Free Republic

At the Kettle Diner in Jacksonville, N.C., it's faith, family and the Corps. Jacksonville is home to Camp Lejuene, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast...Even some lifelong conservatives aren't hearing the president's message anymore. "I've turned him off," said retired Marine Col. Jim Van Riper. "I've tuned him out." Van Riper is a Christian, card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association who voted for President Bush twice. But as more Marines have died, his confidence in the Bush administration has died as well.

Friday’s "Good Morning America" broadcast yet another bad-news-for-Republicans story concerning the party’s chances in the upcoming mid-term elections. In a report from Robin Roberts, three southern women, all either former Republicans or Republicans considering voting for Democratic candidates, were given air time to express their disenchantment with the GOP: Robin Rasmussen: "I voted Republican in every election since I was 18." Robin Roberts: "But not this year. Robin Rasmussen is thinking of voting for a Democrat and she’s not alone." Janna Herbison: "And I used to consider myself to be a Republican." Tracy Quick Bradford: "...I think that the, the...

Mr. Johnson, one of the most influential, popular, and disliked political bloggers in the United States, says his site offers an "alternative filter": The news comes in and something approaching the truth comes out. Critics, however, say he has an agenda of his own - one that's anti-Muslim, pro-Israel, and full of hate. How did this 50-something computer programmer and Web designer turn into an Internet celebrity, sought out by CNN and regularly roasted by liberal critics? The answer lies in expertise, diligence, and imagination. This week, his website - littlegreenfootballs.com - is attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors, thanks...

Reuters News Agency, reeling from accusations of distortion, deceit and fraud, have decided to go the distance in order to repair their tattered image. "We're coming clean today," spokesman Justin Case explained to his lunch guests, "by re-opening the files on stories long suppressed by our firm. This will aid in the restoration of balance in our reporting, as perceived by our readers." One of the first stories to be covered by their newly hired replacement photographer, is that of the splinter group, Hersbollah. "It is a myth that women are treated like dogs under Islam," Hersbollah strike commander Latcha...

Remember those photos that have been running in the media showing a rescue worker holding a dead child following the Israeli air strike in Qana? The message of those pictures has been powerful: look at what those evil Israelis did to that poor, innocent child. Well, now we learn that all may not be what it seems. Many of those pictures were taken by the photographers for wire services like the Associated Press, Reuters and the always pro-terrorist Agence France-Presse, also known as AFP. But an enterprising British blogger decided to dig a bit deeper. He looked at the time...

SAN FRANCISCO An investigation into the sourcing and accuracy of news stories by a freelance journalist at a leading Internet news site concluded that the existence of dozens of people quoted in the articles could not be confirmed. Wired News, which publishes some articles from Wired magazine, paid for the review of stories by one of its frequent contributors, Michelle Delio, 37, of New York City. It was expected to disclose results late Monday. The review determined that dozens of people cited in articles by Delio primarily during the past 18 months could not be located, said one person familiar...

Mary Mapes, the CBS News producer from 60 Minutes who gave us Rathergate, has won the first journalism award given in memory of two of the worst rogues in the history of the profession, Walter Duranty and Jayson Blair. Duranty and Blair were both reporters for the New York Times, America’s most corrupt newspaper. To borrow from NBA commissioner David Stern, on his decision to suspend Ron Artest and the other Indiana Pacers thugs in the recent “basketbrawl,” the vote “was unanimous, 1-0.” As previously detailed, Mapes was guilty of no less than three major journalistic offenses -- her “Shot...

Well, "Black Rock" isn't the Tower of London, and we no longer behead those who seek to topple the government, as Elizabeth I's executioner did Mary, Queen of Scots, but CBS' corporate headquarters will have to do, as the media world awaits whatever passes for the sentencing and punishment of news fraud Mary Mapes, who gave the world Rathergate, among other infamous episodes. Any day now, possibly even today, the CBS News internal Rathergate report will be completed and read by the "suits" in the suites at Black Rock. When Rathergate became a full-blown scandal, CBS appointed former U.S. Attorney...

A few weeks ago, at Rather Biased , I came across a story about a CBS News producer who'd been fired, "CBS Fires Trigger-happy Producer." "So, they finally got around to Mary Mapes," says I. No such luck. The tarnished Tiffany network had unceremoniously dumped a news producer for interrupting a broadcast of its popular new crime series, CSI: New York, for a report on the death of Arab terrorist Yasser Arafat. It seems while honesty in reporting counts for little at CBS these days, hot entertainment properties are sacred. The November 13 Rather Biased dispatch follows: "Friday both Reuters...

A few days ago, my colleagues and I were noting the absence of any whistleblower in the fraud allegations swirling over the election... and I mentioned that I considered this to be another problem for those making the accusations. Surely, if the election had been hacked, there would be somebody who might brag about it to a talkative friend, or somebody who might know something and would be willing to contact a reporter or stand up for the principle of free and fair elections.

Just because it was November, didn't mean that the Kerry camp and its network shills couldn't come up with some more "October surprises." After all, for the Democrats and their media affiliates, it's always October. No ExitOn Election Day, the early returns from the Big Media-commissioned "exit polls" were that Senator John Kerry was drubbing President Bush across the East, especially in the two states Bush had to carry, Florida and Ohio, if he was to have a chance at winning the election. Keep in mind, that unlike the network election coverage, which begins in earnest only after the polls...

Just because it was November, didn't mean that the Kerry camp and its network shills couldn't come up with some more "October surprises." After all, for the Democrats and their media affiliates, it's always October. No Exit On Election Day, the early returns from the Big Media-commissioned "exit polls" were that Sen. John Kerry was drubbing Pres. Bush across the East, especially in the two states Bush had to carry, Florida and Ohio, if Bush was to have a chance at winning the election. Keep in mind, that unlike the network election coverage, which begins in earnest only after the...

HALPERINGATE = RATHERGATE = WATERGATE: The Nexus Halperin Memo Dated Friday October 8, 2004 It goes without saying that the stakes are getting very high for the country and the campaigns - and our responsibilities become quite grave I do not want to set off (sp?) and endless colloquy that none of us have time for today - nor do I want to stifle one. Please respond if you feel you can advance the discussion. The New York Times (Nagourney/Stevenson) and Howard Fineman on the web both make the same point today: the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions...

Many alleged journalists don't see themselves as helping John Kerry win the election because they are socialists in journalistic drag, but because they believe that this is simply what any decent person in the same position would do. In foisting the Memogate hoax on the American people, CBS' Dan Rather was motivated by the desire for ratings, revenge, and power. (For two excellent chronicles of how Rather misled his audience, see the reports here and here by Andrew Alexander, my editor at Intellectual Conservative.) Ratings Any journalist worth his salt wants to reach everyone, and blow away the competition. Anyone...

Dan Rather's motives in foisting the Memogate hoax on the American people were: Ratings, revenge, and power. Ratings. Any journalist worth his salt wants to reach everyone, and blow away the competition. Anyone who says otherwise, is either lying or in the wrong business. The best way for a journalist to reach the largest possible audience is with scoops on scandals. It's good journalism, and it's popular journalism. One of the reasons why the pc journalism of the socialist mainstream media (SMSM) and even the older, Republican mainstream media (RMSM; think, National Review) have been losing audience share in recent...

Say good night, Dan. Dan Rather's journalism career is surely over. When he got snookered by the forged memos peddled by longtime Bush enemy Bill Burkett, a retired Texas Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, and the fraud was exposed by a 'lousy Internet site,' instead of Rather re-investigating the story, he stonewalled, took the offensive, engaged in a "modified, limited hangout" (the September 21 New York Post) and attacked his critics. Once he admitted that something wasn't quite right about the "documents," he even tried to take credit for determining that a hoax had taken place. Rather acted less like...

On Friday the AP falsely reported that a crowd at a Bush rally booed the news that Bill Clinton had been hospitalized, and President Bush "did nothing to stop them." On Friday afternoon, an Associated Press (AP) story reported that a crowd at a Bush rally in Wisconsin, responded to President Bush's news that former President Clinton had been hospitalized with chest pains and faced bypass surgery, and Bush's best wishes for Clinton's speedy recovery, with boos. The AP, a wire service founded in 1848, describes itself as "the largest and oldest news organization in the world."Audience boos as Bush...

Looks like the New York Times has another ugly Jayson Blair-like scandal on its hands. This time, the young minority reporter is Charlie LeDuff, a part Native-American, part-Cajun writer, known as a rising star and favorite pet of former executive editor Howell Raines. The hotshot LeDuff is now in hot water over his cribbing of anecdotes from someone else's book about kayaking down the Los Angeles River for his own Page One fluff story about — you guessed it! — kayaking down the Los Angeles River. An embarrassing correction published in the New York Times on Dec. 8 explained: An...

What’s THE biggest media myth to come out of the Iraq? War and its messy aftermath? Forget Maureen Dowd’s attempt to trash George W. Bush by altering the president’s words. That kind of "journalism" has become just standard operating procedure at the New York Times. (" All the News Fit to Distort") No, for sheer, long-lasting stamina, we nominate the urban legend about the pillaging of Baghdad’s archaeological museum. Remember how it was supposed to have been emptied by looters? It was THE RAPE OF CIVILIZATION! The anguished comments from distinguished archaeologists sounded more like tabloid headlines. The Death of...

Just reviewed a classified brief on the supposed wedding - no way it was. Here are some unclass details I can provide (brief had lots of pictures to back up the details): > > > - Weddings traditionally held on Thursdays in Iraq to take advantage of Friday as a day of rest - raid took place on Tuesday night. - Only permanent dwelling at the site held large stocks of food, bedding, medical supplies (lots of these - was the wedding going to be a cage match of some sort or were the caterers just bad cooks?), ammunition and...