Free Republic

Usually, when a journalist is censored in a Western nation, American news organizations respond with collective outrage. But as a major attack on press freedom unfolds in Canada, America’s mainstream media are silent. Neither the TV networks nor the major newspapers have reported on hearings last week at what amounts to a Stalinesque show trial in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mark Steyn, a Canadian journalist who now lives in New Hampshire and whose column appears in National Review magazine as well as several U.S. and Canadian newspapers, is facing charges before British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal. His crime? Spreading “hatred.” The...

KENNER, La. — Senator John McCain marked the unofficial beginning of the general election with a speech here Tuesday in which he sought to distance himself from President Bush and to argue that he has stronger credentials as an independent agent of change than his all-but-certain Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama. “For all his fine words and all his promise, he has never taken the hard but right course of risking his own interests for yours, of standing against the partisan rancor on his side to stand up for our country,” Mr. McCain said of Mr. Obama in a prime-time...

For the benefit of our country, I hope and pray respect for the office of the president returns with the new president in 2009. The abuse the presidency of George Bush was forced to tolerate has been nothing short of obscene. Just last week, someone referred to the president as "that bastard Bush." The former first lady, senator and presidential candidate gently nodded her head in approval and answered the foul mouth with, "Well, there is a lot of truth in that." For years now Mr. Bush has been called a liar, betrayer, dummy, bastard, fear monger, murderer … just...

The newsstand price of individual copies of The Boston Globe will increase from 50 cents to 75 cents on Feb. 4, according to a company statement. The increase applies to newspapers sold in Greater Boston.

<p>You don’t have to be a Harvard University researcher to figure out that the media is infected with liberal bias — or to realize that some left-wing journalists will use any means necessary to create ideological narratives that fit their worldview. The Rathergate debacle at CBS News involving faked National Guard memos to smear President Bush was an extreme example. But if you look closely, you’ll find everyday examples of Serious Journalists manufacturing the news and concocting social crises.</p>

If it’s Monday morning, it means I’m talking to one of the Thompson Associates, who offers his thoughts on Jay Cost’s contention that Fred Thompson is running against the mainstream/drive-by media and its expectations as much as his rivals. The Thompson Associate said that he and others close to Thompson had studied the campaign of McCain in 2000, and began to wonder if glowing profiles from the mainstream media, and the traditional definition of ‘good press coverage’ no longer applied in Republican primaries. “What happens if you start from the assumption that the conservative base has no respect at all,...

<p>So, should viewers of Tuesday's Republican presidential debate expect an exchange of views between the candidates - or between the candidates and one of the event's moderators?</p> <p>It's a fair question, given the jaw-dropping comments Thursday evening from MSNBC blowhard - and scheduled debate moderator - Chris Matthews.</p>

"After spending some time in and around Baghdad with the United States military I visited the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s notoriously convulsive and violent Anbar Province, and breathed an unlikely sigh of relief. " Read what the MSM won't report.

KEYSTONE — Global warming is the hottest story of our time, and it will get even bigger as the full implications of melting ice caps and rising sea levels percolate through the media pipeline and into general public awareness, a panel of journalists said last weekend during the American Bar Association's environmental law conference. The discussion was focused on how the media has covered the story and whether or not public perception of global warming has changed in recent months and years. Among the questions the panelists tried to answer is why it has taken so long for the story...

Most Americans are convinced that media coverage of the conflict in Iraq is inaccurate and portrays the situation as being worse than it actually is, a new survey shows. According to the Gallup News Service, a December survey of a representative sample of 569 adult Americans revealed that fully 56 percent believe that major news media coverage of the situation in Iraq is generally inaccurate while only 4 out of 10 Americans agree that it is accurate. Moreover, the survey showed that by a 61 percent to 36 percent margin, those who feel that the Iraq coverage is inaccurate say...

Troops in Iraq Express Frustration with the Media to FNC's Sean Hannity Posted by Justin McCarthy on December 12, 2006 - 17:00. The bravest and most patriotic of Americans, those who see first hand what goes on in Iraq, can see the liberal bias in the media. On Monday’s Hannity and Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity recounted from his recent trip to Iraq that many in uniform there feel the media paints a grimmer picture than the reality on the ground. Hannity first offered this comment when talking with Oliver North reporting from Ramadi, Iraq. Sean Hannity: "You know Colonel, one...

On Tuesday's Countdown, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann devoted an entire segment (video available on Countdown Web site) to discussing links between a man arrested for domestic terrorism and "far right-wing blogs," describing the man as a "gushing online admirer" of conservative commentators Michelle Malkin, Laura Igraham, and Ann Coulter, as the Countdown host suggested conservatives had inspired the man to commit terrorism. Olbermann also compared past actions by Malkin (see Malkin's blog for details) to "the King Henry thing about Thomas Becket." Olbermann: "There were the students at the University of California in Santa Cruz who protested military recruiters on...

The way this election is being touted by the press ANYTHING LESS than a landslide will be a defeat. And lets face it, they have been wrong since the turn of the century. Also Rove feels that the Pubbies will stay in control of both houses. And he has been right a lot lately. If so this will be a resounding defeat. But either way it is not going to be a landslide. So what is energizing the 'silent majority'? What I'd say and what we should point out to the Lame Stream Media is that the media coverage is...

The television networks could be in for a long night on Tuesday. "Mathematically," CBS Senior Vice President Linda Mason says of the election coverage, "you could know by 10 for the House and 11 for the Senate." But, she says, "it could go on until all hours of the early morning." "We have learned from past mistakes," says NBC anchor Brian Williams. "I start from the assumption I will wake up with a sore back on my couch" after an all-nighter. "There's likely to be a lot of hedging," says ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "You may know it, but you can't...

Many adults in the United States believe the current federal government has not been completely forthcoming on the issue of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. 53 per cent of respondents think the Bush administration is hiding something, and 28 per cent believe it is lying. Only 16 per cent of respondents say the government headed by U.S. president George W. Bush is telling the truth on what it knew prior to the terrorist attacks, down five points since May 2002. On Aug. 6, 2001, a Presidential Daily Briefing titled...

On my own little blog, I have issued a challenge to the left. We all know the media is biased, but they feel Bush gets a pass, or so they claim. To settle the issue I have challenged any liberal to supply pro-Bush articles from the mainstream media since he first took office in 2000. I am patiently waiting to see if any post anything. Only one day so far, but no takers as of yet.

WASHINGTON - The war in Iraq has become a “cause célèbre” for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse before it gets better, federal intelligence analysts conclude in a report at odds with President Bush’s contention of a world growing safer. In the bleak report, declassified and released Tuesday on Bush’s orders, the nation’s most veteran analysts conclude that despite serious damage to the leadership of al-Qaida, the threat from Islamic extremists has spread both in numbers and in geographic reach. ----------------------- Virtually all assessments of the current situation were bad news. The report’s...

Here's an email we received yesterday morning at 10:26 am: Hey guys, Even though I'm a big fat liberal, I've been a big fan of your site since it first launched, and I visit it every day. It's a terrific resource.However, I do have a criticism regarding the way you posted yesterday's (9/15) AP Piece "Polls Shows GOP Not Making Its Case". That's the way the AP titled it, at least. You guys decided to title it on your site "GOP Gains Ground In Battle For Congress".I understand that there may have been some data in their polling that made...

Democracy. It’s a word that conjures different imagery for everyone, but in most cases includes something to do with America and her freedoms. The word ‘Democracy’ has a lot of positive connotations associated with it. It shouldn’t. The United States of America is NOT a democracy, and thank God for it. Folks, the word ‘Democracy’ does not appear in the US Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. The Founders of our nation did this on purpose, as they did not found a democracy.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

With his death from a massive heart attack on Wednesday, Ken Lay cheated justice. And then some. Not only will the Enron founder not end his days in prison, but according to legal precedent, his entire case will be erased from the records.

WASHINGTON, June 22 - Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials. The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly...

The Pentagon has concluded its investigation into the March 15 deaths of 13 Iraqis in the town of Ishaqi. It found that American soldiers acted within the rules of combat when they fired on a house after first being fired upon by a suspected al-Qaida operative. The investigation of a Nov. 19 incident in Haditha in which 24 Iraqi civilians were killed continues, though some people have already rushed to judgment and convicted a group of U.S. Marines. Some news reports about the Ishaqi incident noted that U.S. military commanders believed the Iraqi police report was part of an attempt...

When President Bush nominated Gen. Michael Hayden to run the CIA, the press focused on disapproving Democrats and even some Republicans who were dubious about confirmation. A month later, when the Senate confirmed Hayden by a 78-15 vote, the story was given much less emphasis in the media, which had moved on to other stories critical of the Bush administration. Similarly, when Bush nominated one of his aides, Brett Kavanaugh, to the federal judiciary, the press was filled with reports about Democrats threatening a filibuster because Kavanaugh once worked for special prosecutor Kenneth Starr in the case against President Clinton....

President Bush makes a point during a speech Friday, May, 19, 2006, at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Ky. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke) Photo attached to this article: Bush Wants Newcomers to Learn Englishhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060520/ap_on_go_pr_wh/immigration_english

Scandal Du Jour It is getting harder and harder to keep up with the mainstream media's current 'scandal du jour' -- since they are coming at us so fast one hardly has time to fully absorb the breath-taking dishonesty of the report that came before. From the Koran-flushing Newsweek story to the alleged 'outing' of Valerie Plame, they've been cultivating an atmosphere of 'us against them' with the administration since it assumed office in 2001. Wait, let me rephrase that to better reflect the truth. . . they've been cultivating an atmosphere of 'us against them' with THE GOVERNMENT OF...

WASHINGTON: The “dump Rumsfeld” movement is gathering steam, with younger officers in military academies, armed services’ staff colleges and even command posts and mess halls calling for the ouster of the defence secretary. Last week, a group of retired US generals called for the secretary’s resignation, a call both President George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld have ignored. The president, in fact, made it a point to praise Rumsfeld’s performance. According to a report in the New York Times on Sunday, “Junior and midlevel officers are discussing whether the war plans for Iraq reflected unvarnished military advice, whether the retired generals...

Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, a Democrat from West Virginia, resigned on Friday from the House ethics committee (that's ethics, folks) "amid accusations that he used his congressional position to funnel money to his own home-state foundations, possibly enriching himself in the process," according to the Washington Post and other news outlets. One place you won't read about this resignation, however, is today's Los Angeles Times (Saturday, April 22, 2006). (A puny 291-word story about the charges appeared back on April 9.)This continues a repeated practice at the Times of either delaying or simply ignoring news stories that are unflattering...

WASHINGTON - The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll might sound like a broken record, but the tune grows louder as congressional midterm elections get closer and closer: President Bush is once again facing the lowest job approval rating of his presidency, the lowest percentage of Americans who believe the country is headed in the right direction, and an electorate that greatly prefers a Democratic-controlled Congress over a Republican-controlled one. Yet the poll also shows something else that goes beyond the November midterm elections: A strong majority believes Bush is experiencing a long-term setback from which he’s unlikely to recover....

Thomas Lifson and Jack Risko have done a tremendous public service by reviewing the financial statements and public disclosures of The New York Times Company. The pair have come up with treasure trove of interesting info. The three juiciest tidbits are these: The Times Company’s flagship newspaper, The New York Times, is only third in circulation in the New York Metro area. Its Metro circulation of about 556,000 is well behind that of The New York Post (663,000) and The New York Daily News (689,000), and has dropped 27% since 1993. The growth of its advertising revenues badly trails inflation,...

Washington journalism has about it a peculiar insularity. Who gets credit for groundbreaking reporting is not important to most readers, but Washington editors often try to knock down each other's stories and want to be credited when they think they've broken a story first. I know; I've done it. So a memo from Knight-Ridder's Washington bureau that criticized The Post, leaked to a popular media news Web site Friday, was not viewed with equanimity in The Post's newsroom. snip The most serious issue was Hoyt's questioning of figures cited in a front-page story in The Post on Tuesday -- that...

Yes, labels matter. When used honestly they matter very much. Accurately identifying someone's underlying philosophy lets you know where he sits so you can better judge where he stands. It's a filter through which you can screen biases, agendas and baloney. Conservatives tend to speak their minds candidly. They proudly acknowledge their pedigree. When you hear someone declare that "labels don't matter anymore," it's generally a liberal who'd rather disguise his stripes. Maybe that's why Whittaker Chambers, a one-time member of the Communist Party USA who recovered from that perverted ideology, noted that in America "the left can only take...

MSM FAKE STORY #1: Libby to Squeal on Cheney Reality Not Reported: Libby Attorneys say story is false MSM FAKE STORY #2: L.A. Mayor angry he was not notified of L.A. terror plot Reality Not Reported: L.A. Mayor's office was notified by White House through California Homeland Security. MSM FAKE STORY #3: NY Slimes reports that the White House knew the New Orleans was flooding the first day. Reality Not Reported: This is a recycled FAKE News story. There were conflicting reports. At any rate, the state is responsible for the first 72 hours. The Governor and Mayor were...

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito told senators Monday that good judges don't have an agenda, don't look for partisan outcomes and always "do what the law requires" as the Senate opened hearings on President Bush's choice for the high court. "A judge can't have any agenda. A judge can't have a preferred outcome in any particular case," Alito told the Judiciary Committee in a brief statement in which he made a distinction between judges and attorneys working for clients. His motive for shooting John Paul in the abdomen on May 13, 1981, remains unclear.

Second Thoughts 1-11-06 By: William W. Lawrence It is crystal clear to me that the so-called main stream media (MSM) has a death wish. I was extremely surprised to see that the Philadelphia Daily News, which is rattling on its deathbed, made it into 2006. I expected it to die last month. I truly believe that left-wing sympathizers will soon also be singing woeful burial hymns for the liberal Inquirer which is looking more green around the gills every day.It has become protocol for MSM publications to gleefully join the New York Times in anti-American cacophony. The latest is the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two Republican congressman from Northern California used their positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a Texas businessman who had given them political contributions, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Reps. John T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo, along with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, fought an investigation by federal banking regulators of Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz, according to government documents and copies of letters between the congressmen and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. officials obtained by The Times. The FDIC was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz for his alleged role in...

It seems the Bush administration -- being a group of sane, informed adults -- has been secretly tapping Arab terrorists without warrants. During the CIA raids in Afghanistan in early 2002 that captured Abu Zubaydah and his associates, the government seized computers, cell phones and personal phone books. Soon after the raids, the National Security Agency began trying to listen to calls placed to the phone numbers found in al Qaeda Rolodexes. That was true even if you were "an American citizen" making the call from U.S. territory -- like convicted al Qaeda associate Iyman Faris who, after being arrested,...

MSNBC's Hardball show actually delivered some interesting news for once tonight, despite Chris Matthews' anti-Bush spin and uninformed sputtering over the NSA counterterrorism program. NBC's DOJ correspondent Pete Williams corrects Matthews' assertion (borrowed from the NYTimes' report yesterday) that top Justice Department officials opposed the NSA program. In response to Matthews' fulmination that "it wasn't like the President was even getting support from his own people," Williams reported: There does appear to be something here where both deputy AG Comey and AG Ashcroft were concerned about technical aspects of it and concerned about how it was being carried out--the sort...

It's time for the 18th annual Media Research Center's awards for the most biased, manipulative or downright goofy quotes from liberals in the "mainstream" media. I'm honored to serve, once again, on MRC's distinguished panel of conservatively biased judges. Here are some of the highlights from among the winners and runners-up of Best Notable Quotables of 2005:

HOW THE NYTIMES IS RINGING IN 2006 By Michelle Malkin   ·   December 31, 2005 10:45 PM Yes, it's New Year's Eve. And since there's no rest for the NYTimes, I'm not taking it easy tonight either. You see, NYTimes' reporter James Risen has been a busy bee over the holidays. The co-author of the infamous Chicken Little opus exposing the NSA special collection program to monitor international communications between suspected al Qaeda operatives and their contacts will be launching his new book, State of War, on January 3. Turns out the publisher of Risen's new book, which includes a discussion...

UN-MERRY CHRISTMAS, N.Y. TIMES By Michelle Malkin   ·   December 23, 2005 10:23 AM Here's what Chicken Little journalism gets you: Hat tip: Gerard Van der Leun at The American Digest, which you should be reading every day.

There was no shortage of good news following last week’s parliamentary elections in Iraq. Upward of 70 percent of Iraqis reportedly took part in the voting. Sunni participation was up, even in redoubts of insurgency like Fallujah. Incidents of violence were down. International observers attested to the legitimacy of the process, which met international standards. Even Kofi Anan, hardly an exponent of pro-American talking points, was compelled by the sheer volume of the turnout—11 million strong according to the latest figures—to recognize the success of the historic election. The anti-war Left’s response? A collective shrug. Talk on the Huffington Post,...

Not that reporters are particularly trusted anyway, but as a class of people having a high and visible participation in the war in Iraq, dozens of GIs and Marines I’ve spoken with allow as how they just don’t trust reporters. There was Staff Sgt. Cory Blackwell of Lancaster, recently headed for his second tour in Iraq with the 4th Infantry Division, nicknamed the “Ivy Division” and “The Regulars.” Blackwell, 27, is a professional soldier. He holds the customary glum view of professional news gatherers in the Iraq war. “We tried to stay away from them,” he said. “You had the...

At the request of members, I am restarting those "Tales from the Dark UnderBelly Of the Beast"-- the stories and issues that the press and media either ignore, won't even talk about, or will mention once and forevermore claim "it's old news..."Naturally, some will be stories which interest me, or things I think we all need to be aware of.I am experimenting with a minor change in presentation- when I can, I will cut to -GoogleNewsBeta-- with a keyword or two and see what kind of links to "mainstream" stories I can find in contrast to what we see here...

As President Bush launched a new effort Wednesday to gain public support for the Iraq war, a new poll found most Americans do not believe he has a plan that will achieve victory. Just 35 percent wanted to set a specific timetable for their exit, as some critics of the war have suggested. Among poll respondents, 55 percent said they did not believe Bush has a plan that will achieve victory for the United States in Iraq; 41 percent thought he did. Asked about Bush's handling of the Iraq war, 54 percent said it was poor, while 44 percent thought...

Tonight is a time for celebration. Why? Ted Koppel is leaving ABC News and "Nightline" forever. Koppel (whose real name is Ed, not Ted) made his career off the backs of America's hostages in Iran, who spent well over 400 days in captivity. And Koppel's nightly broadcasts about them--which morphed into "Nightline"--didn't help their plight. No, Koppel's constant nights of attention to the Islamic hostage-takers in Iran helped Islamic terrorists, not just those under yesterday's Ayatollah Khomeini, but today's Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and Osama Bin Laden. They knew--with the advent of constant attention to their evil acts, whether hostage taking...

I gave a talk recently on one of my favorite topics: liberal bias in the media. In the course of my remarks I referred to a quote made famous by Finley Peter Dunne's fictional alter ego, Mr. Dooley, a caricature of an Irishman from the old country who once sarcastically declared that the job of the newspaper is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Dunne, himself, was a one-time Progressive who saw the light and became a Teddy Roosevelt Republican and a critic of sanctimonious do-gooders. Contemporary journalists may be unaware that the context of the Dunne quote...

A movie about Palestinian suicide bombers had Tel Aviv viewers on the edge of their seats _ and some even found themselves empathizing with the two West Bank mechanics trying to attack their city. The award-winning "Paradise Now," which tries to explore the motives of bombers and has been screened in other countries, is now in limited release in Israel, a country struck by 122 bombings that killed hundreds of people in the past five years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Viewer turnout has been modest at three showings a day at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, the city's main art house, and...

RUSH: We're going to keep going with this. I mentioned earlier in the previous hour that even last night in the media, that the template on this al-Qaeda attack in Jordan is, "It's Bush's fault. Bush caused this. Bush is responsible!" So we played connect the dots in the first hour of the program. Just to review that, when you connect the dots, what do you get? You have Jordan. You have three suicide bombers. You've got 57 people dead so far; over 300 people wounded. You have terrorists. You have the culture of death, the expressed desire to end...