Free Republic

Yesterday, our nation suffered a tragic occurrence at Fort Hood Army Base in Fort Hood, TX. Here is what we know. On Thursday morning, November 5th, 2009, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim originally from Virginia, but stationed at Fort Hood, woke up and proceeded sometime thereafter to give away his belongings. He called a few friends and said thanks and/or goodbyes. He got dressed, not in his military issued uniform, but in the customary Muslim garb. He carried with him two handguns. He then went to the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, the place where soldiers soon leaving for or...

Left-wing news commentator for MSNBC Keith Olbermann declared voter demonstrations against the Administration’s health care bill “terrifying” and urged that “they be stopped in some way.” The remarks came in response to a massive rally in Washington this past Thursday by opponents of the health care bill originally slated for a vote in the House of Representatives on Saturday. “Here are our duly elected members of Congress trying to do their job, trying to fix a broken health care system, when mobs of ignorant yahoos descend on them,” Olbermann complained. “How can we expect to govern the people of America...

Carla Fiorina's been (officially) on the campaign trail for, what, three days and it's like she's already wearing the GOP Senate crown. Boxer, Boxer, Boxer, Boxer, Boxer. That's the only opponent she can talk about. Hey Carly, where's the respect for Chuck D from the OC, aka her GOP primary opponent Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore? At her Pleasanton stop Friday, C-Fi was asked why she keeps talking about Boxer and not Chuck: "She is the opponent," Carly said and laughed. Uh, perhaps -- if you win the GOP primary in June. .. ... Carly's staff must have hid the...

Major Malik Hassan, after being transferred from Walter Reed Hospital to Fort Hood decided to celebrate his promotion and transfer by shouting “God is great” in Arabic while gunning down a dozen of his fellow soldiers. The mainstream media is falling all over itself today in an attempt to somehow paint this domestic Islamic terrorist as the victim rather than the perpetrator. Muslim-friendly to the point of being Muslim-centric, the news networks are even trying to do their reporting without mentioning the killer’s name...

As a talk-radio host officially banned in Britain for "fostering hatred," Michael Savage has unearthed a greater story from the ooze -- revealed in the very title of his new book, "Banned in Britain: Beating the Liberal Blacklist." Indeed, Mr. Savage contends that some nefarious "trans-Atlantic occlusion" was afoot in the decision to place him on a list of undesirables that included terrorists and murderers. And the book is just the beginning. "A petition will be circulated in Congress next week by concerned lawmakers. They will demand that the U.S. State Department act on my behalf as an American citizen...

We were accused of rooting against America because we laughed after President Obama's ego trip to land the Olympics failed. All we were doing was mocking the drooling hordes who were shocked that the Olympic committee was immune to the charm in which they've invested all their hopes for the future. After all, he showed up. He smiled. He said "Heyyyyy!" That's the formula people, get on freakin' board already!A year later and I'm not sure about what we've learned from this ('Cause you can't hear it enough!) historic presidency. The post-racial tone has manifested itself in a small army...

Highlighting even further the ratings erosion at CNN in prime time, the “Most Trusted Name in News” finished in fourth place among cable news outlets during election coverage last night. Fox News was #1 by a mile, followed by MSNBC, then CNN sister network HLN and CNN in 4th place. They were fourth in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic. CNN’s 4th place finish last night was only made more glaring because last year’s election coverage on the network was their best night of all time. They didn’t just have more viewers than every other cable news network last...

IFI Media Watch A little over a year ago, I wrote a column regarding the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services' (DCFS) supposed confidential hotline. The DCFS hotline itself was a means by which Illinois citizens could report cases of child abuse and/or neglect. I had a personal experience regarding the use of the confidential hotline which was disturbing, to say the least. I was aware of a family who lived near me in which children were exposed to an unhealthy environment according to anyone's standards. During a visit to the home, three children (all under the age of...

Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A), doesn't have much faith in the future of print media. In an interview on CNBC's Nov. 3 "Squawk Box," following the announcement of his purchase of Burlington Northern (NYSE:BNI), Buffett was asked to comment on the future of news media, in particular newspapers and business news by "Squawk Box" co-host Becky Quick. Buffett is optimistic on the future of business news. "Our system has just gotten started," Buffett said. "I mean, we've had a couple of hundred years of progress, but we have not exhausted...

The guillotine has begun its descent at Time Inc. Sources at the publishing company (which is part of the same conglomerate as DailyFinance parent AOL) say executives have asked for an emergency meeting with representatives of the Newspaper Guild to discuss job eliminations. A Time Inc. spokeswoman declined to comment, but John Shostrom, chairman of the company's Guild unit, said the meeting will take place "soon." He said it was Time Inc. that called the meeting. "They act, and we react," said Shostrom. "The Guild doesn't lay people off. We just fight back when they make proposals to lay people...

I made the New York Times last week. It even ran my picture. My mother would be proud. Unfortunately, the story was critical. It said, "Critics have leaped on Mr. Stossel's speaking engagements as the latest evidence of conservative bias on the part of Fox." Which "critics" had "leaped"? The reporter mentioned Rachel Maddow. I wouldn't think her criticism newsworthy, but Times reporters may use MSNBC as their guide to life. He also quoted an "associate professor of journalism" who said my speeches were "'pretty shameful' by traditional journalistic standards." All this because I spoke at an event for Americans...

The news media swoons in admiration — one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: “Why don’t you show some respect?!” The public is likewise smitten,Welcome to ABC’s “V,” the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season

Add one more soldier to the Left’s war on Fox News: Oscar the Grouch. Last week, in a re-broadcast of an episode that originally aired two years ago, Oscar starts his own news network, GNN (Grouchy News Network). An irate viewer calls in to berate him that the news is not grouchy enough: “I am changing the channel. From now on I am watching ‘Pox’ News. Now there is a trashy news show.” Later , Anderson Cooper from 4th place CNN, guest stars as a reporter for GNN. “Walter Cranky” and “Dan Rather-Not” — Muppets representing real-life liberal news personalities...

NEW YORK – Hopes for the fledgling economic recovery got a boost Monday from better-than-expected news on manufacturing, construction and contracts to buy homes.

912 Denver News Blackout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-26FPN2ov4 Can You Hear Us Now? Denver Rally http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS4Z5aJ1zlQ

CBS News skepticism regarding the number of jobs saved by the Obama Administration’s stimulus legislation raised ire at the White House. CBS News reporter Chip Reid aired a report revealing that many of the Administration’s claimed “job saved or created” totals were either exaggerated or false. Separately, CBS investigative reporter Stephen Stock worked undercover to expose a pattern of fraud at medical clinics operating in South Florida. This is part of an estimated annual $60 billion worth of fraud perpetrated in the government’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. “We’re putting CBS on notice,” said Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel....

The latest newspaper circulation numbers, measuring copies sold from April through September of this year, show a 10.6 percent decline in daily newspaper sales, the first double-digit drop in circulation ever. Newspaper readership is now at its lowest level since before World War II. The biggest losers during this six-month period, as reported by NewsBusters's Tom Blumer, were the San Francisco Chronicle (down 25.8 percent daily), the Newark Star-Ledger (down 22.2 percent daily), and the Boston Globe (down 18.5 percent daily). The New York Times's sales during the period fell to 927,861, the first time the paper sold less...

Anti-establishment aging hippies from the 1960s are now the Czars having a field day with a Marxist agenda. In the upside down world that comes with Barack Obama in the White House, everything is a prop—including Old Glory. “One of the 20 finalists in health care video contest run by Barack Obama’s campaign arm features a mural of an American flag splattered with health care graffiti until it’s covered completely by black paint.” (politico.com, Oct. 28, 2009.) “The video is accompanied by the sound of a heart monitor pumping and then flat-lining—words such as “pre-existing conditions”, “homeless” and “death panel”...

The Center for American Progress is a powerful Washington, D.C.-based think-tank that has as its main benefactors George Soros and his allies and political soul-mates, Herbert and Marion Sandler, who are also major benefactors. The Center (CAP) has become a one-stop shop for staffing the Obama administration with key officials (Van Jones hailed from the CAP and returned to his sinecure there when his radical ideas became known to the rest of us). Bloomberg news titled an article about the Center this way "Soros-Funded Democratic Idea Factory Becomes Obama Policy Font." The CAP promises to become a hydra-headed beast as...

This made my day (oh and the DJIA was up 199.89). But the Dow will go down again, the trend in newspaper readership is delightfully steady. Every six months, the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases data about newspapers and how many people subscribe to them. And then everyone writes a story about how some newspapers declined some amount over the year previous. Well, that's no way to look at data! It's confusing—and it obscures larger trends. So we've taken chunks of data for the major newspapers, going back to 1990, and graphed it, so you can see what's actually happened...

Sarah Palin fires back; Says Johnston's claims are "malicious"Johnston's Fifteen Minutes of Fame Depends on Amount of Dirt He Can Dish on Palin It's been almost a year since Sarah Palin lost the election to Barack Obama. Even so, the press and media continues its fascination with the ex-Governor of Alaska by putting on the "stand", "star witness" for the Palin "prosecution", 19-yr-old Levi Johnston. Of course, Palin didn't actually run against Obama, but you'd think, judging by the attention garnered in the media and the continual Presidential pop quizzes given Palin that were never given to Obama, that it...

As social media become more popular, it is inevitable that enterprising politicians will use it promote themselves, connect with constituents, and garner votes. The White House has a blog, several Senators and House members tweet, and elected officials and candidates at all levels of government are using social media to get out their messages. But just as use of social media by voters is coming into conflict with existing election laws, some politicians are discovering that their use of social media may clash — or at least create possible problems — with existing campaign and government disclosure laws. Last summer,...

video 4:29 Pretty good. She does seem to be promoting CNN by pitting FOX against MSNBC (both as 'biased', CNN does something different) but she makes some good points nevertheless.

As with Iraq, the troops in Afghanistan (no matter what country they are from) know, from their own experience, that their service there matters. Many of their countrymen back home do not, and the media does little to change this opinion. The main reason given by the media is that the soldiers just don't understand what they are experiencing, and fail to see the "big picture." For the troops, the violence and terror that the Taliban use is real. The fear of the local victims is also quite vivid. The troops know that their efforts against the Taliban and drug...

Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, was a glorious day. On that day it was reported that the Obama administration had failed in a significant effort in the area of the autocratic tactics it has employed since Barack Obama took office, and far more increasingly in recent weeks. I am speaking of the administration's attempt to maneuver establishment news organizations into segregating the Fox News network from the press corps. On Thursday of last week, the administration planned to allow members of the White House press pool to conduct interviews with "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg. The pool is a group of five...

Based on this detailed, comprehensive Mayo Clinic definition, one that I believe perfectly describes Obama, it's obvious he needs prescription medicine and extended psychotherapy. Our country is in tremendous danger with a person suffering from this complex mental illness in our White House.

With lots of cable news shows, the feast of the 2008 election has lead to famine in 2009. Countdown with Keith Olberman’s ratings are in the famine range as well, with October year over year ratings down 53% in the cable news target adults 25-54 demo, and down 53% in average viewership. Although I don’t have a trend chart, October is also Olbermann’s lowest rated month so far in 2009 in both 25-54 and average viewers.

His talk-radio brethren have less of a problem with his histrionics than with his evolving libertarianismWarning that popular talk radio and Fox News host Glenn Beck was “Harmful to the Conservative Movement,” Peter Wehner wrote on Commentary’s “Contentions” blog in September: “he seems to be more of a populist and libertarian than a conservative, more of a Perotista than a Reaganite. His interest in conspiracy theories is disquieting, as is his admiration for Ron Paul and his charges of American ‘imperialism.’ (He is now talking about pulling troops out of Afghanistan, South Korea, Germany, and elsewhere.)” Wehner is not...

America has just suffered the deadliest day of the war in Afghanistan in more than four years, but Obama doesn't have time to worry about that. He's focused on another war: the war against his political enemies. The assault on Rush Limbaugh was just for starters. Today's victim: Fox News. It's not enough that four-fifths of the news networks march in lock step to the Obama administration and have turned from being the watchdogs to Obama lapdogs. During the campaign, they went from being biased to becoming activists for Obama. Obama's communications director, Anita Dunn, was, for the most part,...

CNN's prime-time programs finished fourth and last among the cable news networks in October. CNN's programs finished behind not only Fox News and MSNBC, but also its own sister network HLN.

My prepubescent 11 year old son was solicited for homosexual sex by a 15 year old male on the schoolbus two weeks ago. The police, led by the school resource officer, are charging the perp with assault, and I'm waiting to hear from the DA whether the charge will be upgraded to sexual assault. The perp admitted to all of it to the school administration and the sheriffs deputy so there's no debate on guilt. The problem is that the school administration isn't interested in suspending, expelling or otherwise punishing this perp. By all accounts--especially my son's--this perp hasn't had...

SOCIALIST ALERT! SOCIALIST ALERT! INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT MCCHESNEY In The German Ideology, Marx said the following about the media: “The class which has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas.” Since Marx’s time, “the means of mental production” in society have expanded into a globalizing...

And still no apology. Even when conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh runs with a fabricated story, he doesn't apologize for the error. Limbaugh, who seizes on every opportunity to blast Obama, ended up with egg on his face when he read an Internet satire piece that claimed President Obama dissed the Constitution in his college thesis at Columbia University. A transcript of his Friday broadcast remains Sunday at the top of Limbaugh's web page under the headline, "Obama's Disdain for Constitution: We Know He Thinks It, Don't We? When we discover a hoax, we correct it immediately." But apologize? You...

poll on right side of page near top

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- 2,024,269 -- 0.61% USA TODAY -- 1,900,116 -- (-17.15%) THE NEW YORK TIMES -- 927,851 -- (-7.28%) LOS ANGELES TIMES -- 657,467 -- (-11.05%) THE WASHINGTON POST -- 582,844 -- (-6.40%) DAILY NEWS (NEW YORK) -- 544,167 -- (-13.98%) NEW YORK POST -- 508,042 -- (-18.77%) CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- 465,892 -- (-9.72%) HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 384,419 -- (-14.24%) THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER -- 361,480 -- N/A NEWSDAY -- 357,124 -- (-5.40%) THE DENVER POST -- 340,949 -- N/A THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC -- 316,874 -- (-12.30%) STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS -- 304,543 -- (-5.53%) CHICAGO SUN-TIMES -- 275,641...

Clearly the war with Fox News has given the Obama team a thirst for red (politically) blood. They've now been accused of a campaign of "invectives" and "name-calling" against the global warming-denying US Chamber of Commerce. On Fox News Sunday - because why not? - the chief lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce, Bruce Josten, said Rahm Emmanuel had stolen his lunch and given him a wedgie. Actually he said that differences over healthcare and economic policy had led to a mini-war.

The "illegal alien" theme did not make it this Halloween. Target, Walmart and other stores dutifully pulled costume kits from their shelves that provided revelers with an extraterrestrial alien mask and an orange prison jumpsuit. But "Barakula" can stay.

When the tree recently fell in the financial forest, the reported sound was deafening and proclaimed to the high heavens near and far but hardly anyone talked about the ax. Imagine if you will, Hitler won World War II and having done so, his historians and propaganda machine would never speak of his crimes. Rather, they would blame all the problems on those horrible, nasty Jews led by Churchill and Roosevelt. Recall the Pravda of the Soviet Union. Their truth was what ever Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Brezhnev or Chernenko wanted. Gorbachev managed to finally muff the punt, but the way...

In the most overt ploy yet to control the media the Obama Administration attempted to prevent FOX News from interviewing Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg on Thursday. At the same time the White House granted permission to interview Feinberg to CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC. This came on the heels of David Axelrod’s appearance on ABC’s This Week where he asserted that FOX was not a real news organization urging that other authentic news organizations such as ABC “ought not to treat them that way”. This is simply a continuation of strategies derived from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals in which Rule 5 of the...

On July 27th, Michelle Malkin launched the publicity tour for Culture of Corruption on Sean Hannity's radio show. Starting on May 18th, the same Michelle Malkin began writing a series of blog posts that featured Anita Moncrief, an informant that blew the whistle on a connection between ACORN and the Obama administration. Malkin has used the monikor "whistle blower" to describe Moncrief, and her coverage hasn't merely been positive but sometimes downright fawning in describing Moncrief. In fact, Malkin featured Moncrief ten times before the book came out. Before this post on the 18th, Malkin had written only once about...

    Feinberg interviews turn networks against Obama administrationAP Photo/Kevin Wolf The Obama administration now claims it did not try to exclude Fox News from Thursday's round of network interviews with pay czar Ken Feinberg.   A treasury department spokesperson claimed, "There was no plot to exclude Fox News, and they had the same interview that their competitors did. Much ado about absolutely nothing".  Unfortunately for the Obama administration, four other networks are fully aware of the situation and have proof that the treasury department is lying.  Fox did have the same interview as their competitors, only because the other networks came...

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, DEL. -- When the first Bush administration banned the media from covering the arrival of the fallen at Dover Air Force Base during the Persian Gulf War nearly 20 years ago, the stated reason was to protect the families' privacy. But in the six months since the controversial ban was lifted and 258 families were allowed to choose whether they wanted the media present, 60 percent said yes, according to the military. In August, the Pentagon quietly amended the policy so that families were given a third option for coverage. Now they can have military camera...

Return to the Article October 25, 2009The Slander NetworkBy J.R. Dunn It's a rare pleasure to see that Going Rogue doing so well ahead of publication. (Even though rescheduling the publishing date delayed my book -- but I forgive you, lass). When it appears, there's little doubt it will go through the roof.  Along with fits from the Olbermanns and Courics of the world, we can look forward to seeing a few myths definitively punctured -- the "I can see Russia" story, the shooting wolves from a helicopter narrative, or alternately, the "she can't shoot a gun" claim. (Really,...

Well, the media mantra about the Vatican’s welcome to Anglicans has begun, and the anti-Catholicism is about as ugly as it gets. Venues such as National Public Radio, the London Times, and the Kansas City Star describe the Church as “poaching.” USA Today says the Church is “rustling.” Other media outlets used the term “luring.” Some question whether the move was a “hostile takeover.” And London Times’ Columnist Libby Purves says that “converts may choke on the raw meat of Catholicism.” Mainstream newspapers such as the New York Times and Washington Post have used the word “bid.” The Boston Globe...

VIDEO MESSAGE FROM BRENT BOZELL: Without a shred of proof, CNN and MSNBC continued to repeat completely fabricated racist quotes they attributed to Rush Limbaugh. Their reckless behavior revealed their deep hatred—not just for Rush, but for conservatives in general …

After months of taking incoming fire from the prime-time stars of Fox News, the Obama White House is firing back, "FOX News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican party," said Anita Dunn, White House communications director. "If media is operating basically as a talk radio format, then that's one thing, and if it's operating as a news outlet, then that's another," Mr. Obama said. Last Sept. 20, the president went on every Sunday news show - except Chris Wallace's show on FOX. And on Thursday, the Treasury Department tried to exclude...

Michael Moore on Obama, The Media, and His New Movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story" At a standing-room only event, Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore tackles the death of media, the promise and problems of the Obama era, and above all, his new film, Capitalism: A Love Story. With Americans losing their homes, jobs, and savings to foot the bill for past spending, Moore asks, "What is the price that America - and the rest of the world - must pay for its love of capitalism?" http://www.linktv.org/programs/michael-moore-on-obama-the-media-and-his-new-movie Category: Documentaries Regions: North America

What does it say about Barack Obama and his devout supporters that his White House communications director is a big fan of Mao Zedong? I know. I know. She said her two favorite philosophers were Mao and Mother Teresa. How's that for moral and intellectual disconnect? Did you ever think you would hear those two names mentioned in the same breath? Were there two people in the history of the world more opposite that Mother Teresa and Mao? One devoted herself to saving lives. The other devoted himself to taking them. One's worldview was shaped for her reverence for God....

One of the lessons most people carry away from the schoolyard is that picking an avoidable quarrel with somebody who really likes to fight generally is a losing proposition. It's too bad nobody reminded the Obama administration of that before it launched into its ill-advised campaign against Fox News. First of all, even though the White House is right on the merits when it describes Fox News as operating mainly as a surrogate for the Republican Party, making an issue of that fact is a tactical mistake. Fox News' core audience is a cadre of true believers whose regard for...

LOS ANGELES — “Law & Order,” the long-running NBC series about crime and punishment, rarely shies away from inflammatory topics, and Friday night it takes on one of the most contentious — abortion — for just the third time in the program’s 20 seasons. In the show’s customary ripped-from-the-headlines style, the new episode focuses on the murder, in a church, of a doctor who performs late-term abortions. Though the episode, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time, begins with the disclaimer that the story “is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event,” its...