Free Republic

Got an idea for a sitcom? NBC wants to hear from you. The broadcast network announced “an unprecedented effort to discover fresh comedic voices” on Tuesday by launching a national campaign offering aspiring comedy writers from around the country the chance to pitch their sitcom ideas. “We are taking a bold, alternative approach in what we hope will uncover original comedy minds who are looking for a way to get into the television business,” said NBC entertainment president Jennifer Salke. The initiative, dubbed “NBC Comedy Playground,” pledges to reach beyond the traditional talent labs of film schools and comedy...

An innocent man who spent nearly a quarter century in prison for a murder he did not commit walked out of a Brooklyn courtroom with his freedom and his mother by his side Tuesday. Jonathan Fleming, now 51 years old, was in tears as he hugged his lawyers and family Tuesday after his conviction was thrown out by a judge. "I feel like the time I felt when he was born and the nurse bring him to me," said Patricia Fleming, the mother of the wrongly jailed man. "That's how happy I was." From the start, Fleming proclaimed his innocence...

National Labor Relations Board members ruled Monday that NBC Universal, the parent company of the namesake TV network and the cable news channel MSNBC, was illegally refusing to deal with its employees' union, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians. It ordered the company to "cease and desist" avoiding the union. "[T]he Respondent has been failing and refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith with the exclusive collective-bargaining representative of its unit employees and has engaged in unfair labor practices," ruled a three-member NLRB majority. The announcement is ironic given that MSNBC has remade itself as a liberal...

Comcast, which employs more than 100 lobbyists, spent almost $19 million last year on lobbying activities. Its president and CEO, Brian L. Roberts, is a golf buddy of President Obama’s, and a Democratic donor who has contributed thousands of dollars not only to the president’s campaigns, but also to the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the DNC Services Corporation, and to Steny Hoyer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Bob Casey. Roberts’ executive vice president, David Cohen, is a former aide to Democratic bigwig Ed Rendell. Cohen skirts lobbying regulations through loopholes, has raised more than $2 million for...

LOS ANGELES – David Letterman, 66, rattled the entertainment industry on Thursday when it was revealed that after more than 32 years and almost 6,000 episodes in the late-night arena, he will retire in 2015 when his CBS contract expires. According to a source closely connected to the “Late Show” host, newly appointed “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon – his direct competition – inadvertently gave Letterman the final nudge. “David is older now; he had heart surgery some time ago and sees both Jimmy Kimmel [of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”] as well as the more formidable Jimmy Fallon now gaining...

Contestants answer questions in categories like That Girl, Had That Been Me and It's Been A Minute.

You will be shocked at what some Americans actually believe. For example, close to 90 percent of us believe that we are eating a healthy diet, and yet more than third of the population is officially obese. 65 percent of all Americans say that they are dissatisfied with the government, and yet nearly a third of us would be willing to submit to a "TSA body cavity search" in order to get on an airplane. As you will see below, Americans are angrier and more frustrated with government and with their lives than ever before, but we also exhibit almost...

During coverage of President's Obama meeting with Pope Francis on Thursday, both NBC's Today and CBS This Morning hoped the papal visit would boost the commander-in-chief's sinking poll numbers. Today co-host Matt Lauer wondered: "The Pope, enormously popular....Is there something in just rubbing elbows with the Pope for President Obama?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] Chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd observed: "I think that the President, particularly right now where his own approval ratings are not so hot, just being seen with the Pope, particularly in some places where there are a lot...

First Lady Michelle Obama is wrapping up her tour of China today and even though the American press was shut out from her trip, the First Lady has received glowing coverage of her taxpayer-funded visit. Despite the already over-the-top praise, NBC’s “Today” had a unique take on the trip. Appearing on Sunday, March 23, CNBC’s Eunice Yoon commented that both Mrs. Obama and the wife of the communist president of China were a “hip fashion icon from a small town who happens to be married to a very powerful man who’s running a country.” The segment itself was fairly brief,...

On Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie touted an exclusive preview of Fortune magazine's list of the world's 50 greatest leaders and wondered about one name that was absent from the ranking: "Bill Clinton comes in at number five and makes the cover. There are a lot of other notable names here. Tell you what, though, there may be some talk about one leader who did not make the list, the leader of the free world, President Obama. Fortune tells us he was not overlooked, he just did not make the cut." [Listen to the audio or watch the video...

Are you confused about the claim that Ted Cruz is not a natural-born citizen, with all its attendant disinformation? Well, here is your answer. We have gathered together the top arguments of those who challenge Senator Cruz’s eligibility to serve as president, along with exhaustive research and links to original sources, and condensed it all into one, bite-sized yet authoritative piece. We have done all the work for you, assembling a definitive reference you can use any time you hear someone say that Ted Cruz is ineligible to run for and serve as president. So without any further ado, here...

NBC News President Deborah Turness is in Washington, D.C., this week and will meet with "Meet the Press" host David Gregory and executive producer Rob Yarin to discuss changes to the format of the show, network sources said Monday.The meeting, which will take place on Thursday, is part of Turness's ongoing effort to improve "Meet the Press," which has suffered in recent years and came in third place behind ABC's "This Week" and CBS's "Face the Nation" last quarter.

“Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon will be swimming with the fishes of Lake Michigan thanks to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel: The comedian has agreed to participate in the city’s Polar Plunge fundraiser this weekend. The former White House chief of staff and mayor had initially challenged Fallon to participate in the annual jump into the lake’s frigid waters in response to what Fallon had described to the media as an open invitation for the mayor to appear on...

WASHINGTON -- National Security Advisor Susan Rice appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday and said that when she had appeared on several news outlets back in September 2012 to state that the attack on an American diplomatic installation in Benghazi was a "spontaneous reaction" to an American-made film that appeared on YouTube she had used "the best information we [the White House] had at the time." Senator John McCain responded to her statement Sunday that it left him "almost speechless." The Arizona Republican said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "I'm almost speechless, because it's patently obvious, first of...

Did you know that yesterday was “No Makeup Monday?” It appears to have something to do with “loving your selfie” although going in front of a camera lens without a stitch of makeup on and expecting to love the result seems rather counter intuitive to me. I, for one, think I look much better with a bit of lipstick.And maybe even a touch of blusher:Butt back to “NMM,” the entire staff of the Today Show bravely went where no hi-def TV team has ever gone before: Makeup free! To say it wasn’t pretty is a bit of an understatement. And...

As told to Joe Hagan. I flew to Hawaii recently to shoot a film, fresh on the heels of being labeled a homophobic bigot by Andrew Sullivan, Anderson Cooper, and others in the Gay Department of Justice. I wanted to speak with a gay-rights group that I had researched and admired, so I called its local Honolulu branch. The office number turned out to be some guy’s cell phone. I left him a message—I said, “I’m from out of town, I’m visiting Hawaii on business, I’d like to get some information on your group.” After two or three more calls,...

What's missing from this list of people Mika Brzezinski blasted on today's Morning Joe for "making a lot of money at the Olympics" while Vladimir Putin's suppression of democracy in the Ukraine unfolds: "the people performing there, the people competing there, the people sponsoring there"? Did you say NBC, Mika's own parent network? You get a gold medal! To whom does Mika think "the people sponsoring there" are paying their millions to promote their products? Has Mika not noticed that regular programming on MSNBC itself has been pre-empted by the Putin Olympics? View the video here.

Just read this and weep for our future. David Wise is at the top of his sport. He’s always smiling among his friends and competitors, however, he’s not like the rest of the field. He is mature. Not to say the rest of the freestyle skiers of halfpipe are not mature, but Wise is mature far beyond his years. At only twenty-three years old, he has a wife, Alexander, who was waiting patiently in the crowd, and together they have a two-year-old daughter waiting for them to return to their home in Reno, Nevada.At such a young age, Wise has...

Jimmy Fallon proved Tuesday he wasn't a one-night wonder. The new "Tonight Show" host — oops, star — drew 7.4 million viewers for his second night, more than the combined total for his rivals, David Letterman on CBS and Jimmy Kimmel on ABC. Fallon still had, and will have all this week, the benefit of a lead-in from NBC's popular Olympics coverage.

Is communism making a comeback? On its face, the question seems more than a little absurd. The Berlin Wall came down over 24 years ago. We are more than 22 years removed from the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. All that remains are the Stalinist museum pieces of North Korea and Cuba, the former an isolated country known mainly for its absurd dictator and starving population, the latter a beautiful island stuck in a 1950s time warp due to backwards economic and social policies. Even China, the one major power still ruled by...