Free Republic

Ask a hundred U.S. citizens what the country needs more than anything and you’re likely to get a hundred answers. An end to poverty, an end to racism, an end to terrorism, free college, an end to liberals, an end to conservatives, an end to climate change, a balanced budget, and on and on. Most responses would be likely be well-meaning, pie-in-the-sky fantasies with little forethought as nearly all of us are inclined to do now and again. Including me. I know it’s hard to believe that the Artful Dilettante himself engages in such flights of fancy, with outcomes devoid...

I had the dubious honor of being invited to participate in Good Morning America’s first presidential town hall Monday morning, featuring Senator Cruz and his wife Heidi. Although I did not learn anything new, the experience did reaffirm some preexisting beliefs about both the news media-particularly, the way it frames narratives-as well as Ted Cruz, almost none of them flattering. I suppose you shouldn’t expect much from a segment billed as Coffee with the Candidates, yet I still entered the studio with relatively high expectations, most of which would be dashed over the course of the next hour. The trouble...

First Amendment: More information travels faster to more consumers than ever before. So why does a new survey show trust in media at rock bottom? Because so much more accurate information is available elsewhere. When Matt Drudge in early 1998 broke the story of President Bill Clinton’s indiscretions in the Oval Office study with Monica Lewinsky, it was the dawn of a new era in news reporting. Woodward and Bernstein seemed like the hip, new faces of journalism when they came along in the early 1970s and helped bring down a president. But although no one ever made a movie...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trust in the news media is being eroded by perceptions of inaccuracy and bias, fueled in part by Americans' skepticism about what they read on social media. Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public's view of other institutions. In this presidential campaign year, Democrats were more likely to trust the news media than Republicans or independents. But trust today also goes beyond the traditional journalistic principles of accuracy, balance and fairness. Faced with ever-increasing sources of...

Gabriel Sherman writes that Megyn Kelly may have “gone rogue” by meeting privately with Donald Trump — without Roger Ailes’ blessing. Fox executives, caught off guard by Kelly’s clandestine outreach, released a statement suggesting this was all according to plan: Ailes had spoken to Trump “a few times over the past three months,” it noted, implying that he had helped her get the meeting. Later that night, Kelly confirmed on her show that she and Trump discussed the possibility of an interview. She made no mention of Ailes. “The meeting was at my request,” Kelly said. If Kelly did indeed...

The trope of ‘Russian state propaganda’ in mainstream Western media is a persistent one, especially as of late. This continued focus expresses one’s own loss of control as older cable-news models are in decline, the media landscape becomes more diverse, and various web platforms allow younger savvy users to locate alternative information sources. This kind of repetitive finger-pointing is also simultaneously meant to delegitimize Russia’s foreign-language broadcasting and to explain the support for Putin domestically. The notion in question relies on a number of related assumptions: •that Western countries do not have state media; •that corporate media is impartial; •that...

Some of the most disturbing aspects of the times in which we are living include the utter corruption of the mass print and broadcast media and the lack of awareness of this fact by a large portion of the public. It seems that most Americans operate on the assumption that the media is making a good-faith, if imperfect, effort at objectively informing its audience. That so few are genuinely aware of the outrageous manipulation of public opinion now taking place is the single greatest threat to the republic, to the extent that we can even say that our republic still...

In recent years, many have voiced increasing concerns with their ability to place trust in official data, and have faith in conventional narratives. And for good reason: just yesterday a University of Chicago finance professor, while being interviewed at the Ambrosetti Forum, said that it is all about preserving confidence and trust in a "rigged game": "if people are told enough by smart people on television that the economy has been fixed, and the market is a reflection of the fundamentals, then they’ll blindly support anything the Fed does." But while the saying "don't believe everything [or anything] you read"...

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is reported to have used a static noise machine on Thursday to block reporters outside of a fundraiser in Denver from hearing her remarks. Stan Bush, a reporter for Denver’s CBS-4, who was stationed outside of the event, reported that the machine was held outdoors at the home of Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a superdelegate who has endorsed Clinton. Clinton, who was holding a fundraiser Thursday evening in Colorado, was speaking outside at a private residence. Just when she started to speak, campaign staffers directed a speaker spewing out static noise at reporters hanging out across the...

In a private document that was circulated over the weekend and obtained by The Washington Post, Trump campaign senior adviser Barry Bennett revealed the mounting frustrations among the billionaire’s top aides as they closed what had been a tumultuous week. Entitled “Digging through the Bull [expletive],” Bennett’s memo urged Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — who was charged with battery last week for yanking a reporter — and others to ignore critics who have questioned whether Trump’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has waned. “America is sick of them. Their idiotic attacks just remind voters why they hate the...

On the day that Digital First Media completed its purchase of Freedom Communications — parent company of the Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Enterprise — a wave of layoffs hit the Register. Rob Curley, editor of the paper, confirmed Thursday that it would be his last day. He was among 70-plus staff members who were being let go from the editorial, circulation, advertising and marketing departments, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing the Register.

With the increasing propaganda wars, we thought a reminder of just how naive many Westerners are when it comes to their news-feed. As Arjun Walia, of GlobalResearch.ca, notes, Dr. Ulfkotte went on public television stating that he was forced to publish the works of intelligence agents under his own name, also adding that noncompliance with these orders would result in him losing his job. He recently made an appearance on RT news to share these facts: I’ve been a journalist for about 25 years, and I was educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the...

Earlier this morning or very late last night (in my world) I received a strange and disturbing report that a group of Muslim men opened fire on hikers and campers in a large state Park in California. Unable to confirm the source, I waited to post. More info is coming in ….. Of course there has been no reporting from the enemedia on this. A heavily armed group of men with Middle Eastern appearance was arrested two hours ago outside Los Angeles after opening fire upon hikers and campers in a large State Park in the area. No word yet...

NEW YORK (AP) — In television news, a telephone interview is typically frowned upon. Donald Trump's fondness for them is changing habits and causing consternation in newsrooms, while challenging political traditions. Two organizations are circulating petitions to encourage Sunday morning political shows to hang up on Trump. Some prominent holdouts, like Fox's Chris Wallace, refuse to do on-air phoners. Others argue that a phone interview is better than no interview at all. Except in news emergencies, producers usually avoid phoners because television is a visual medium — a face-to-face discussion between a newsmaker and questioner is preferable to a picture...

In March of 2012, two 24-year-old white males were abducted by a group of South Sudanese Africans in Antioch, TN. It was early in the morning and the victims were getting ready to do a paper route. The victims were subjected to 45 minutes of humiliating torture. They were forced to perform sexual acts on each other, sexually tortured, beaten, and stabbed. The perpetrators taunted them the entire time. After the torture, the men were left to die. They were dumped on the side of the road naked and covered in blood. Each had ten stab wounds. One of the...

On CBS This Morning on Tuesday, correspondent Chip Reid took notes from YouTube to find out what kids thought about the presidential election. Reid asked fifth graders at a Virginia charter school about the mechanics of the election cycle, insinuating that kids were more civil than the GOP candidates had been behaving. The series of questions focused mostly on how "mean" Trump was, but Reid gave the kids opportunities to praise Muslims and expound on “women’s rights.”

Brandon Tatum My experience at Donald Trump's rally in Tucson, AZ. brandon tatum speaks of his experience at a trump rally.

John McCain: McCain’s insult of Trump supporters last summer launched one of the now-infamous Trump counter-attacks. Trump persevered the Republican and media onslaught and refused the media demands to apologize. That distinguished Trump, in the minds of voters, from the usual pattern: politician says something, media and opponents demand an apology, politician apologizes. July 18, 2015, the New York Post claims “Trump Campaign Implodes.” The Huffington Post: The liberal website hoped to damage Trump with its audacious announcement that it was going to cover his campaign exclusively on the entertainment pages. To Trump supporters, it confirmed their longstanding notion of...

Tribune Publishing, owner of the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, said Thursday it won the bankruptcy auction for The Orange County Register and The Press-Enterprise in the face of a looming antitrust fight. After a marathon, contentious auction that started Wednesday morning and went deep into the evening, Tribune said its $56 million cash bid was the winner over Digital First Media, publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News and Long Beach-Press-Telegram, and an investor group headed by Rich Mirman, CEO of Freedom Communications, owner of the Register and Press-Enterprise.

Donald Trump's campaign blocked a Politico reporter from attending the candidate's victory rally on Tuesday night, continuing a troubling trend of denying access to reporters who write critically about Trump and his campaign. Ben Schreckinger, who has been covering Trump for more than six months, was denied access to Tuesday night's "press conference" -- Trump did not actually take any questions -- despite the fact that the campaign had already given press credentials. In blocking Schreckinger, the Trump campaign appears to have been following through on a threat it made last week to exclude Politico reporters from campaign events because...