Free Republic

The Columbia Journalism Review styles itself as "America's premier media monitor." It considers itself an objective observer of journalistic trends and bias, but it has achieved a well-deserved reputation for a blatantly left-of-center focus. So, it should hardly be surprising that its recent analysis of political spin, which, admittedly, pervades the 2004 presidential campaign, proved to be a poorly disguised hit-piece on the Bush White House. The article, "Tsunami," which appears in the July-August issue, was written by Bryan Keefer, an assistant managing editor of CJR's Campaign Desk and co-editor of Spinsanity.org. Declaring that "[t]he campaign '04 information war is...

ChronicallyBiased.com has learned of an apparent new Houston Chronicle policy regarding light rail's notorious accident rate. The Chronicle will no provide coverage of many Metrorail collisions. News of the policy appears in an message by the Chronicle's Lucas Wall on Wednesday: From: Wall, Lucas; XXXX@XXXXX Date: Wed Aug 4, 2004 3:46 pm Subject: MetroRail Crash NumbersI’m not going to continue this debate. But FYI, the Chronicle is no longer reporting every light rail collision in the paper. This decision has to do with space constraints and the fact we do not report on every fender bender car crash. But we...

A Pause for HindsightPublished: July 16, 2004 ver the last few months, this page has repeatedly demanded that President Bush acknowledge the mistakes his administration made when it came to the war in Iraq, particularly its role in misleading the American people about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and links with Al Qaeda. If we want Mr. Bush to be candid about his mistakes, we should be equally open about our own.During the run-up to the war, The Times ran dozens of editorials on Iraq, and our insistence that any invasion be backed by "broad international support" became...

June 29, 2004 -- Newsday whacked its editorial and operations staff by 46 people, making the cuts among the deepest absorbed yet by any in Tribune Co.'s relentless cost-cutting drive. Newsday Publisher Ray Jansen said that approximately 40 union and non-union employees in the operations and editorial departments had accepted the paper's voluntary buyout offers. But the paper apparently had to dig deeper than the 40 volunteers to satisfy the corporate cost cutting mandate from Chicago. "Unfortunately," said Jansen, "It was necessary to lay off six people in other departments and eliminate their jobs." The paper is wasting no time...

San Antonio's most comical liars do not hang out at the Bexar County Courthouse or jail. No, that distinction belongs to the gang that can't shoot straight over at Avenue E and Third St.-- publisher W. Lawrence Walker's San Antonio Express-News. And those clowns actually are swagger-strutting proud of their transparent lying. Two of their pet year-to-year lies have been spectacularly disproved to the point of hold-your-sides hilarity. But before enjoying a good laugh at the rickety prevarications, first give a good up-and-down look at the quiet-spoken but pompous little creeps who write them. Walker pays some of them more...

George Bush is selling out Iraq. Gone are his hard-liners' dreams of setting up a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic republic, a light unto the Middle Eastern nations. The decision makers in the administration now realize these goals are unreachable. So they've set a new goal: to end the occupation by July 1, whether that occupation has accomplished anything valuable and lasting or not. Just declare victory and go home. The tyranny of Saddam Hussein will be over. But a new tyranny will likely take its place: the tyranny of civil war, as rival factions rush into the void. Such is...

Coming from a liberal anti-Bush/anti-GOP rag, the poll is on the lower right. Choices: It's about time Medicare offered drug benefits. I like it. It doesn't do enough for those who need the most help. I'm against it. The $400 billion price tag is a budget buster. I'm against it. If Democrats and Republicans both hate it, it must be a good compromise. I don't know enough to offer an opinion

Some United States Marines are reportedly running short of food and ammunition.Others have been pinned down for days trying to clar Iraqi resistance. But United States Central Command Headquarters insists that everything in Operation Iraq Freedom is going fine. 'Our plan is working, and we are one day closer to achieving our objectives Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said at a daily breifing.Reporters in Central Iraq have said that some units are running short of food, fuel and ammunition, much of which was expended battling an Iraqi army the brass and some politicans hoped would melt away.