Free Republic

The political climate couldn't be much more favorable for Democrats in their efforts to take back the White House this year, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will, two national political observers said in Columbus today. President Bush is unpopular, more people consider themselves Democrats than Republicans, and polls show Democrats enjoy a clear advantage on issues Americans care about, pollster Peter D. Hart and columnist Mark Shields said. Also, the economy is near or in recession, the nation is mired in an unpopular war, and for the first time in many generations, a majority of Americans don't think the...

As it happens, this is not my first such experience with the Journal. Five years ago, the paper ran a misleading column by Dorothy Rabinowitz attacking Ann Coulter for her comments on McCarthy, the main point of contention being the above-noted case of Annie Lee Moss. Ann's comments were very much on target, while those of Rabinowitz were, to put it mildly, misguided. On that occasion I wrote a letter to the Journal pointing out the facts about the case. That missive never appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

Today, the Washington Post editorial board urged Cindy McCain to release her tax returns, repeating a call made four years earlier to Teresa Heinz Kerry. But the timing seemed coincidental, given that Media Matters just wrote a letter to Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt last Friday. In that letter, the organization brought up the Heinz Kerry editorial from 2004, and asked why a similar request was not made to McCain. Hiatt tells Politico that the letter wasn't the reason for publishing Wednesday's editorial. "The editorial actually had been drafted before the [group's effort] began, or at least before I...

Consider This by 3-wood Here's something that should drive the MSM up a wall. Consumer-level inflation's tame in April, U.S. says "WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) ~ Growth in consumer prices came in below expectations for April even as food prices rose at the sharpest rate in 18 years, a government report showed Wednesday. The consumer price index rose a moderate 0.2% last month, the Labor Department said. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core consumer price index increased 0.1%. Inflation was just a bit weaker than expected, but financial markets welcomed the April CPI figures. Consumer prices are up 3.9% in...

Ninety-five percent of Democratic primary voters in West Virginia today were white. About 70 percent of them did not have a college degree. Among white voters without a college degree — largest demographic in the state — Hillary carried, 72 percent to 25 percent. She won white voters with a college degree, 55 percent to 41 percent. Back of the envelope calculation gives Hillary a floor of 64.15 percent... winning by 29 points at least. As discussed last Tuesday afternoon, the dominant voices in the press are ready to declare the race over. Last Tuesday night, we saw some of...

I was taking a look at USA Today this morning at breakfast. It had a front page article about the Reagan Revolution on the bench. That was the top layer of the article at any rate. Thinly veiled, just below, was the message, "Do you really trust a Republican to appoint any more judges when your rights are at risk?" I guess that's pretty run of the mill journalism, but we'll get a lot of it in the coming months. John Hinderacker is predicting that this year will actually be even worse than what we've gotten used to. Hard to...

In the days following the raid on the Texas polygamous compound, I took a call from a St. Louis radio host requesting one of our reporters to come on his show to "talk about the situation in Utah." Early in this cordial conversation, I informed him that this newspaper is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that I am a member of this church. After a few minutes, it became clear that he thought I was somehow affiliated with the FLDS group. I felt like an anthropology specimen. The questions were friendly and good natured,...

Fox News, or as I prefer to call it, Faux News, fired an intern for revealing the bias we all have toward the GOP. As MSNBC's Don Abrams said, she apparently did not get the memo that said that on Faux News, "you are supposed to pretend you are fair and balanced." The production assistant, identified as Jennifer Locke, was on assignment with a camera crew to cover the Time 100 Party. Locke: "John McCain, Fox News." McCain: "Fox News, I'm always glad to talk to Fox News." Locke: "I voted for you in the primary." McCain: "Thank you very...

It appears the Clinton campaign is still going after NBC/MSNBC for their coverage of the candidiate. This time, they are targeting Tim Russert for telling viewers Tuesday night: "We now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be, and no one is going to dispute it." Howard Kurtz writes today that Jay Carson, Clinton's press secretary, "fired off an e-mail yesterday to Chuck Todd, NBC's political director. While assuring Todd that he was 'not trying to be a jerk,' Carson wrote: 'Can you think of one good reason we should continue to cart you guys around the country with...

"Thrill up my leg"? Forget about it. Chris Matthews's famous description of the excitement he gets from Barack is nothing compared to the tumescent terms in which MSNBC senior campaign correspondent Tucker Carlson has depicted the intensity of the MSM's love affair with Obama. Tucker appeared on today's Morning Joe. TUCKER CARLSON: It's gonna be such a great election; it has been so far. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Especially when you have the media loving one candidate as much as they love Barack Obama. CARLSON: But it's more than love. I mean, it's the kind of love that anyone who's been a...

Now the confessions come in from multiple sources: the media has been in the tank for Barack Obama. (Chris Matthews lets on that it may not be “official” MSNBC policy to back Obama, but we should know they have their hearts in the “right” place.) Oh, and they hate Hillary Clinton too. Salon’s reporter tells us: They were swooning. I was at a speech, I remember it, I will write about it some day, in Manchester, and every, the biggest names in our business were there, and they were, they could repeat some of his speech lines to one another....

One in three employees admits they have been to work with a hangover and more than one in 10 has been drunk at their desk, a study suggests. Staff said they made mistakes, struggled to concentrate and had to go home early as a result of drinking. Four out of five employers say alcohol is the biggest threat to the well-being of their staff, according to a survey for Norwich Union Healthcare. Alcohol Concern said bosses needed to be aware of symptoms of alcohol abuse. One thousand people and 250 businesses were interviewed about drinking habits for the survey. Of...

NBC's "Today" show invited on "Newsweek International" editor Fareed Zakaria to promote his book "The Post-American World," on Monday's show and during his segment the author depicted the United States as a nation in decline as he declared the "era" of "'American exceptionalism' is over." As examples of America's declining standing in the world the "Newsweek" editor cited such facts as China now having the "Largest ferris wheel in the world," Minneapolis' "Mall of America" no longer being the largest in the world and Macau having surpassed Las Vegas in the size of their casinos.

A 2001 photo of William Ayers, an associate of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, shows the former terrorist stepping on an American flag. The photo was taken to promote Ayers’s book, “Fugitive Days” and published by Chicago Mag for their August 2001 issue. As Obama has gained national prominence as a Democratic presidential contender media figures have questioned his relationship with Ayers. Ayers once hosted a fundraiser for Obama and the two have served together on the board of a philanthropic organization. In a nationally televised debate Obama compared his friendship with Ayers to that of conservative Republican Sen. Tom...

The man who tried to soar above politics has been brought back to earth by the same media organizations that helped fuel his spectacular rise. After more than a year of mostly glowing coverage, Barack Obama is having to defend his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his temerity in not sporting a flag pin, even his arugula-loving, bad-bowling, let-me-eat-my-waffle persona that fostered what Newsweek has branded "the Bubba Gap." "The media have decided to get tougher on Obama," says St. Petersburg Times media critic Eric Deggans. "There was so much talk about him getting such an easy ride that...

It's time for higher education to help save newspapers Chronicle of Higher Education That's what former Fortune staffer Lee Smith says. "The plan I have in mind would call upon the richest institutions to set aside 3 percent of their endowments to buy The New York Times. That's for a start. Additional purchases of other newspapers by other endowments should follow."

As their stranglehold on information is loosened, the MSM reacts more and more rabidly to alternative voices. Having set themselves in opposition to the Administration on the war, they profess to be outraged that the Pentagon has tried to bypass the media in getting its story out. Which gets me to the Virginian Pilot’s Joyce Hoffman (“public editor”) second-hand smear of the Pentagon. She refers to a “staggering breach of public trust by Pentagon leaders,” designed to “sabotage traditional journalism.” Traditional journalism has done a remarkable job sabotaging itself in my lifetime so no help is needed on that front....

After months of speculation, by everybody from E! News to The New York Times, that Katie Couric will soon end her rocky tenure as anchor of "CBS Evening News," network chief Leslie Moonves stormed into the newsroom last week and attempted to snuff out the flames. According to The Associated Press, he told the staff that Couric, the first female solo evening news anchor, isn't leaving. He was adamant. He said she's "your anchor." Unspoken but implied: So get used to it and stop whining ... for now. Seriously, Mr. Moonves, will Couric stay perched at the CBS anchor desk...

Washington, D.C. — Fresno, CA – In the U.S. military there is a wonderful little expression: “A good plan never survives the first contact with the enemy.” The corollary to this rule is “Expect the unexpected.” Then of course, there is the expanded version of the Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared – For Anything.” This week has served to remind me how apt these quaint little expressions really are.My plan for this week was very simple: conduct a series of quiet interviews for print and broadcast media and a few low-key appearances in preparation for the release of my new...

Presidential candidates rarely turn down a network television interview, especially on a highly rated program. But some prominent liberals are wondering why Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama agreed this week to sit down for interviews on the Fox News Channel, for years the highest rated cable news network and the bastion of conservative TV news analysis. The dilemma for the candidates: Is appearing on Fox a smart political move before Democratic primaries in two largely conservative states - Indiana and North Carolina - or not worth the effort to court what could be a small amount of persuadable...

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday cut its long-term ratings on New York Times Co. to one level above junk because of declining newspaper ad revenue. S&P lowered its corporate credit rating and senior unsecured debt rating for the newspaper publisher to BBB- from BBB.

When Air America, the left-wing talk radio network, began, I predicted that it would not succeed. One of the main reasons I gave was that liberals already had their views expressed in the mainstream news media -- the major networks, PBS and NPR (National Public Radio), and just about every major city newspaper. Therefore, the need liberals have for liberal talk radio is nowhere near the need conservatives have for conservative talk radio. To its credit, The New York Times -- through its public editor -- has acknowledged that the Times is liberal; and anyone intellectually honest understands this is...

NEW YORK Print circulation continues on its steep downward slide, the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed this morning in releasing the latest numbers for some of the country's largest dailies in the six-month period ending March 31, 2008. When a full analysis appears it is expected to find, according to sources, the biggest dip yet, about 3.5% daily and 4.5 for Sunday. The following circulation compares the new data to the same period a year ago. Daily circulation is the Monday-through-Friday average. -- The New York Times lost more than 150,000 copies on Sunday. Circulation on that day fell a...

What ahppened to Laurie Dhue? She seems to have disappeared again. She isn't on Gearldo anymore (not that I'd know, except that I tunedin too early for Hannity's America), she isn't reading news or anchoring the weekends (though Julie Banderas isn't bad at all), and the Dhue Point has disappeared. So where's Laurie?

To judge by the ads, the most loyal adherents to CBS' quasi-journalistic programming are impotent and incontinent. It so happens that they share these afflictions with the network's actual news division. Katie Couric is reportedly itching to bolt her gig as the anchor of broadcast TV's worst-rated evening newscast. Last month, Shelley Ross lost her job producing The Early Show, the worst-rated morning newscast, after problems concerning temper tantrums and tequila parties. Most weeks, the perfectly decent Bob Schieffer, who will retire after the 2009 inauguration, sees Face the Nation to a finish as the third-rated Sunday show. And the...

The Press: When it comes to smearing John McCain, the mainstream media don't sleep. Now it's "raising questions" about the disability pension he got for torture injuries as a prisoner of war. Where's the shame? Hard to believe, but true. The industrious beavers who "raise questions" about McCain's fitness for the presidency, citing his $58,000 disability pension, are this time from the Los Angeles Times. First, the Times' April 22 hit piece implied that, since McCain is in good enough shape to walk across the Grand Canyon, there's something dishonest about his tax-free disability pension. Second, it implied that McCain...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Weeks of fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood have destroyed the main market and isolated civilians from supplies of food and water, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Wednesday. In addition, several hospitals in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood have run out of basic medical supplies, including anesthesia and dressings, the Red Cross said. But the ICRC said it was able to bring some food and medical supplies into the area Wednesday and continues to supply 10,000 liters of drinking water to Sadr City daily.

ALMOST FROM THE MOMENT IT began on March 25, the inside-the-Beltway Conventional Wisdom about the Iraqi Army's offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr's "Jaysh al Mahdi" militia and other, more criminal elements in the city of Basra--the second-largest city in Iraq and whose port is Iraq's lifeline to the international economy--was that it was a half-baked enterprise and soon a fully-baked disaster. But the latest news from Iraq strongly suggests that is, once again, the narrative of defeat that is half-baked. Over the weekend, the Iraqi Army asserted control over the Basra neighborhoods that had been Sadrist "strongholds" (though, as in the...

One of the main themes of my new book, Right Is Wrong, is the role the media have played in allowing the lunatic fringe now in control of the Republican Party -- the people who believe in torture but don't believe in evolution -- to hijack our democracy. I document how the real problem comes not from Fox News or the likes of Limbaugh and O'Reilly, but from a mainstream media that has so internalized the Right's framing and messages they have now become a part of its DNA. And the media seem intent on confirming this point again and...

George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson of ABC News weren't just criticized for their tough questioning of Barack Obama during last week's Democratic debate. They were flayed. Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker called their approach "something akin to a federal crime." Tom Shales, the Washington Post's TV critic, said the ABC duo turned in "shoddy and despicable performances." Walter Shapiro of Salon magazine said the debate had "all the substance of a Beavis and Butt-head marathon." Most of the media mauling consisted of anger that the ABC moderators brought up a series of issues that had surrounded Mr. Obama since...

In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure. The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo. To the public, these men are members...

I was watching the local Fox news affiliate tonight and noticed that when they were showing video of the Pope visiting the synagogue in New York City, that they pixelated the crucifix that he wears. Did anyone else see this? Does Fox have a policy of blurring out religious symbols?

My, oh my, but weren’t those fellows from ABC News rude to Barack Obama at this week’s presidential debate. Nothing but petty, process-oriented questions, asked in a prosecutorial tone, about the Democratic front-runner’s personal associations and his electability. Where was the substance? Where was the balance? Where indeed. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her aides have been complaining for months about imbalance in news coverage. For the most part, the reaction to her from the political-media commentariat has been: Stop whining. That’s still a good response now that it is Obama partisans — some of whom are showing up in distressingly...

Powerline’s John Hinderaker remarks on the ferocity that journalists re supporting Obama and attacking ABC’s Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos for asking Obama about his relations to radical terrorists like William Ayers and to Jeremiah Wright, as well as his remarks about small town people in Pennsylvania. Reporters don’t like it when you pick on their anointed candidate. Joe Klein sums up in the Washington Post. Instead, we are supposed to be terribly interested in the 22nd iteration of their stands on global warming (against), Iraq (against), government controlled healthcare (for), taxes (higher) and other issues that are part of...

"Karl Rove" has begun to be a substitute for accusations of "Nazi" or "Fascist" in the lexicon of many on the Left. You can see it on screeds on blogs as Hillary Clinton is accused of "Karl Rove" tactics or of George Stephanopoulos of being an agent of “Karl Rove” during a Democrat debate. How do these things get started? Well, getting smeared on “60 Minutes” is one way. Since the real Karl Rove is not dead, he has the ability to respond, and when he does, he lands a haymaker.

With the Olympics coming on, what's more poignant than the image of the sprinter hopefully awaiting the official time, only to learn he missed the record by 1/100th of a second? I'm in that same heartbroken mood for the Associated Press this morning. The wire service came so close to equalling the world record for revealing the Republican party affiliation of someone finding himself sideways of the law. Check out the first sentence from this AP story of April 17th: "A Republican congressional candidate was charged Thursday with felony burglary and criminal trespass stemming from an encounter last year with...

My, oh my, but weren’t those fellows from ABC News rude to Barack Obama at this week’s presidential debate. Nothing but petty, process-oriented questions, asked in a prosecutorial tone, about the Democratic front-runner’s personal associations and his electablity. Where was the substance? Where was the balance? Where indeed. Hillary Clinton and her aides have been complaining for months about imbalance in news coverage. For the most part, the reaction to her from the political-media commentariat has been: Stop whining. That’s still a good response now that it is Obama partisans—some of whom are showing up in distressingly inappropriate places—who are...

The New York Times Company, the parent of The New York Times, posted a $335,000 loss in the first quarter — one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen — falling far short of both analysts’ expectations and its $23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier. The company did break even on a per-share basis, compared with the average analyst forecast of earnings of 14 cents, down from 17 cents in the first quarter of 2007. The company’s main source of revenue, newspaper advertising in print and online, fell 10.6 percent, the sharpest...

When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.

Just a puny personal pronoun, yet one that perhaps spoke volumes about MSM attitudes toward religion. On the occasion of the Mass that Pope Benedict XVI will be celebrating later day at DC's Nationals Park, Early Show co-anchor interviewed Father Thomas Williams, a Roman Catholic priest who also serves as a CBS religion analyst. For the liberal media, even a subject as seemingly innocuous as a nice spring day can suddenly turn into a PC minefield should it put an MSMer in the position of having to recognize God's work, as this exchange reveals. View video here.

The media frenzy surrounding Pope Benedict’s visit to the United States is being driven in part by a newcomer on the media block: bloggers. For the first time in history, a U.S. papal visit is being covered around the clock by bloggers of all stripes – Catholic and secular, independent and staff, spiritually focused and news focused – and they are doing what they do best, bringing online readers information almost as fast as it happens. It’s a new way of covering the pope, and, according to those on the front lines, it is changing the landscape of media coverage in...

Duane "Dog" Chapman, Don Imus, and Michael Richards have all made national news recently for making racist comments.  Each, having been fully and mercilessly covered by the mainstream media paid a price for his errors.  Some caught in the same circumstances, however, get a pass.  The latest example is left of center independent newspaper publisher Michael Lacey.  Lacey is the owner of Village Voice Media, a conglomerate of "alternative weeklies," including the New Times in Phoenix and the Village Voice in New York, which service a niche readership group in an increasingly growing number of markets throughout the country. Lacey used...

Newspapers are dying. That's the word on the street. You may have read about it in the newspapers, because newspapers are not shy about telling people that they're dying. It's our dominant narrative. A famous media expert was recently quoted as saying that he figured that the last newspaper on earth would be printed in 2043. I'm just guessing here, but I imagine he pulled that date out of his ear or some other orifice. Well, that's journalism. Sure made for a catchy quote. Eric Alterman picked up that prediction and ran with it in a recent article in the...

Katie Couric and CBS News are talking for the first time about her giving up the anchor chair after the November election if her ratings don't improve, a course that could result in her leaving the network, sources familiar with the situation say. These sources say the network's top executives believe Couric is doing an excellent job on the "CBS Evening News," but that both sides have grown frustrated with a situation in which she seems mired in third place and unable to use the range of talents that made her a superstar in morning television. They stress that a...

CBS, Couric Likely to Split By REBECCA DANA April 9, 2008 7:44 p.m. After two years of record-low ratings, both CBS News executives and people close to Katie Couric say that the "CBS Evening News" anchor is likely to leave the network well before her contract expires in 2011 -- possibly soon after the presidential inauguration early next year. Ms. Couric isn't even halfway through her five-year contract with CBS, which began in June 2006 and pays an annual salary of around $15 million. But CBS executives are under pressure to cut costs and improve ratings for the broadcast, which...

It’s nothing new that the American news media, complete with starry-eyed ideologues, want to be a part of the possible history a Barack Obama presidency would be. They see it as a national historical vindication, an erasure of racism past, and it would be a damn good story. Thus, the media has been correctly accused of being in the tank for the Obama campaign, lobbing him softball questions, and overlooking questionable comments made by the candidate, his wife, his acquaintances, and his staff. However, the latest tactic implemented by ABC News is nothing less than shameless, and this with an...

Members of the military are prohibited from engaging in political activity, but ABC News convinced a few soldiers in Iraq to go before the cameras to discuss their choices for president. It is well known that the troops generally support Republicans because of their pro-military credentials, which is the reason Al Gore tried to have ballots from overseas military bases disqualified during the 2000 recount. However, Martha Raddatz could not find a single soldier who supported Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam War veteran for Commander in Chief. Most of those Raddatz interviewed backed Sen. Barack Obama with one favoring Sen....

ABC's Martha Raddatz asked American soldiers in Iraq what issues are most important to them when looking at the presidential candidates. Though the military is not supposed to engage in partisan political activity, these soldiers spoke out about their personal endorsements, and their opinions are likely to matter. In 2004, 73 percent of the U.S. military voted for a presidential candidate, and officials believe it may be even higher this time around. PFC Jeremy Slate said he supported Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., because of his stated intention to pull out of Iraq right away. "That would be nice," Slate said,...

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has stopped telling a story of a pregnant woman's medical tragedy after an Ohio hospital challenged its accuracy last weekend. But recent accounts of the episode have omitted key details that suggest there was more truth in the essence of Clinton's tale than her critics, and even her presidential campaign, have acknowledged. Since early March, the New York senator has often told campaign audiences a heartbreaking story of a young Ohio woman who began having problems with her pregnancy. She said the woman was twice turned away by a local hospital because she...

The Ventura County Star said it has terminated contracts with two freelance columnists after finding evidence of plagiarism in their work. Jim Woodard, who wrote weekly columns on new businesses and real estate, used material from other sources, including the Wall Street Journal, without attribution, the Star said in a story published on April 2. The Star said it found a total of four suspected incidents of plagiarism since early November in Woodard's real estate column in the Sunday homes section. In a Feb. 20 story, the Star said it found evidence of plagiarism in two columns by David Burroughs,...