Free Republic

Cold War on Campus by: Malcolm A. Kline, April 07, 2008 The latest survey on academic bias has sent academics into their usual state of denial despite evidence of same that frequently stares them right in the face. “Taken together, 40 percent of the Americans in the survey said professors often use their classrooms as political platforms,” Robin Wilson of the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on April 4th of a Gallup poll. “When that many Americans think this happens often, higher ed has a problem,” says S. Robert Lichter, director of its Center for Media and Public Affairs at...

President Bush did not come to this oasis city of beige hills, lush green plantations and ancient ruins on his visit to the Palestinian Authority on Thursday. Given the apparent antipathy of the local population, it is probably just as well. “It would be much better if he didn’t visit our land at all,” said Bashar Fadl Ahmed, 34, an orthopedic surgeon who was shopping in the town square early this week, echoing sentiments expressed by many here. “He won’t achieve anything. He is trying to do something in his last year, but where was he before?” Jericho, a relatively...

THIS much is sure. Americans will elect a new president to replace George Bush on November 4th. The election process will be a weird mixture of the old and the new: of flesh-pressing in Iowa and guerrilla warfare on YouTube. The presidential election will dominate the nation’s—and the world’s—attention, though the way the new president governs will also depend greatly on the outcome of the House and Senate elections which take place on the same day. The primary season will be unusually front-loaded. The citizens of Iowa and New Hampshire will vote earlier than ever, probably in the first half...

Times Watch has selected its worst Quotes of the Year from The New York Times for 2007. A sample: "The first day of the post-Rosie O'Donnell era on 'The View' television show has come and gone, and by any fair accounting, an often useful provocateur has left the building. In her final months on the air, she mostly dropped her public torment of an attention-starved, orange-haired real estate developer. Instead, she opened debates with others about terrorism, peace and citizenship." -- Reporter-columnist Jim Dwyer, May 30. O'Donnell has expressed doubt about what caused 9-11. "So why would illegal immigration be...

The Old Media barely missed a toe-tapping beat in their relentless coverage of the Larry Craig “scandal” to mention that a staffer for Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell was arrested last week by the FBI after showing up for a sexual rendezvous with someone he believed to be a 13 year-old boy. The handling of the “incident” by the Old Media provides a textbook example of pervasive liberal media bias. The arrest occurred on the afternoon of Friday, November 30 but the first reporting of it came from The Smoking Gun website on Monday, December 3. Sen. Cantwell terminated the staffer,...

Transcript: HELEN THOMAS: Does the President want no troops out from Iraq on his watch? I’m talking about all the troops. MS. PERINO: Well, 5,700 troops will be home by the end of the year, so that is some troops coming home. The President said that troop levels are going to be made by commanders on the ground, and that we’re going to have to talk about – THOMAS: Why should it be? Why can’t the American people have a say? MS. PERINO: — return on success. The American people have had a say. They elected a President who is...

Remember the gay retired brigadier general who chastised Republicans for their stance on gays in the military at Wednesday's CNN/YouTube debate? Turns out Keith Kerr was packing a partisan sword. He's served as a member of an advisory team on gay and lesbian issues to the Sen. Hillary Clinton Campaign. In the words of CNN's debate crew: D'oh! And here's Anderson Cooper falling on his nonpartisan sword. So how did this slip under CNN's radar? Maybe CNN could have checked its own website. Instead, they paid for Kerr's airfare and hotel to St. Petersburg for the debate. This is a...

Last week, in an article titled "Walking a Tightrope on Immigration," The New York Times made the fact-defying claim that the illegal immigration issue poses a risk for Republicans who appeal to voters "angry" about illegal immigration. (This is as opposed to voters "angry" that they spent good money buying a copy of The New York Times.)

National Review's KerrySpot looks at a NPR feature that interviews swing voters, and one swing voter in particular: John Ridley, who is also an NPR contributor. First, isn't getting your "man on the street" from the payroll list a little on the lazy side? It's like Ted Baxter using Bernie as his "common man." And does NPR really think their staff represents a sample slice of America? Next thing you know they'll refer to Cokie Roberts as a "soccer mom" and Click and Clack as "NASCAR dads." Anyway, Ridley doesn't seem terribly unbiased. He thinks the Swift Boat Veterans for...

An important study has found that if you rely solely on the mainstream media for your news and information, you've been conned and may well have voted for the wrong candidates for the wrong reasons. "Even Harvard Finds the Media Biased." Yes, Investor's Business Daily (IBD), a financial newspaper, hit it out of the park with that headline and the story on this study, which it summarized as follows: "The debate is over. A consensus has been reached. On global warming? No, on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers." IBD was too polite to also...

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,...

On Friday's "Good Morning America," reporter Claire Shipman fretted over the fact that local governments are aggressively fighting illegal immigration. An ABC graphic worried, "Crackdown on Illegal Immigrants: Have Communities Gone Too Far?" Discussing the efforts by a Texas town to stop the influx of illegals, Shipman claimed, "...Neighbors suddenly find they can't help themselves. The immigration debate exploding without the niceties." She also lamented the tone of the debate, saying that since the defeat of the Senate immigration bill, "...What had once been a lofty political debate has now become a gritty, explosive reality." At no point did it...

Will Pinch Sulzberger Lose The New York Times? Monday , October 01, 2007 By Thomas Lifson Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., known all but universally as "Pinch", may well be the last member of the Sulzberger/Ochs family to run the world-famous newspaper company. He is trapped in a financial and competitive trap of his own making, and may have to rely on new money coming into the company at the price of relinquishing his managerial power. Christopher Alleva already explained last week that the incredible shrinking equity resulting from the combination of high dividends and low profits is already raising questions...

I would defy anyone to label Maureen Dowd by party affiliation or ideology. I've known her and worked closely with her for 20 years and I can't tell you the answer to either one -- Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor of The New York Times What would be worse: that when Times editorial page editor Rosenthal claims not to know Maureen Dowd's politics he's not being honest -- or that he is?Today's Times contains a long column by Rosenthal responding to reader questions. Here are annotated highlights in addition to the Dowd rib-tickler: The news report produced by the news...

From the birds-of-a-feather department comes news that former ABC "Nightline" host Ted Koppel is "hurting" for former CBS anchor Dan Rather. The latter's ouster was a "travesty," Koppel said, on account of the fact that Rather's infamous National Guard story was "much more correct than incorrect." More: “Dan Rather was squeezed out” with such little class from CBS News, Mr. Koppel said today at a forum at Fordham University in New York City that was put on by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The academy tonight presents its annual News and Documentary Emmys. During this evening’s ceremony,...

I have obtained new documentary evidence regarding Dan Rather's relationship with his former bosses at CBS News. Obviously, I cannot identify my source. But he told me during a collect call from Sofia, Bulgaria, that he has access to Rather's "personal files" and that his typewriter was built after 1966. To authenticate the document, I showed it to some of my kids' friends, and they said it was awesome. Here, then, the letter -- written by Dan Rather and dated Nov. 31, 2006: "Dear CBS News: "My new career at HDNet is keeping me busier than a bordello at Mardis...

The late Christopher Lasch once wrote that public affairs generally and journalism in particular suffered not from too little information but from entirely too much. What was needed, he argued, was robust debate. Lasch, a historian by training but a cultural critic by inclination, was writing in 1990, when the Internet was not yet a part of everyday life and bloggers did not exist. Bloggers now are everywhere among us, and no one asks if we don't need more full-throated advocacy on the Internet. The blogosphere is the loudest corner of the Internet, noisy with disputation, manifesto-like postings and an...

Young conservatives looking to get into mainstream journalism face a very difficult path according to veteran journalist Bob Novak.The syndicated columnist made those remarks on a conference call with bloggers about his new book "The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington."Novak blamed liberal discrimination which he said forces young conservatives to remain "in the closet" if they hope to have a career in media."One of the big differences in 50 years is that the liberals have now filtered into the executive ranks of journalism. And so if you go into journalism now not in the closet but out...

Nearly nine out of 10 journalists who made political donations gave to Democrats or left-wing groups, according to a bombshell new investigation into media bias - and perhaps the most shocking name on the list was the writer of "The Ethicist" column for The New York Times. The probe by MSNBC investigative reporter Bill Dedman revealed the names of 144 employees - reporters, editors, producers - from media organizations nationwide who have lined the candidates' pockets since '04. Underscoring the leftward tilt of the press, 125 of the workers, or 87 percent, ponied up only to Democrats and liberal causes,...

Picture a world where your father walks with you down a starlit road, pausing to point out Orion. He recites Robert Frost, knows how a battery works—and all the rules about girls. "The Dangerous Book for Boys," by brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden, is peaking on Amazon's best-seller list (No. 5 last week) by recalling just that world. The compendium of trivia, history and advice is geared toward preteen boys, but it's found a surprising audience in men in their 30s and 40s, too. The book's marbled endpapers, archival illustrations and dry, humorous tone ("excitable bouts of windbreaking will not...

The Washington Post's Fredrick Kunkle let a leftist group skate away with the bland "nonprofit group" tag. The group, the Boston-based World Against Toys Causing Harm (WATCH) named Heelys -- a pair of sneakers with small wheels recessed into the heel -- the worst toy of 2006. But a review of WATCH's Web site reveals that the group is headed by a trial attorney who boasts of raking in "record-setting settlements and jury verdicts throughout the country." Oh, and they don't like toy laser guns, although they, you know, don't actually shoot real lasers:

NBC Today co-host Meredith Vieira opened her Today at the Pump segment cheering the recent decrease in gas prices as "sweet relief" but then wondered: "Would we be better off...if gas prices were even higher?" On this morning's Today show, Vieira invited on Chevron’s CEO, David O’Reilly, to harass him about getting America off its "dependence" on oil and cited critics of Chevron’s allocation of profits to find alternative sources of energy as merely, "symbolic."

On her blog, CBS anchor Katie Couric is once again offering her love and kisses to Jimmy Carter. In a "Katie Couric's Notebook" video (which airs on some CBS affiliates as an Evening News promo), Couric used the occasion of Carter being awarded an honorary doctorate of civil law from Oxford to demand of viewers that "you have to respect him for sticking to his principles." Tell that to President Bush. She began by citing another Carter cheerleader:

Michael Savage, the #3 most listened to talk-show host in America, was honored by Talkers Magazine, the "Bible" of talk radio, with this year's Freedom of peech Award. Recently, Talkers held a bash at which they presented the award. C-SPAN, which claims to be nonpartisan and nonideological, was there and carried most of the speeches. But for some reason, it blacklisted Savage's speech accepting the award. Why would a nonideological network do this? More liberal media bias, obviously. C-SPAN has now willingly made itself part of the liberal effort to suppress freedom of speech in this country.

Comedian Paul Day could have been any casual fan last Friday at the Comedy Studio. A 44-year-old father of two from Watertown, slight of build and nondescript in his white dress shirt and jeans, he tends to blend into a crowd. About halfway through the show, Day got up and sneaked quietly into the closet that serves as the club's dressing room. He emerged as God-fearin', liberal-hatin' Billy Bob Neck, in a John Deere cap and denim jacket with leather collar, his bottom lip pouched with chewing tobacco and his eyes brimming with righteous anger, a guitar slung around his...

New York Times reporter Elaine Sciolino continued to nurse her long-standing grudge against Nicolas Sarkozy, the tough-on-crime presidential candidate of France, in two stories, one before and one after Sarkozy routed Socialist candidate Segolene Royal to win the presidency. Sciolino wrote in her election preview on Saturday: "He has gambled -- apparently successfully -- during the campaign that by turning hard right he would win over supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the head of the extreme right National Front who made it into the second round of the 2002 election but made it into only fourth place this time. "While...

The head of the Democratic Party said Wednesday that the best way to get presidential candidates to talk frankly about issues is to lock out the media. During the Mortgage Bankers Association conference, a banker expressed frustration with candidates who only talk in sound bites and wondered how that could be changed. Howard Dean, once a presidential candidate, offered a simple solution. "I suggest you have candidates in to meetings like this and bar the press," Dean said. The Democratic National Committee chairman criticized media coverage, arguing that networks such as CBS used to put content first and didn't mind...

For the second day, The Washington Post rounded up hostile global opinion toward America’s gun culture in a Molly Moore story headlined "Va. Killings Widely Seen as Reflecting a Violent Society: World Reaction Mixes Condolences With Criticism of Policies." But Moore’s article turned unintentionally comic when she quoted an Iraqi praising the gun-control policies of....Saddam Hussein. "But America has terrorism and they are exporting it to us. We did not have this violence in the Saddam era because the law was so tough on guns." Perhaps it’s not surprising for a liberal newspaper to use a terrible mass shooting as...

Where is Afghan mission heading? Canada should demilitarize the mission as much as possible, seek political reconciliation with the Taliban and stop blaming Pakistan for the insurgency Apr 12, 2007 04:30 AM Haroon Siddiqui What are Canadian soldiers dying for in Afghanistan? The official answer is that (a) they are there so that terrorists don't come here, though the reverse is more likely, and (b) our troops are helping the Afghans get back on their feet. The more realistic answer is that (a) Gen. Rick Hillier wanted to prove to the Americans that Canada belonged in the big league, and...

It looks like the San Francisco Chronicle is in dire financial trouble, and may be about to go under. I hate to play Valleywag, but I?m hearing rumors that the San Francisco Chronicle is in big trouble. Apparently, Phil Bronstein, the editor-in-chief, told staff in a recent ?emergency meeting? that the news business ?is broken, and no one knows how to fix it.? (?And if any other paper says they do, they?re lying.?) Reportedly, the paper plans to announce more layoffs before the year is out.This should not come as a surprise to anyone, these businesses are operating in the...

Yesterday's indictment of former Reagan budget director David Stockman was cause enough for the Washington Post's Jeffrey Birnbaum to use Stockman's personal ethical and possibly criminal lapses in the private sector as a way to lodge liberal attacks on the Reagan tax cuts. But that was just the beginning for Birnbaum, who, in a Washington Post chat later that day, said that "without question, the Reagan tax cuts went too far." Four paragraphs into his March 27 Business section story, Birnbaum found a Stockman critic to assail the Reagan fiscal policy that Stockman defended in the late president's first term....

Helen Thomas chatted with young [National Press] Club members over breakfast March 13 and with characteristic bluntness dismissed President George W. Bush as a chief executive who has made little contribution. The legendary White House correspondent, who has covered every president since John Kennedy, was acerbically critical of the Democratic Congressional leadership as well. Even at this stage in her long career, Thomas, now a syndicated columnist for Hearst, pointed out that she still depends for information on other journalists. “I’m reading newspapers every day like you are. And as eager as she was to take questions, Thomas was just...

CNN anchor Don Lemon just couldn’t resist editorializing over liberal Senator Barbara Boxer’s slam against a conservative Senator, James Inhofe. During the cable program "CNN Newsroom," anchors Lemon and Briana Keiler played a contentious exchange between the Democratic Senator and her Republican colleague in which Boxer chastised Inhofe for interrupting former Vice President Al Gore’s global warming testimony. After the clip, this exchange followed: Video clip: Real (1.62 MB) or Windows (1.84 MB) plus MP3 (281 KB) Brianna Keiler: " Wow. All right. That was quite an exchange. And, you know, we were expecting something from Senator James Inhofe. He...

In time for the Persian New Year, CBS's Melissa McNamara trawled the blogosphere (including MySpace blog entries) and found bloggers who think Iran's Islamic extremist government has a point about "300" being "anti-Persian." In doing she, she produced a handful of blogs that appear to generate light traffic and in at least one case is just a rambling screed. McNamara told readers that the "Islamic Republic News Agency" (IRNA) finds fault with the film's version of historical events. She left out that IRNA is Iran's official state-controlled news/propaganda service. CBSNews.com's resident "Blogophile" also noted objections from an Iranian newspaper, Hamshahri,...

Call Tom Cruise and pass out the vitamins because conservatives are officially sad. It seems “Time” magazine is trying to top last week’s “Verdict on Cheney” cover that photoshopped storm clouds over the lightning-rod vice president. The cover for the March 26 issue shows a close-up headshot of the late Ronald Reagan who appears to have a single tear on his cheek, ala Iron Eyes Cody. The “photo illustration” is accompanied by the caption, “How The Right Went Wrong,” referring to “these gloomy and uncertain days” for conservatives. Both images are hoaxes. Iron Eyes Cody was featured in one of...

ABC News' Barbara Walters sits down with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela for an interview in which Chavez shares his views on the United States, President Bush and America's 2008 presidential elections. Hugo Chavez made headlines across America when he famously called Bush "the devil" in a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York last year. When Walters asks Chavez about the name-calling, he explains it by saying that he wanted his strong words to bring attention to the facts. "Yes, I call him a devil in the United Nations," says Chavez. "That's true. Another time, I said...

On the March 14 edition of "Imus in the Morning" guest and "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney discussed the possibility of a draft with Don Imus. In that exchange Rooney, like Senator Kerry and Congressman Rangel, implied that those who volunteer to serve do so out of desperation rather than patriotism. DON IMUS: Tell me about your thoughts on re-instituting the draft. ANDY ROONEY: Well, I think a draft produces a better army than the one we would have with all volunteers. Because I think you get average Americans if you, if you have a draft. And if it’s an...

Barack Obama commands respect while Hillary Clinton overacts. Plus: John Edwards' disappearing act, Mary Shelley debunked, and Ann Coulter's gender weirdness. Nerves, nerves, nerves: The contenders in both parties for the 2008 presidential nomination have been acting like skittish race-track thoroughbreds rearing and shying as their handlers try to shove them into the gates. Each campaign is super-concerned about its candidate getting distracted, winded or making a crippling misstep. What in tarnation was the Hillary Clinton camp thinking when it threw a tantrum about Hollywood producer David Geffen making a few critical remarks about her to a fagged-out media scold?...

The site lists 34 examples. Not all, but most, show liberal bias.

A "very damning" report by the Defense Department's inspector general depicts a Pentagon that purposely manipulated intelligence in an effort to link Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida in the runup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, says the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "That was the argument that was used to make the sale to the American people about the need to go to war," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. He said the Pentagon's work, "which was wrong, which was distorted, which was inappropriate ... is something which is highly disturbing."

As Manhattan enjoyed an unseasonable 72-degree winter day on January 6, news media quickly claimed that the weather inspired fears of “the end of the world.” But as the thermometer dipped into extreme cold, the rhetoric of human-caused global warming has not cooled off. “Do people here [South Beach, Fla.] know that very likely in the next – well several decades – all of this is going to be underwater?” asked CBS “Early Show” anchor Harry Smith during an interview with author Carl Hiaasen. Smith injected the topic of global warming into his interview about the appeal of Miami on...

So you want to grow the economy? Just force employers to pay employees more. That way they’ll spend more money, and voila! Economic growth! That was CNN business reporter Ali Velshi’s economic analysis on the February 2 edition of “American Morning.” “The increase is tied to $8.3 billion in tax cuts, largely because a lot of small businesses complained,” Velshi noted of the Senate vote the night before to boost the minimum wage. The legislation faces tougher sledding in the House, where Democratic leaders want to remove the tax cuts before sending it to the president. “Now, folks, agree or...

Nearly 90 percent of American workers do not belong to a labor union, according to new data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet when reporters for The New York Times and Associated Press reported the development, they relied heavily on labor union sources to push a biased storyline about why so few Americans look for the union label. AP’s Will Lester quoted four men in his January 25 story, two labor union activists and two college professors, all of whom lamented the historically low 12 percent of Americans who pay union dues. None of Lester’s sources suggested that...

ABC: Plame/Libby Trial to Remind Americans of 'Dirty Politics' Posted by Brad Wilmouth on January 21, 2007 - 11:45. On ABC's World News Saturday, correspondent Laura Marquez filed a story on the upcoming trial of Lewis Libby regarding his role in leaking CIA analyst Valerie Plame's identity. Marquez relayed the theory that Bush administration members deliberately leaked her identity "to get back at" her husband, Iraq War critic Joe Wilson, without mentioning the revelation that Richard Armitage, formerly an assistant to Colin Powell and a dove in the run-up to the Iraq War, admitted to having inadvertently been the original...

Reading Assignments Cause Debate, Concern By: JENNIFER KABBANY - Staff Writer TEMECULA ---- High school teachers have long walked the line between challenging their students to become independent, critical thinkers and respecting their parents' beliefs on what are acceptable topics for teenagers. That invisible line is especially evident in reading assignments, in which subjectivity is inherent. With historic, and sometimes local, controversies arising from classics such as J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," it's not surprising that some disagreements have also been generated by lesser known and lesser heralded works of literacy assigned to Temecula students in the last...

Maybe the 'CBS Evening News' anchor never had a chance NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Maybe Katie Couric never really had a chance this year to prove herself as the anchor of "The CBS Evening News." Fans, critics, bloggers, comrades and competitors had a field day throughout 2006, breathlessly complaining about everything under the sun. When rumors initially spread that CBS wanted her, the debate began heating up and seemed to take on a life of its own: Katie Would Be a Fresh Alternative and No, Katie Would Be a Disaster. She'd Lighten Up the News and She's Too Perky for...

NEW YORK At his daily briefing at the White House today, Press Secretary Tony Snow was – not surprisingly -- peppered with questions about the proposals and observations in the Iraq Study Group report. On what important matter, he was asked if the president, in light of the group’s description of a severely “grave” situation in Iraq, would now say that it would be hard to turn it around. Snow said that, actually, President Bush was “confident” that this would happen. But the whole kicked off with another classic meetup or smashup between Snow and NBC’s David Gregory. Snow accused...

(snip)A recent article in 5280 Magazine extolled the fine efforts of Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet to turn around this underperforming district. As a demonstration of the difficulty of his task, we saw a paper submitted by a 10th grader at a DPS high school who was assigned to "write down five things the U.S. government is currently doing that might be unconstitutional." The student offered two: "1. Bushe cold have help the Katrina people whin it hapin. 2. Bushe should't be tipin in to people's phone."(bold added)

The president of the Reformed University Fellowship says the university wasn't specific about why the group was suspended in the first place. PROVIDENCE -- Brown University yesterday offered an olive branch to an evangelical religious group that had been banned from advertising or meeting on campus, saying the Reformed University Fellowship can be reinstated as an official campus religious group by following a set of rules laid down for other campus organizations. "Brown University has a long tradition of respecting the right of every student to practice his or her faith," Michael Chapman, university vice president for public affairs, said...

American laborers are “going to extremes” working in jobs “where 60 hours a week can be considered part-time, and overtime is an understatement.” That’s how ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased a story in the opening credits of the November 27 “World News.” Yet for all the hype, fewer than one percent of Americans hold these type of “extreme” jobs, and most are well-compensated. The “so-called extreme jobs,” Gibson told viewers, involve “high-pressure work that often comes with a very high salary and a very heavy personal toll.” Yet it’s only about “2 million Americans” that “fall into this fast-growing category,”...