall were the same as subsidising a symphony orchestra. It's a very American, very particular approach.

As the war between the White House and Fox News escalates, it might be insightful to take a look back and see the path which led to Thursday’s attempt by the White House to completely shut off Fox News. The first skirmish was back in August, when people were complaining about having received unwanted emails from the White House...

Why Can't MSNBC Say 'Sorry' to Limbaugh? MSNBC launches a campaign to discredit Rush Limbaugh but when the network screws up after running a fake quote it can only "clarify" its mistake. Change the meaning of the MS in MSNBC. At least for one brief moment last week, the abbreviation went from “Mostly Stupid” to “Mostly Sorry.” Co-host David Shuster, who seldom has a good word to say for any conservative, gave a classic non-apology apology when he said racial quotes attributed to talk show host Rush Limbaugh could not be verified. He was mostly sorry. Sort of. Maybe. “MSNBC...

Can you do journalism and not be a "journalist"? Do people declared "journalists" get special speech and press rights that other American citizens do not enjoy? Can anyone enjoy the right to free speech and free publication, even if that individual is not a full-time professional reporter? These are some of the important legal questions that American politicians and bureaucrats must confront now that the Internet has made possible for people other than employees of major media companies to reach large and widespread audiences. In recent weeks, federal officials seems to be favoring a view that certain individuals enjoy more...

If, as the saying goes, the perfect is the enemy of the good, then Barack Obama is his own worst enemy. That becomes clear in the upcoming HBO documentary "By the People: The Election of Barack Obama," which is the product of many months of behind-the-scenes access to Obama during the presidential campaign. It reveals -- you will be surprised to learn -- that Barack Obama is pretty close to the most perfect person you will never get to know. This is what he does not do in the course of the primary and general election campaigns: He does not...

Accuracy in Media (AIM), America's first independent watchdog of the news media, is giving FREE tickets to FReepers to attend AIM's 40th Anniversary Conference in Washington, DC on Friday, October 23, 2009. To get your ticket, visit www.aim.org/events and enter discount code "freerepublic" or go to: http://aim40thconference.eventbrite.com/?discount=freerepublic Speakers include Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Tony Blankley, John Fund, Andrew C. McCarthy, Cliff Kincaid, Trevor Loudon, Anita MonCrief, Hans von Spakovsky, Marc Morano, Robert Bluey, Ann McElhinney, J.P. Freire, and Don Irvine. Tickets are regularly $75 and include a buffet luncheon and morning and afternoon snacks. YOU MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE for...

Journalism Should Own Its Liberalism And then manage it, challenge it, and account for it By Thomas Edsall The floodtide of e-mails and letters to New York Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt after his September 27 column on the paper’s failure to promptly investigate the conservative-initiated stories about Van Jones and ACORN testifies to the failure of the mainstream press to deal with the issue of liberal bias. “Many readers were not buying [the] contention that liberal bias had nothing to do with the slow response to ACORN and, before that, to the resignation of Van Jones, a White House aide,”...

Journalism is at risk and American society must act to preserve it, according to a report co-authored by The Washington Post's former executive editor. In a paper commissioned by the Columbia University Journalism School, the ex-Post editor, Len Downie, and Michael Schudson, a Columbia professor, argue the government, universities and nonprofit foundations should step in as newspapers suffer financially. The authors recommend that the Internal Revenue Service or Congress ensure the tax code allows local news outlets to operate as nonprofits. Downie and Schudson also urge philanthropic organizations to support local reporting. They suggest the Federal Communications Commission establish a...

The New York Times (NYT) newsroom is reeling from today's announcement that the company plans to cut the staff by 100. We spoke with a Times reporter, who told us it was the timing of the layoffs that is hitting everyone the hardest. The layoffs will come at the start of December, meaning a jobless Christmas for lots of reporters. See more reactions from the newsroom > Most of the people at the Times know the paper needs to be slimmed down, but nobody expected it would come in the middle of October. The newsroom is "stunned." When we asked...

Last week, when White House communications director Anita Dunn charged the Fox News Channel with right-wing bias, Fox responded the way it always does. It denied the accusation with a straight face while proceeding to confirm it with its coverage. Take a look at Fox's own Web story on the episode. It begins by quoting a Fox News senior vice president named Michael Clemente, who says: "It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming. It seems self-serving on their part." Then it quotes David Gergen, the gravelly voice of Washington's conventional wisdom, who says the attack...

Click here to read El Marco's report on Denver's Operation Can You Hear Us Now ABC and NBC News in Denver were surrounded by Tea Party protesters as part of anti-media rallies that took place in dozens of American cities on Saturday. There was almost a complete media block out of this event nationwide. El Marco dissects ABC News' fraudulent coverage in his latest photo expose. Instead of focusing their camera on Tea Party protesters (above) ABC News interviewed only these interlopers (below). An amazing story of news media malfeasance and blatant liberal bias.

News reporting that holds accountable those with power and influence has been a vital part of American democratic life, especially in places with daily newspapers profitable enough...to maintain substantial reporting staffs. That journalism is now at risk...American society must now take some collective responsibility for supporting news reportings....In a comprehensive report commissioned by the Columbia University Journalism School, we suggest a number of public sources of support for this news reporting: - The Internal Revenue Service or Congress should clarify tax regulations to explicitly allow new or existing local news organizations to operate as nonprofit or low-profit entities, allowing them...

The NYT is calling Marcus Brauchli, the executive editor of the Washington Post, a liar. The NYT has reported this morning -- in a brief, buried "postscript" in the corrections column -- that it now has evidence that Brauchli lied last July when he told the NYT that he didn't know the paper's controversial corporate-sponsored dinner parties would be off-the-record. The NYT doesn't state flatly that Brauchli lied. But the juxtaposition of the two Brauchli statements in the postscript make clear the NYT's position that he misrepresented the truth in interviews with the NYT. [UPDATE: In an email to The...

George Stephanopoulos will be the primary substitute for Diane Sawyer when she becomes anchor of “World News” next year, expanding his already formidable command of the airways as ABC’s chief Washington correspondent and anchor of “This Week.” “As Diane Sawyer prepares to assume her new role at ‘World News,’ George Stephanopoulos is also expanding his duties,” a network official said. “It’s just been established that George will be Diane’s primary substitute on 'World News.' In addition, he will also be at her side on set for all major ABC News special events coverage.” Stephanopoulos has made his George’s Bottom Line...

Lynn Margulis.Javier Pedreira A dispute between the editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and an academy member has put the fate of three studies in question. In the wake of rows over a controversial paper published by the journal online in August — but not in print — two additional papers linked to the same academy member are now in limbo.Last month, PNAS editor-in-chief Randy Schekman wrote to academy member Lynn Margulis, a cell biologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, asking for "a satisfactory explanation for [her] apparent selective communication of reviews" for...

Respectable news outlets aren't the only ones having trouble processing the fact that a purple-eyed partisan like Andrew Breitbart is producing impactful journalism this season. The ancient Atlantic magazine–which, strangely, appears to have morphed into a sort of Blogger's Monthly–has been furrowing its brows at Breitbart & Co. both in print and online. Regular Atlantic contributor Conor Friedersdorf, writing at The Daily Beast (and earning a high-five from Andrew Sullivan), poses the question: ACORN is just the latest example of how conservative media love to blast The New York Times for its shortcomings. So why can't they live up to...

It all sounds so innocent and good-governmenty: The Federal Trade Commission will hold a workshop Dec. 1 and 2 concerning "How will journalism survive the Internet age?" An assembly of editors, owners, government officials, consumer advocates, advertisers and others is scheduled to discuss a dozen topics. Three ought to make the hair stand up on the necks of every journalist and anybody else who cares about the survival of freedom of the press: » Are new or changed government policies needed to support optimal amounts and types of journalism, including public affairs coverage? » Should the tax code be modified...

What Michael said on his blog is the sting by Hannah Giles, an FIU student who posed as a prostitute and attempted to get grant money from ACORN, was "Internet-age infotainment," not good journalism. Michael was absolutely correct. This was a stunt, pure and simple. Two self-described conservatives hell bent to embarrass ACORN may be appropriate for You Tube, and instant celebrity with Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, but it doesn't qualify as honest journalism. No one is disputing that what some ACORN employees did — trying to find tax dodges and grant money for Giles and her accompanying pretend...

Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw told students that journalsim is alive but on "life-support." From the Yale Daily News Journalism will survive the significant challenges it faces only if it succeeds in engaging and empowering readers and viewers, NBC News special correspondent Tom Brokaw said Tuesday.

For much of 2008, the TV cognoscenti assumed that Katie Couric would be anywhere but in the “CBS Evening News” anchor chair by now But despite some of the lowest ratings in the newscast’s history, she says she will remain there until her contract expires in 2011. Borrowing from Mark Twain, she said cheerfully in a recent interview, “I think reports of my death were greatly exaggerated.”

With journalists being laid off in droves, ideologues have stepped forward to provide the “reporting” that feeds the 24-hour news cycle. The collapse of journalism means that the quest for information has been superseded by the quest for ammunition. A case-study of our post-journalistic age.

Recent videos posted online and aired repeatedly on Fox News Channel that seem to show ACORN workers allegedly advising two 20-somethings dressed up as a pimp and prostitute on how to skirt the law, the community group has taken some major hits as of late. On Friday the Census Bureau severed its relationship with the group for the 2010 census. On Monday the Senate overwhelmingly voted to deny Housing and Urban Development funds to the group. And congressional Republicans in general have been asking the federal government to terminate relationships with the group and investigate various allegations of malfeasance. ACORN...

Is the ACORN scandal worthy of national broadcast news coverage? ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson suggested Tuesday that the answer is no.But Gibson told a radio show Tuesday morning that he wasn't even familiar with the story — and it might be "just one you leave to the cables." ABC reporter Jake Tapper has filed some reports on the scandal, and Gibson was asked on WLS Radio's "Don & Roma Show" what he thought of the story. "I don't even know about it," Gibson said, laughing. "So you've got me at a loss. ... But my goodness, if it's got...

The man who hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush here nearly a year ago in a brazen act that turned the little-known Iraqi journalist into a hero for many in the Arab world and crystallized the seething anger felt by many Iraqis for the consequences of the American invasion, was freed on Tuesday from a Baghdad jail. Muntader al-Zaidi, who had originally been sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting a visiting foreign leader, spent nine months in jail and, according to his brother, would likely leave Iraq now, fearing for his life. “He is free,” said...

The marketing executive at the center of a controversial series of Washington Post-sponsored dinner "salons" has resigned from the newspaper some 10 weeks after the events were canceled, The Post said Friday. Charles Pelton, who had helped organize and promote the monthly dinners as The Post's newly hired general manager of events and conferences, made no mention of the controversy in his resignation letter to Post President Stephen P. Hills. Instead, Pelton wrote, "Given the current circumstances with regard to the resources needed to launch [an events business], my family and I have decided not to relocate to Washington, D.C.,"...

As a curmudgeon who has embraced many of the new technologies of journalism, I want to draw a line. Let’s quit tweet, tweet, tweeting like the birdbrains do. I don’t care what your friend had for lunch. I don’t care how many people are following you through Twitter.com. Or Facebook, for that matter. My intelligence drops just about every time I see a tweet pop up on a web page I frequent. I really like Missouri basketball player Kimmie English. He’s a bright, intelligent, witty kid. He speaks in complete sentences. His expresses opinions clearly in person and I suspect,...

If you want some indication of the disarray that the "progressives" find themselves in, consider that disgraced broadcaster Dan Rather will be keynoting a September 23 event sponsored by The Nation magazine on "What Will Become of the News?" The Nation calls Rather "legendary," ignoring how he was put out to pasture by CBS News after he used fake documents in 2004 to smear then-President Bush. Tickets to hear and see Rather are $200 each. Rather is a legend in his own mind-and apparently the minds of those left-wingers who appreciate his effort to defeat Bush's re-election bid and throw...

A military appeals court has ruled against CBS in a battle over unaired portions of a "60 Minutes" interview with a key figure in the 2005 slaying of 24 Iraqis in the city of Haditha. The U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Appeals rejected the network's claim of reporter privilege in its battle with Marine Corps prosecutors who want access to the outtakes of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich's interview. Wuterich is charged with nine counts of voluntary manslaughter and related offenses in the incident that was triggered by a roadside bombing that killed one Marine and injured two others. His case...

Two things that would end hypocrisy and make the world a better place: Priests should be allowed to get married, and the New York Times should update its Ethics Policy. The venerable and vulnerable newspaper finally starts talking about the “Pogue Problem” out loud to its readers. For years David Pogue has covered Apple (and other tech companies). And for years he has been authoring books on Apple products. He doesn’t get paid by Apple for the books, but his bias is clear and he has been accused to conflicts of interest more than once by other mainstream media. Dan...

Still no word. A guy threatens the entire First Family, including the President's kids and we never hear from him again. Should be in court. Should appear befor a judge. Should be behind bars. Still no word, maybe somebody forgot to check this story out. I'd be curious to know the profile of this lunatic.

A Web site for local news hopes to fill the growing void in professionally reported local news by recruiting citizens armed with iPhones as reporters. The site, Fwix, will release an iPhone application this week that enables its users to file news updates, photos and videos, live from the field. The items will appear on Fwix’s year-old Web site, which also collects links to local news articles from newspapers and blogs in 85 cities. “We believe we are the real-time local newswire,” said Darian Shirazi, Fwix’s 22-year-old founder. Many local news Web sites are sprouting up, relying on sources like...

(CNN) -- Sen. Ted Kennedy would have had a "very, very difficult" time politically surviving the drowning death of a young woman if it happened in the era of blogs, talk radio and 24-hour news cycles, experts said. Sen. Ted Kennedy hit the airwaves to say it was "indefensible" he didn't immediately report the accident. Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, drowned after Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile off a bridge following a regatta party in July 1969. The incident on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, helped dash the youngest Kennedy brother's chances at the Oval Office in 1972 and 1980. Massachusetts was more forgiving...

Cynthia McKinney: Did The FBI Pay a "Journalist" in 2006 to Say That I Should Be Lynched on My Way to Vote? 24.08.2009 Source: URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/108982-mckinneyfbi-0 I am in the Bay Area and rocking with the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. But something quite insidious is happening and I think you should know immediately how it involves my friends and me. Hot on the heels of my learning that the Georgia Green Party might have been described by the U.S. Government as a "terrorist organiztion," it has just now come to my attention that a "journalist" who suggested that I...

"Sweden's embassy in Tel Aviv has sharply condemned Sweden's largest circulation newspaper Aftonbladet for publishing an article accusing the Israeli Defence Forces of harvesting the organs of Palestinians. "The article in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet is as shocking and appalling to us Swedes, as it is to Israeli citizens. We share the dismay expressed by Israeli government representatives, media and the Israeli public. This Embassy cannot but clearly distance itself from it," writes Ambassador Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier on the Swedish Embassy website. Aftonbladet's article, 'Våra söner plundras på sina organ' ('They plunder the organs of our sons') has sparked outrage...

As most everyone has heard, Bob Novak, an original Evil Conservative, passed away today from brain cancer. Greg Gutfeld, of Fox's Redeye, wrote an excellent obituary memorializing a man whose common-sense conservatism and individuality made him a fixture in the political arena.

The late Robert Novak Washington D.C., Aug 18, 2009 / 04:57 pm (CNA).- The death of Robert Novak has led many to remember the career of the expert political journalist. Some noted his conversion to Catholicism later in life, with one former colleague calling it his “most important” change of heart.Novak died of a malignant tumor at his Washington, D.C. home on Tuesday. One half of the Evans-Novak “Inside Report,” begun in 1963 with journalist Robert Evans, Novak was known for his ability to explain the feuds and factions of American politics with the help of his many inside...

Did the following quote appear in The Onion, or a major American newspaper: “An intense period of corporate consolidation over the past 25 years, aided and abetted by deregulation by the Federal Communications Commission, has reduced to a mere handful the sources from which most Americans get their news”? It may read like a parody, but those words were actually written by celebrated reporter Dan Rather on the op-ed page of the Aug. 9 Washington Post. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, as the saying goes, but not his own facts. And the fact is that Americans enjoy more...

A domestic meat importer yesterday filed a lawsuit against the broadcast network MBC and five producers of an investigative news program for reporting false facts about U.S. beef. Park Chang-kyu, president of A Meat and meat and restaurant chain Orae Dream, filed the lawsuit with the Seoul Southern District Court. He is seeking about 300 million won (240,000 U.S. dollars) in damages against MBC, five producers of “PD Notebook,” and actress Kim Min-sun. “Our companies suffered about 500 million won (410,000 dollars) in operating losses due to distortion of facts on American beef by the MBC program ‘PD Notebook.’” A...

(SNIP) As it turns out, the preponderance of journalists are Democrats. And socialism, with its idyllic, “progressive” programs, has formed an increasingly important role in Democratic policies. Who wants to investigate a possible dark side of your own party’s plank? (SNIP) Unsurprisingly, self-selection plays an important role in choosing a job. People choosing to do work related to prisons, for example, commonly show quite different characteristics than those who volunteer for work in helping disadvantaged youths. Academicians have very different characteristics than CEOs—or politicians, for that matter. Harry Stein, former ethics editor of Esquire, once said: "Journalism, like social work,...

JERUSALEM – The Associated Press is delivering to its subscribing 1,500 American newspapers content, it has emerged, penned by groups with financing from philanthropist George Soros and another far-leftist billionaire who not only campaigned for President Obama but also topped donor lists to groups like ACORN and MoveOn.org. The AP announced last month it will allow its subscribers to publish free of charge work by four nonprofit groups, the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica. Controversial Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a friend of President Obama who...

The Constitution’s 1st Amendment is no more sacred to looney left Bolsheviks than any other provision they nitpick to death. While pornography may be protected in all it’s many facets, pictures of hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities might be subject to criminal fines and penalties sometime in the near future if the Supreme Court so rules in the case of United States of America v. Robert J. Stevens.