Free Republic

(Editorial) Journalism: As the president launches his re-election bid by striking a more centrist tone, the partisan press is helping him whitewash his radical past. • Obama first learned Alinsky's rules in the 1980s, when Alinskyite radicals with the Chicago-based Alinsky group Gamaliel Foundation recruited, hired, trained and paid him as a community organizer in South Side Chicago. • In 1988, Obama even wrote a chapter for the book "After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois," in which he lamented organizers' "lack of power" in implementing change. • Gamaliel board member John McKnight, a hard-core student of Alinsky, penned a letter...

After VP Dick Cheney's interview with Matt Lauer on the Today Show, the camera pulls back and very deliberately captures the image of a protest sign. Watch the segment and ask yourself if this appears to be planned and maybe even rehearsed.

As reported by the Blaze earlier today, CBS News's online store is selling seven different Obama-related items, but complementary Republican merchandise is suspiciously absent. The online store includes paperback and hardback copies of Obama's memoir, "Dreams From My Father," and five memorabilia books and DVDs of his campaign and election. When the Blaze looked into the matter, CBS News had even dedicated an entire tab of its store to the president. The category has since been removed, but searching "Obama" in the online store still returns all the merchandise. When the items are clicked on, though, shoppers are redirected to...

It appears David Gregory is a bit confused about how our system of government works. During intense questioning of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Sunday's "Meet the Press," the host scolded his guest for having the nerve to actually care what the American people thought about raising the debt ceiling (video follows with transcript and commentary): DAVID GREGORY, HOST: Let me ask you about the debt ceiling. You were adamantly opposed to raising the debt ceiling. You voted against that. REPRESENTATIVE MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MINNESOTA): Mm-hmm. MR. GREGORY: And there's a lot of people who said that was an incredibly reckless...

That loud crash you just heard off in the distance was the New York Times finally hitting the bottom of the barrel with an embarrassing but expected thump. Having long ago turned its back on objective journalism to become the mouthpiece for liberal ideology, the Democrat party, and corrupt unions, it was still somewhat of a surprise to see the compromised editors of the paper do something which might cause Anthony Weiner to recoil from its unseemly request. On Friday, June 10th, the State of Alaska released more than 24,000 of former Governor Sarah Palin’s emails. A Democrat recently...

NBC's Lauer Claims Breitbart Breaking Weiner Story Violated Conservative Principles Kyle Drennen June 7, 2011 In an interview with Andrew Breitbart on Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer suggested the conservative blogger should not have broken news of the scandal involving Congressman Anthony Weiner: "Did you worry that – you know, as a conservative, you don't want government in people's bedrooms. And so did you stop and have a debate with yourself about that?" Moments earlier, Breitbart had noted feeling some sympathy for Weiner during Monday's press conference: "I felt so unbelievably sad for this guy." Lauer responded by wondering...

As revelations about a possible scandal plaguing Rep. Anthony Weiner continue surface, the Democratic New York congressman continues to have defenders: On Monday’s broadcast of “The View,” co-host Barbara Walters went to bat for Weiner and proposed that the picture in question was intended for his wife and not for whom it was sent. “First of all, I have my own theory about why he took that picture, if indeed he did take that picture,” Walters said. “This is my theory – this doesn’t mean that it is right. He is married to this beautiful woman, whom I know, who...

Since Palin and her team won’t share where the potential candidate is headed, reporters and producers have little choice but to simply stay close to Palin’s bus. This has resulted in scenes of the Palin bus tooling down the highway followed by a caravan of 10 or 15 vehicles – including a massive CNN bus – all trying to make sure they don’t lose sight of the Palin bus. It adds up to a dangerous situation, says CBS News Producer Ryan Corsaro. “I just hope to God that one of these young producers with a camera whose bosses are making...

In yet another segment where he is double-teamed by two liberals, Pat Buchanan defends why he is skeptical of President Obama's past. "I'll tell you what. He went to Occidental College then suddenly he ends up at one of the best schools in the country, Columbia. He vaults from there to Harvard Law School. Suddenly he's on the Harvard Law Review. Suddenly he's the editor of Harvard Law Review. We've never seen any grades of the guy. These are legitimate questions," Buchanan said. Key quote: Pat Buchanan to Chris Matthews: "You're supposed to be a journalist."

Fox News has joined the MSM today in ignoring the March for Life. I checked the websites of Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Daily Caller, and Big Government. Nothing on their home pages about the March for Life, which, by some estimates, attracted some two million people, many of them young people, from around the country. FAIL.

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post reported on Friday that “the Obama administration is prepared to push its environmental agenda through regulation where it has failed on Capitol Hill…” There was no hint that this approach is illegal or unconstitutional. The account simply assumes that the Obama Administration can do what it wants, no matter what Congress or the law says. This kind of matter-of-fact reporting about lawlessness by the federal government is typical of the decline, if not death, of adversary journalism in the nation’s capital. The EPA’s actions seem to reflect the advice contained in the Soros-funded Center...

Audio: CBS reporters plot hit piece on GOP candidate Tape reveals news team scheming to find 'child molester' supporting politician Joe Miller Reporters from a CBS affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska, allegedly left a voicemail by mistake at the campaign of the state's Republican nominee for Senate, Joe Miller, in which the journalists can be heard plotting to "find" a "child molester" among the politician's supporters. The reporters are also overheard hoping for violence against Miller so they can "send out a tweet" and Facebook alert that "Miller got punched" at a rally he held four days ago. The apparent accidental...

Once upon a time you could count on the Washington Post to be accurate, even if everyone knew they were biased.   Greg Sargent of the Washington Post proves today that is no longer true.  For his latest piece has both bias and inaccuracy.  Mr. Sargent’s lack of accuracy demonstrates why the Post doesn’t have a rosy future – bias and inaccuracy is the death knell of dead-trees journalism.  The cost structure doesn’t have enough of a market that enjoys both bias and inaccuracy in their product. For starters, he reports that no states have applied for waivers from military voting...

NEW – UPDATED WITH AFFILIATIONS LAST UPDATE 7/25/10 Thank you to Glenn Reynolds for linking to this piece- Instapundit.com Welcome Andrew Breitbart and Big Journalism Readers. THANK YOU THOMAS LIFSON AND CLARICE FELDMAN FOR YOUR HELP COMPILING THIS LIST THIS LATTE PARTY SURE LOOKS EXCLUSIONARY, IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE AMERICA. IT LOOKS MORE LIKE THE UPPER WEST SIDE OF MANHATTAN.

It was the moment of greatest peril for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s political career. In the heat of the presidential campaign, videos surfaced of Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, angrily denouncing whites, the U.S. government and America itself. Obama had once bragged of his closeness to Wright. Now the black nationalist preacher’s rhetoric was threatening to torpedo Obama’s campaign. The crisis reached a howling pitch in mid-April, 2008, at an ABC News debate moderated by Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. Gibson asked Obama why it had taken him so long – nearly a year since Wright’s remarks became public –...

As of 10:00 p.m. EDT, hours after Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack fired Shirley Sherrod for racism in her official duties after being exposed by BigGovernment.com there is a near total blackout by the mainstream news media on the scandal.Sherrod was appointed a year ago by Vilsack to be the Georgia director of Rural Development where she doled out millions of dollars in federal funds.Just days before her appointment, the Obama Justice Department settled a lawsuit by Sherrod and her husband claiming discrimination against their farm cooperative for a reported $13 million. A search of Google News and Google Blogs...

While devoting all of Sunday's Face the Nation to an interview with Attorney General Eric Holder, CBS host Bob Schieffer failed to ask a single question about the Obama Justice Department dropping a voter intimidation case against the Black Panthers or allegations that the department has adopted a policy of ignoring such cases. Schieffer discussed a range of topics with Holder, from the federal lawsuit against Arizona's immigration law, to a potential criminal investigation into BP, to the trial of terrorist Khalid Shaik Muhammed and closing Guantanamo Bay. At the end of the interview, Schieffer even asked about Holder's infamous...

So now the rap on President Obama is that his response to the oil spill along the Gulf Coast hasn't been heartfelt enough. He comes off as emotionally detached, critics say, and, by the way, isn't it a pity that the white folk from the coastal red states who never wanted a black man in the White House in the first place are complaining that he doesn't care about them? Talk about projecting their hard feelings onto others. "The politics of the disaster are Cajun hot, but Obama is cerebral cool," wrote Howard Fineman on msnbc.com. So we get our...

The news that some conservative critics were exacting their pound of flesh from a Democratic president for not laying a wreath this year at Arlington National Cemetery certainly was a reach, especially after the White House revealed that Vice President Joe Biden was going to Arlington -- and that the commander-in-chief would pay his respects at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill.

TV Newser: The headline is from a tweet by New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter. He is referring to Kentucky Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul's decision to cancel his scheduled appearance on NBC's long-running Sunday morning public affairs show. What happened? Host David Gregory looked at the week that was for Paul, and it was not pretty. Link to Youtube

Does anyone out there remember the Coffee Parties? You can be forgiven if you have forgotten them. They made a brief appearance due to media driven hype over a month ago and then quickly disappeared from view when they inspired a collective yawn from the public. The photo at right shows a typical Coffee Party "rally" from back then. Typical in that few people showed up to protest against private ownership (aka free enterprise). Even the organizer of the Coffee Party non-movement, Annabel Park, seems to have lost her enthusiasm for the cause as evidenced by her Twitter page. After...

When Annabel Park imagined what it would be like to head a new national political movement, here is what she had in mind: a coming together of engaged, intelligent citizens who had tired of the angry rhetoric and accusations of the Tea Partiers; Americans of all political persuasions joining in a spirit of equanimity to discuss the nation's problems, and maybe even share a laugh. It was this beautiful vision that danced in Park's head on a recent Saturday as she made her way to Busboys and Poets, a cafe in Washington, D.C., for one of nearly 500 Coffee Party...

On ABC’s This Week, when retired ABC newsman Sam Donaldson recommended that President Barack Obama nominate, to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, someone who “is going to stand up for the principles – on the left, if you will – that he believes in,” Cokie Roberts jumped in: “I’m not so sure he is so far to the left.” Donaldson agreed: “Well, I’m not sure either.” Minutes later, Roberts contended the efforts of state attorneys general, to get a federal court to rule unconstitutional ObamaCare’s requirement every citizen get health insurance, reminded her of the “nullification” which led...

Barbour: media giving sloppy kiss to Obama Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) is accusing the national media of swooning over President Barack Obama in the wake of the passage of a landmark health reform bill. "Since this thing passed last weekend, we have seen the longest wet kiss in political history given to the Obama administration by the liberal media elite, and every day that goes by, it gets sloppier," Barbour said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." Barbour's graphic claim drew laughter from Gov. Ed Rendell (D-Penn.) who sees less steamy romance between the press and the president. "I don't know...

Be on the lookout for the new media theme: "Obama and Dems have SERIOUS momentum, and will use their healthcare 'win' to ram through other agenda items against the will of a beleagured and unpopular GOP minority". It's started in earnest. Editorials from the NY Slimes and Washington Compost have railed against conservative and Republican "incivility". Lapdog "house conservative" David Frum has been trotted out to tell his tale about how the Republicans suffered a "devastating defeat" equivalent to a "generational Waterloo". Look for Mr. Frum to be appearing all over MSNBC, CNN, and the mainstream media morning shows in...

House Approves Landmark Bill to Extend Health Care to Millions Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, carried the gavel that was used when Medicare was passed. ROBERT PEAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN March 21, 2010 WASHINGTON — Congress gave final approval on Sunday to legislation that would provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and remake the nation’s health care system along the lines proposed by President Obama. By a vote of 219 to 212, the House passed the bill after a day of tumultuous debate that echoed the epic struggle of the last year. The action sent...

The end of Congress’s long debate over ObamaCare could be near, as the President pushes for a final vote this week before his Asia trip, and House Democrats want a resolution before next week’s Easter break. Yet whether or not liberals’ dreams are ultimately realized, they have had a huge advantage throughout the process. Over the past twelve months, journalists have continually stacked the deck in favor of a big government takeover of health care. A review of the worst spin: ■ On March 1, 2009, previewing Obama’s first White House meeting on health care, ABC’s Dr. Tim Johnson championed...

Over the past few weeks, the world has learned quite enough about John Edwards – from the lies he told in trying to cover up an adulterous affair to the compulsive vanity that left some people close to him questioning his judgment and even his grip on reality. Democrats who seriously considered making Edwards the party’s 2008 presidential nominee could be forgiven for asking: Now you tell us? The revelations about Edwards, contained in two best-selling books, have undermined one of the favorite conceits of political journalism, that the intensive scrutiny given candidates by reporters during a presidential campaign is...

This past Saturday witnessed the passing of 89 year-old Percy Sutton, a former Manhattan Borough President and, in his day, the most powerful black politician in New York. Although all the major media have reported his death, usually in some detail, none have made any mention of Sutton’s most recent and inconvenient brush with the news, what might profitably be called “Suttongate.” How Suttongate came to be spiked, when it had the potential to undo the Obama candidacy in September 2008, is a story worth relating. The story begins on March 25, 2008 when Sutton was interviewed by Dominic Carter...

UPDATE, 6:15 P.M.: An unbylined 11:57 a.m. AP report (i.e., 54 minutes after the time stamp of the original post at BizzyBlog) contains two paragraphs about Delahunt's involvement. Based on a search on Delahunt's last name at about 6:15 p.m., this version of AP's report is either still not at its main site, or has not been indexed by its search engine. Democratic Congressman Bill Delahunt's far from minor role in the 1986 release of Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama in Hunstville biology professor implicated in the murder of three colleagues on Friday, has garnered significant press attention in...

The New York Times’ frontpage headline this morning is “Obama Fares Better in Poll Than G.O.P.” According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, more Americans blame former President George W. Bush for the bad economy than they do the current president, Barack Obama. More of those polled are upset with the Republican Party than they are with either the Democratic Party or Obama. In short, while the New York Times/CBS News poll found that 62% of respondents said that the country was headed in the wrong direction and that Obama’s own approval rating was at its lowest point...

Remember how outraged the left became when Michael Moore's movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, showed President George W. Bush not issuing a public statement on the Twin Tower attacks for several minutes until after the school children finished reading the Pet Goat story? Well, it is now almost two days since the Nigerian terrorist working at the behest of Al Qaeda attempted to blow up a passenger jet and still no public response from the current president, Barack Obama. According to the associate editor of The Atlantic, Marc Ambinder, the reason for Obama's lack of response is that it is part of...

Pres. Obama should find time in his busy vacation schedule to drop a palm-trees-and-sandy-beaches thank you postcard to NBC. On this morning's Today, successive network staffers defended the administration's [mis]handling of the Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab matter. First, terrorism expert Roger Cressey [who usually plays it straight], claimed there wasn't enough information to "connect the dots" and move young Umar from the "watch list" to the "no-fly" list. Really? The guy's father, a respected international banker, was so concerned about his son's extremist Islamist views that he took the unusual measure of personally contacting the US embassy with a warning....

The center, which is closely aligned with the Obama White House, voiced no complaint about the current president’s vacation. But the conservative Web site Free Republic did. While Americans “are still caught in the grips of the recession,” a posting on the site said last week, “Obama is living like a king with no criticism from the mainstream media.”

Imagine that there had been a series of three incidents in which members of a [invented for present purposes] fanatical Jewish sect had attempted to bring down airliners from Arab countries. In reporting on the latest attempt and describing the previous ones, do you think the New York Times might have mentioned the religion of the perpetrators? So do I. But with the ledgermain required to describe a spiral staircase without using one's hands, the Gray Lady has managed in its article today to report yesterday's attempt to bring down a NWA airliner, and the earlier attempts by Richard Reid...

If this isn't proof of media bias, I don't know what is. Here we have the equivalent of finding out the moon landing was faked and I don't see any reports of this being a story of interest.

CNN’s Rick Sanchez misspeaks on CNN’s behalf .

Gibson:"The White House has been under considerable scrutiny regarding the number of jobs created by the 727 B dollar economic stimulus program. Reports from the administration and congress have provided only rough estimates. So we asked Chris B… if he could find evidence to what the program had paid off. “ Plays video :”For these police cadets in MO, teachers in VA and construction workers in PA the stimulus means paychecks…….”. The rest of video is all the grateful workers who got jobs partially funded by the stimulus. Report ends with: “…but any jobs are better than none say the...

"Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher had a news story yesterday about President Barack H. Obama’s latest nominee with tax problems, Lael Brainard. We think he left out two pretty important details. First, Ohlemacher’s report says Brainard “is the fifth presidential nominee to reveal tax issues during the congressional vetting process.” The key to the partial truth in that sentence is “during the congressional” vetting process. While Ohlemacher likely is factually correct, the sentence certainly is misleading. One reads it and thinks, “Oh, that’s the 5th appointment he made with tax issues.” That is not true. In fact, it doesn’t count...

Lou Dobbs said yesterday CNN was eager to show him the door because its top execs didn't want to offend President Obama. Dobbs made the claim last night on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," saying he took on President George W. Bush's immigration policy with equal force but didn't draw any CNN flak then. "I discern more of a difference between then, which was under the Bush administration when I was criticizing, and now, when it is the Obama administration -- and an entirely different tone was taken," said Dobbs. He claims both Bush and Obama are soft on...

Early Saturday morning, 7Online.com, the website for ABC's New York affiliate WABC-TV, reported the previous night's arrest of Jason Shih, an alleged campaign worker for Governor Jon Corzine (D-NJ) charged with "possession of a controlled narcotic and paraphernalia that is used for distribution." For some reason, although the headline "Corzine campaign worker arrested" shows up in a Google News search, the page is no longer available: "We are sorry, but the URL you requested could not be found. The page you are looking for may have been renamed, moved, or deleted." A search of "Jason Shih" and "Corzine" at 7Online.com...

<p>The Obama campaign's press strategy leading up to his election last November focused on "making" the media cover what the campaign wanted and on exercising absolute "control" over coverage, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told an overseas crowd early this year.</p>

Demonstrating the media never tire in coming up with new rationales to tout President Barack Obama's popularity, ABC led Monday night with a poll timed to the night before Tuesday's nine-month mark of the Obama presidency -- as if that's some kind of important anniversary, and spent as much time on how it found record low affinity for Republicans. Anchor Charles Gibson announced “the President has a 57 percent approval rating, his rating rising for the first time since April. And only 20 percent of the country now consider themselves Republican. That is the lowest level of support in 26...

<p>TEL AVIV – President Obama's presidential campaign focused on "making" the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was "controlled," White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.</p>

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Bush administration says it's treating CBS New as a political opponent, and executives at the top-rated news network are responding that the White House can't tell straight reporting from opinion. White House communications director Karen Hughes recently told Time magazine that she thinks CBS offers "opinion journalism masquerading as news," and kept up the criticism on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday and in The New York Times Monday. CBS News president Sean McManus issued a statement Monday, saying: "It's astounding the White House can't distinguish between news and opinion programming. It seems self-serving on their part." And...

Can one even imagine CNN fact checking any of the skits SNL on President Bush or Sarah Palin?? Heaven forbid SNL finally make fun of President Obama. CNN couldn't help themselves. They actually fact checked the jokes. Let’s bring in CNN's Kareen Wynter. She’s checking the facts for us. All right, Kareen, what are you finding out? KAREEN WYNTER: Hi there, Wolf. Well, some observers say- sure, we are just talking comedy here, but that, on many points- well, SNL couldn’t have been more off the mark. WYNTER (voice-over): A cold open for the country’s commander-in-chief. FRED ARMISEN (as Barack...

CNN is receiving criticism, of many different kinds from many different places, for a segment Monday on "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." The segment "fact-checked" a Saturday Night Live sketch. The sketch, which has been deemed the show's first viral hit of the season, cataloged Pres. Obama's supposed lack of accomplishments. The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto called the idea "a bizarre exercise." The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik wrote, "Fact checking a comedy sketch -- I will say no more." FNC's Greg Gutfeld showed the clip on Red Eye and joked, "Seriously, reviewing an 'SNL' skit for accuracy is...

<p>Those who read the New York Times's coverage of the unsuccessful results of Barack and Michelle Obama's attempt to seal the 2016 Summer Olympics bid for Chicago on Friday afternoon ('For Obama, an Unsuccessful Campaign") might want to read it again.</p>

When Hell freezes over five times in succession and rhinoceri write sonnets on Pluto, the Washington Post's Robin Givhan will stop writing love letters to Michelle Obama. Here the Obamas broke precedent and put the prestige of the presidency on the line, as well as ignoring much more pressing problems at home, all for a spectacularly unsuccessful and remarkably narcissistic effort to secure the Olympics for the Chicago Way, and all Givhan can do is gush about how wonderfully Michelle Obama had performed anyway. Givhan wrote that the First Lady "was her team's most valuable player." And, quoting others, ""She...

Reviewing September's detailed sales results in the car business carried at the Wall Street Journal, three things stick out immediately: The awful performance at General Motors -- down 45% from September 2008. Chrysler's even worse performance -- down "only" 42% from September 2008, but a mind-boggling 61% from September 2007 (62,197 in 2009, 156,799 in 2007) Ford's tiny decline of only 6% from a year ago, despite the end of the Cash For Clunkers program in August. No other major maker had a year-over-year September decline that was even half of that seen at GM or Chrysler. Yet the...