Free Republic

When my daughter and I helped coordinate Salem Radio Network talk shows broadcasting from CPAC 2020, we had no idea we’d be in the vanguard of “self-quarantining” which now has most of America in its grip. But a week or so after CPAC, as news broke that one—one—out of the 17,000 attendees had tested positive for the Wuhan Coronavirus, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) placed himself in quarantine for 14 days after a brief encounter with the person, and…well, you know the rest. Happily, both of us were (and remain) asymptomatic, but “sheltering at home” did produce unexpected benefits: My...

It’s pretty easy to fool people, especially when they want to believe. The disintegration of the blood testing company Theranos and the fraud exposed in its ashes is a prime example – the media wanted to elevate a woman entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, chose Elizabeth Holmes and they weren’t going to let anything stand in their way. The political left is facing a reckoning in the weeks ahead, as ABC’s Terry Moran put it, that promises to be every bit as devastating as what happened to Theranos.Special Counsel Robert Mueller will, sooner or later, issue his report on attempted Russian...

Well, the sexual harassment reckoning that’s sweeping the country has claimed another member of the media: Ryan Lizza. The Georgetown professor and New Yorker writer was fired from the publication earlier this afternoon for “improper sexual conduct.” Georgetown University said that fall semester classes have concluded, but that Mr. Lizza won’t be teaching next semester. In a statement, Lizza denied there was any impropriety, noting that this was a “respectful” relationship with a woman he dated. The lawyer representing Lizza’s accuser said in a separate statement that the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the relationship was anything but...

Last week the venerable St. Louis-Post-Dispatch, a once great American newspaper, proved that she is but a shell of her former self. The PD has a long and generally distinguished history including launching the career of Joseph Pulitzer in the 1880s, and in scooping all of the major papers on the disastrous sinking of the RMS Titanic in April of 1912. Today, the PD is the sole daily newspaper in a major metropolitan area, and, as such has no competition to push her to improve and to stay at the top of her game. This column does not however, deal...

Michele Bachmann famously couldn’t let go of George W. Bush during an encounter with the president following his 2007 State of the Union address. Now, however, she can’t seem to get far enough away. In a new ad out Wednesday, Bachmann distances herself from Bush and lumps him in with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama. “That’s why fought and I voted against the Bush Wall Street bailout, the failed Pelosi trillion-dollar stimulus and Obama’s government takeover of healthcare,” she says in the ad. It’s a far cry from Bachmann’s warm embrace of Bush after his annual SOTU...

A group of billionaire philanthropists are to donate tens of millions more dollars to develop progressive political ideas in the US in an effort to counter the conservative ascendancy. George Soros, who made his fortune in the hedge fund industry; Herb and Marion Sandler, the California couple who own a multi-billion-dollar savings and loan business; and Peter Lewis, the chairman of an Ohio insurance company, donated more than $63m (£34m) in the 2004 election cycle to organisations seeking to defeat George W. Bush. At a meeting in San Francisco last month, the left-leaning billionaires agreed to commit an even larger...