Free Republic

The Hill's managing editor, Bob Cusack, got the latest scoop on the annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner from In the Know columnist Judy Kurtz.

Full title: Beck Breaks Exclusive Information on Saudi National Once Considered a Person of Interest in Boston Bombings Background points: A Saudi national originally identified as a "person of interest" in the Boston Marathon bombing was set to be deported under section 212 3B -- "Security and related grounds" -- "Terrorist activities" after the bombing As the story gained traction, TheBlaze's Chief Content Officer Joel Cheatwood received word that the government may not deport the Saudi national, originally identified as Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to answer questions on the subject when confronted by Rep....

Like a lot of Americans, when I woke up on Friday morning and found out there was a manhunt in the Boston area for the remaining suspect in Monday’s bombing at the marathon, I turned on CNN.

I can't explain how sick I am. I don't like drudge much, but he is doing a good job exposing the clown tonight.

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Wednesday that the prominent Drudge Report website "hurts" the White House's message because of its dominating effect on the news cycle. Pfeiffer said that he was "ambivalent" to what Matt Drudge links to on his website, but he lamented that the site led to a "Pavlovian response" from reporters. "Anyone saying anything can get caught up in the spin cycle in a way that is very damaging," Pfeiffer said at a Politico Playbook breakfast with Mike Allen. "It hurts what we’re trying to do, but then it is very damaging to that individual...

During a Playbook Breakfast event with Politico’s Mike Allen, White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer lamented the effect of the Drudge Report on the news cycle. “This is less true now than it was, but there is a pavlovian response from some media outlets,” Pfeiffer explained, noting that reporters often ask questions about a topic just because its on the Drudge Report. Pfeiffer added that when he is asked about something on the Drudge Report he usually ridicules the reporter asking the question until they sheepishly back down.

The RNC rolled out its 100-page report on what went wrong in 2012 and what could be done better. The report has 39,136 words in it. One word is missing. Tells you everything you need to know ... /snip/ For the RNC to produce a 100-page report and not have a single mention of the need to interact with and support the conservative blogosphere tells me that the RNC simply has rearranged the deck chairs on the HMS Consultant.

Glenn Beck To Debut His Own “60 Minutes” Amid a growing debate about the future of conservative media, The Blaze's For the Record aspires to 60 Minutes-level credibility, run by Beck's own “Woodwards and Bernsteins.” On Wednesday night, Glenn Beck's TV network The Blaze will air the first episode of an investigative newsmagazine show called For the Record — the latest move by the network to build journalistic credibility amid a broader debate about the state of conservative media. Beck introduced the idea for the show in January as part of a larger plan to build out the network's news...

I previously wrote about how BuzzFeed Politics has combined “the culture” and savvy crafting into a highly effective tool for undermining Republicans with subtle and not-so-subtle mockery.  “Look at the goofy cat, look at the goofy celeb, look at the goofy Republican” is more dangerous to us than a 5000-word article in The New York Times Sunday Magazine.To follow up on that theme, I happened upon a website called Upworthy, which had one its posts run at HuffPo, Elizabeth Warren Asks The Most Obvious Question Ever, Stumps A Bunch Of Bank Regulators.The post was so wrong on substance, I just...

Despite earning more than $1 billion in profits last year, social media juggernaut Facebook paid zilch when it came to federal and state taxes in 2012. In fact, the website will actually be getting a refund totaling $429 million thanks to a tax reduction for executive stock options. In the coming years, Facebook will continue to get monster tax breaks, totaling about $3 billion.

Matt Lauer and New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan appear on NBC’s “Today� show in New York in this handout photo taken Feb. 11. The cardinal talked about Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement earlier that morning that he will resign as pope at the end of the month. The 85-year-old pontiff said he no longer has the energy to exercise his ministry over the universal church. (CNS photo/Peter Kramer, NBC via Reuters) VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Parrots may squawk in the Vatican Gardens during a conclave, but the cardinals are not allowed to tweet.For most of the 117 red-vested princes of...

If you’re an outspoken conservative who’s sick of getting bullied by your liberal “friends” on Facebook, Tea Party Community might just be the place for you. According to co-founder Ken Crow, “It’s a new home for conservatives and the Tea Party movement in America. It’s a social community just for them.” Crow recently partnered with Tim Selaty Sr. and Jr. to create a “safe haven for the conservative movement where we can share ideas and thoughts and express ourselves without fear of retribution.” But it’s not just fellow Facebook users that Tea Party Community’s founders believe are targeting conservatives...

When Pope John Paul II described the New Evangelization back in 1983, he said it required new ardor, new methods and new expressions. Since then, perhaps no priest has embodied those qualities like Father Robert Barron of Chicago. Through his “Word on Fire” ministry he has used blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, websites and mobile apps to spread the faith. He’s evangelized the culture through movie reviews and news commentary. And he released the epic “Catholicism” film series which has been seen across the world on both Catholic and secular television. Fr. Barron Father Robert Barron. Courtesy of Word on Fire...

With Free Republic surely getting slammed tomorrow, what is an on-line alternative to TV with the ability to post comment?

Talk radio was paramount in building the conservative movement's role in presidential elections. This can be found with Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee and one of the intellectual leaders of the conservative movement. Political minds are wondering if it can help push Romney into the White House. for Romney. The Right Frequency by Fred V. Lucas chronicles talk radio's impact on presidential elections and politics from the days of Walter Winchell to modern day hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. The book is published by History Publishing Company. The author is available for interviews. It was...

Mickey’s Assignment Desk–Ben Smith, We Have Your Next Column! Why has Obama’s public campaign been so ineffective for the past month? Couldn’t someone digitally sophisticated and untanked–e.g. Buzzfeed‘s Ben Smith–make a good argument that the President was led astray by the overhyped reality and promise of Internet Politics. Specifically, a) he exaggerated the power of his Web-friendly left wing; b) he overestimated the force of attack lines the Web-friendly left wing would find convincing, like pointing out, when discussing Iran in Debate #3, that Romney had once “invested in a Chinese state oil company that was doing business with the...

As the presidential debate on foreign policy is coming shortly, this is my current file of stories on "Benghazi-gate".  Apparently it is a riddle, wrapped in an enigma.  Competing theories range from simple incompetence to a planned October surprise gone wrong.  In any event, there has been a coverup, aided and abetted by those in the media loyal to the President to run interference.  The coming debate will be interesting and historic as this scandal now has the nation's attention.  It helps to have the information at your finger tips.  So, for you entertainment pleasure, here is the file: Benghazi-Gate. Benghazi-Gate10/19/2012Oversight...

(The following is the second of three excerpts from The Right Frequency: The Story of the Talk Radio Giants Who Shook Up the Political and Media Establishment, by Fred Lucas; History Publishing Company. The adapted excerpts look at the impact of talk radio on election results.) Before what would turn out to be an historic election, a New York Times article said, “If Larry King’s CNN program functioned as a nominating process for Ross Perot; Rush Limbaugh may be a kind of national precinct captain for the Republican insurgency of 1994.” An election night poll by Fabrizio-McLaughlin of 1,000...

....Whatever lessons the Democrats take from Charlotte, whatever it did for the president or for the ambitious senators and governors who stalked delegate breakfasts and whispered “2016,” this is a fact: The convention was successfully trolled. I don’t use troll in the pejorative sense. Actually, I may be trying to craft a neutral meaning of troll where none previously existed. The term, in its modern Internet usage, refers to people who want to start fights online to bring the universe into an argument on their terms. It comes not from Grimm literature, but from a fishing technique in which multiple...

Networks to Keep TV Broadcasts Slim, But Plan Gavel-to-Gavel Web Streams --- Political conventions, long the ultimate made-for-TV presentation, this year are coming of age as digital-media events—highlighting the decline of network television coverage of the gatherings. --- When Republicans convene next week in Tampa, Fla., and Democrats the week after in Charlotte, N.C., major broadcast networks will use the Internet to provide the kind of extensive coverage they long ago abandoned on their airwaves. ---

CBS, which devoted four on-air segments between May 30 and June 1, 2012 to the "hundreds of Catholics" who rallied in support of dissenting nuns, ignored the tens of thousands who came from all over the U.S. to see conservative talk show host Glenn Beck speak on Saturday. In fact, all of the Big Three networks have yet to cover Beck's "Restoring Love" event in Dallas on their morning and evening newscasts. CBS's Dallas affiliate reported that "more than 65,000 people filled Cowboys Stadium" for Beck's event. On Monday, Chris Ariens of MediaBistro's TVNewser blog noted that the gathering was...

"The new media rose up precisely because the old media failed to tell the truth. That very first new media breakthrough was about 15 years ago when this lowly little store clerk in a lowly little apartment equipped with his computer and a modem broke one of the biggest stories of the decade. His name was Matt Drudge and the rest is history. And in hindsight, we see that the story he broke was more than just a president having an affair. To me it was much, much more than that. It was about a major old media publication that...

Free speech is under fire. Online thugs are targeting bloggers (mostly conservative, but not all) who have dared to expose a convicted bomber and perjuring vexatious litigant who is now enjoying a comfy life as a liberally subsidized social justice operative. Where do your elected representatives stand on this threat to our founding principles? On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-GA, bravely stepped forward to press this vital issue. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Chambliss decried the "harassing and frightening actions" of Internet menaces who recently have gone after several conservative new media citizen journalists and activists....

On February 7th, Coach is Right posted a story reporting John Boehner was involved in an under-the-table negotiation with Attorney General Eric Holder to arrange a “mutually acceptable conclusion” to the Congressional investigation of Operation Fast and Furious. (1) Originally broken by Mike Vanderboegh on his Sipsey Street Irregulars website, it was reported that the Department of Justice would provide Boehner and Republicans the heads of DOJ higher-ups Lanny Breuer and Jason Weinstein along with assorted minor players and in return, the GOP would drop House and Senate committee investigations, giving Eric Holder and Barack Obama a pass on their...

Copyright troll Righthaven's flawed business model—suing hundreds of bloggers and small websites for dubious cases of alleged copyright infringement of newspaper articles—appears to be grinding to an inexorable finish. But even as the Righthaven cases prove that litigation isn't going to magically make print media profitable in the age of the Internet, a new generation of journalists and creators are adapting to the digital world—including one of Righthaven's former clients. Last week, reports were circulating that Righthaven was on "life support" after admitting that they aren't currently filing more lawsuits and are apparently teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Even...

Some observers have noted that history doesn't always repeat itself, but that it does tend to rhyme. This was first alleged about geopolitics, but it appears to be true in many areas of life: the cycle of economic boom and bust, climactic cycles, from La Nina and El Nino to glaciations, and even management fads ("Empty what's full; fill what's empty; and scratch where it itches.") In particular, one can see such occurrences play out over time in the retail sector. When I was young, there were comparatively few chain stores, and most of those were regional, not national. (This...

Facebook lost nearly 6m users in the US last month, according to figures from Inside Facebook, sparking fresh concern that the social network’s growth is slowing. Total monthly active users on the site still grew by 1.7 per cent between the beginning of May and early June, taking its total to 687m, according to Inside Facebook, part of the Inside Network, which provides news and analytics tools for social media, virtual goods and mobile apps.But in the US there was a drop for the first time in a year, from 155.2m to 149.4m during the month of May. Canada also...

New media, including Andrew Breitbart, has brought competence back to the press. And as we see both during and after Weinergate, the MSM has no clue how awful their work has been. The story is not the photos. The story is the journalism — It’s back. And the MSM is finished.As Weinergate broke and gained traction, a large majority of the MSM and leftist media stuck their heads in the sand. Joan Walsh of Salon.com savaged those who attempted to make this a story. On MSNBC, she seemed furious at Chris Matthews who — to his credit — would not...

Facebook’s managers are deploying a new software upgrade that will dismantle myriad groups of like-minded political activists unless they get a special software-key from the company. But Facebook manager are providing very limited information about which groups are being favored with the new key, prompting some activists to complain about possible political favoritism among Facebook managers, and many other activists to experiment with techniques and tricks to get the needed upgrade-key. “Who is being given the upgrade?” asked Pamela Geller, the New York organizer of a 15,000-member group opposed to Islamist political groups. Without the special key, groups lose access...

GENEVA (AP) -- Google is threatening to wipe photographs of streets and houses in Switzerland from its online maps unless the country's supreme court overturns a ruling requiring an absolute guarantee of anonymity for people captured on the popular Street View service. Shutting down Street View in an entire country would be the Internet search giant's most severe response yet to complaints it is violating people's privacy. The Mountain View, California-based company said Wednesday it will ask the Swiss Federal Tribunal to throw out a lower court decision that obliged it to ensure all faces and vehicle license plates are...

» Sohaib Athar ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar @ @sabahat24 Irony follows me everywhere I go :-/ 2 minutes ago » Sohaib Athar ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar @ @bweixlmann Thanks for the concern, I'm alive so far :-) 4 minutes ago » Sohaib Athar ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar @ @saidation People who dream about twitter follower counts need a shrink, seriously 6 minutes ago » Sohaib Athar ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar And the big question is - now that OBL does not live in Abbottabad, is it open to terrorist attacks too? 7 minutes ago » Sohaib Athar ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar The shopping plaza I'm...

“What’s the word I’m looking for?” One of the most common phrases and an especially annoying one if you’re still scratching your brain for that missing word hours later. If English is your second language, you might as well spend your life carrying a heavy dictionary to avoid the constant headache. Encountering this problem themselves, two Israelis, Onn Freund and Jonathan Raz have developed PhraseUp – a website that aims to fill in your missing word. Raz recently told Israeli website Newsgeek: “A few days ago I was writing in English, and knew I want to write ‘we have performed...

You’ve probably all become familiar with face recognition software like Picasa, Windows Live Photo Gallery or even on Facebook. Going one step further, on Sunday in Israel Microsoft unveiled OneVision, a technology that can track and identify anyone not just in photos, but in video. Face recognition in video is an emerging technology that could have significant impact on user experience in fields such as television, gaming, and communication. With OneVision, a television or an Xbox will be able to recognize people in your living room; your home videos could be annotated automatically and become searchable. TV viewers will also...

There is a major shift going on in politics this election cycle, with more candidates and campaigns using social media and technology to boost their chances. From today until the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 2, MediaShift presents an in-depth special report, PoliticalShift 2010, with data visualizations, analysis, a 5Across video roundtable and live CoverItLive chat on Election Night with special guests. Stay tuned. If 2008 was the year that social networks like Facebook and Twitter broke through to mainstream America, then 2010 is shaping up to be the election year that's defined by social media. Consider that three out...

In an otherwise serious poll from Politico and George Washington University, the survey also asks respondents which cable-news network they access most for political news. The results aren’t terribly surprising, as they more or less mirror the ratings, but are still noteworthy for one network’s almost-total marginalization. While Fox News Channel sailed to an impressive 42% and CNN got a substantial if unimpressive 30%, MSNBC got … More people are getting their news about the upcoming election from cable television than any other source, and from Fox News more than any other cable channel, according to a POLITICO/George Washington University...

DBKP has released its (mostly) monthly ratings of the Most Popular 100 Conservative sites on the web, the Conservative 100. The ratings are based on Alexa traffic rankings 3-month worldwide average.

Chapter 11 - CIC and the Media: Another clash of CI and CIC When the debate is over, slander becomes the tool of the loser. Socrates (469BC - 399BC) Are you old enough to remember the First Gulf War in 1991? If so, you will recall that we watched it on television … thanks to CNN, the first global CIC-Media. During the Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush watched CNN. Saddam Hussein watched CNN. I suspect even the CIA watched CNN. Because CNN was right there, right from the start, and often was the best source about what was...

The Twitter Drug? Deborah Lambert, June 21, 2010 When 200 University of Maryland students were asked to blog about their experience of giving up social media outlets for 24 hours, their reactions, ranging from misery to anxiety and frustration, were similar to drug addicts’ withdrawal symptoms, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. One student reported that the normal routine of “texting and sending instant messages” provided a “constant feeling of comfort” without which the student felt “quite alone and excluded from my life.” The study results showed a high level of addiction to all types of media, said study...

Glenn Beck opened his show today with Andrew Breitbart in studio. They kicked it off talking about Israel. If you're not paying attention to what's happenng there, you'd better start. Breitbart brought up Code Pink's involvement as terrorist-supporting agitprop creators over there. The same type of agitprop goons who recently stormed a bank executive's home. He linked it with the tactics that are used by the SEIU -- the beating of Tea Party participant Kenneth Gladney. He said if it hadn't been for Nina Easton reporting on the Bank of America mob scene, no one would have known about it....

The White House press office is behaving more and more like an independent media outlet, bypassing traditional news avenues in favor of releasing its own "exclusive" video, voicing administration opinions on its official blog and blasting out updates via Twitter. The trend has raised questions among the press corps about whether the administration is looking to just tap its own resources to make major announcements. President Obama leans more on internal media as he continues to criticize the "24/7" media environment -- singling out cable news, radio and blogs for occasional lectures -- and appears to be abandoning the prime-time...

A Navy Chief once told me that close only counts in three things: horseshoes, hand grenades and area-effect weapons. Now, when it comes down to how the mainstream media tried to portray members of the Tea Party they did not come “close.”Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year, America has witnessed a popular uprising of people who have grown concerned by the massive power grab by President Obama and his allies in Congress, who have tried to cram “activist government” down our throats, while leaving the bills to our kids, grandkids and their children’s children.When...

Follow the happenings at the rally here.... http://twitter.com/search?q=%23killthebill

The following announcement was on The Obama File this morning: I would like to thank the 7 people who contributed to the support of The Obama File in the last 48 hours. I hate to put that reminder on this site, and I only do it once a month. I have decided to convert The Obama File into a subscription only site because of lack of support. If you don't care, I don't care. I don't know how long it will take, but I am suspending posts until the conversion is complete. I will direct my activities today to returning...

Wow. Just as soon as the "Hot Air" blog was purchased by the Christian conglomerate Salem Communications from conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, it has suddenly become an advocate for all things gay. What in the world is up with that? For background, GOPROUD is an organization dedicated to advancing special rights for homosexual behavior, and advocates the overthrow of the Defense of Marriage Act and the overthrow of the law banning homosexual service in the military. Not only was GOPROUD welcomed at CPAC, an event which is supposed to be the annual showcase for conservative values, the organization was allowed...

The CONSERVATIVE 100 Ratings #2, February 14, 2010 DBKP’s bi-weekly rating of the Most Popular 100 Conservative sites on the web, the Conservative 100. The ratings are based on Alexa traffic rankings 3-month average. As always, if we missed anyone, drop us a line in the comments with your site URL; we’ll include in the next ratings around the 1st of March. The Alexa rankings were largely taken from February 13, 2010 and include several from January 14, 2010. The Top 100 Politically Popular Conservative list contains all sites of interest to conservatives or with a conservative point of view....

I just wanted to post a vanity regarding a Conservative web site I found a bit ago. Normally I wouldn't post such a thing, but I ran across it due to one of the best politics podcasts available from the Apple iTunes Store that I have been a fan of for well over a year. The podcast is called "My History Can Beat Up Your Politics", and when I downloaded the latest show, it the byline said that Mr. Carlson, the man behind MHCBUYP was interviewed on Solid Principles.com. I had never heard of the site until now, so thought...

How Republicans won the Internet By Mindy Finn and Patrick Ruffini Sunday, January 24, 2010 Scott Brown's supporters became fans of the candidate on Facebook, where they commented on his status updates and uploaded their own photos. The Republican Senate hopeful took to Twitter, using the #masen hashtag to let his followers know how the race was going. His campaign powered its field operation through targeted online ads and Web-based spreadsheets, and raised $12 million from 157,000 individual donations in the last two weeks of the race. After he won last week, his team live-streamed the election-night party in Boston...

Taking a risk here, but politics makes for strange alliances, whether we know about the alliances or not. Credit should be given where it is due.

Politics aside, you can count Google as a clear supporter of at least one aspect of Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown’s campaign — the use of online media. “He has definitely run a model campaign,” Google spokesman Galen Panger said in an interview with Digits. “He has really adopted every single tool in the Google arsenal.” There’s been a lot of news out today about how Mr. Brown has used social networking tools to help his campaign against Democrat Martha Coakley for a crucial Senate seat in Massachusetts. But amid all the talk of Twitter and Facebook, a slightly less...

Tweeting the Massachusetts Senate special electionChris Cillizza 1/19/10 Darkness is falling in Massachusetts and only a few hours remain before polls close -- at 8 pm -- across the state. **SNIP** First, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, a Democrat, is predicting that turnout will be between 1.6 million and 2.2 million. What's less clear is which candidate that helps. In a traditional Democratic state like Massachusetts, one would assume that it would be a good thing for Coakley. But, Brown is the intensity candidate and, therefore, a larger turnout might benefit him. Second, Galvin has indicated that he will...