http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/presstitutes/ en-us Sun, 5 Jul 2009 10:05:17 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2285821/posts A Letter to Our Readers By Katharine Weymouth Sunday, July 5, 2009 Dear Reader: I want to apologize for a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity. A flier distributed last week suggested that we were selling access to power brokers in Washington through dinners that were to take place at my home. The flier was not approved by me or newsroom editors, and it did not accurately reflect what we had in mind. But let me be clear: The flier was not the only... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2285821/posts#comment Sun, 5 Jul 2009 10:05:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284621/posts Jim Geraghty has some interesting insights about why liberals hate Sarah Palin so much -- in a word (or so), it's because she invalidates the most cherished parts of their world view. I think Jim's right, but I think there's even more to it than that. Governor Palin has been attacked with the kind of ferocity that few people in the public eye have ever experienced -- except, perhaps, for Justice Thomas and (to a lesser extent) Joe the Plumber. Why does the left reserve their most vicious derision for these three, and those like them? As I wrote last... Townhall http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284621/posts#comment Fri, 3 Jul 2009 03:52:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284341/posts Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was cancelling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and... Politico http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284341/posts#comment Thu, 2 Jul 2009 19:44:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283414/posts A new Vanity Fair article on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has re-ignited animosities among feuding high-profile Republican advisers who worked on Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. The in-depth profile, which describes Palin as the "sexiest and the riskiest brand in the Republican Party," raises questions about McCain's decision to pick the Alaska governor as his running mate and her "disastrous" performance in the 2008 campaign -- sparking a vicious back-and-forth between former advisers to the GOP ticket. "Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics...ever have picked a person whose utter... Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283414/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 17:49:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282974/posts There are only two reasons that come to mind why Todd Purdum might have written the nasty little hit piece on Sarah Palin for Vanity Fair: (1) This is red meat to the coastal elites (and wannabees) to which the magazine panders. (2) Liberals continue to be afraid of Palin as a potential candidate. The piece only makes sense if the underlying motivation is #1. Otherwise, it's a strategic blunder of the first order. I've had some disagreements with Governor Palin in the past -- for example, the way she handled Bristol Palin's pregnancy. But any lingering doubts or disagreements... Townhall http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2282974/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 02:45:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281568/posts So, as it turns out, U.S. President Barack Obama is not "God" when it comes to dealing with the Islamic world after all. This, contrary to that gushingly inane description of him by Newsweek editor-at-large Evan Thomas, following Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo, seeking reconciliation with Muslims. Unfortunately, just eight days after giving that speech, Obama was confronted by Iran's deadly crushing of citizen protests over an election now widely seen both inside and outside Iran as hopelessly corrupt. This would be the same Iran Obama had just finished telling the world in Cairo he was prepared to work... The Calgary Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281568/posts#comment Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:01:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278406/posts It turns out the Obama White House planted two questioners at yesterday's press conference by Barack Obama, a move that further cements the reputation of the media as being complicit with the Obama administration.The incident also raises uncomfortable questions for liberals who falsely accused the Bush administration of the same practice. The news media's tolerance and complicity One of the plants acknowledged Obama's staff chose the topic of his question for him.Huffington Post blogger Nico Pitney and Spanish language EFE reporter Macarena Vidal were invited by the White House to the press conference and given special access. Obama called on... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278406/posts#comment Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:54:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278121/posts When Barack Obama spoke on the weekend to a black-tie audience of the nation's leading television journalists, the inside jokes were very definitely on them. "A few nights ago, I was up tossing and turning, trying to figure out exactly what to say," Obama said at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner. "Finally, when I couldn't get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked Brian Williams what he thought." The punch line aimed at the NBC Nightly News anchor - who recently hosted a warm and fuzzy, two-night prime time White House special on Obama - produced... The National Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278121/posts#comment Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:06:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275515/posts We hear Platinum Equity has been doing some serious tire kicking at the bankrupt Sun-Times Media Group, which is not only ready but eager to deal. Platinum Equity is a Beverly Hills-based private-equity company that, in its own words, finds itself "typically working with 'strategic sellers' that seek to shed a non-core asset in order to refocus their business operations." The STMG is willing to shed everything -- in one swoop or in bits and pieces. This March Platinum Equity bought the formerly prosperous, influential San Diego Union-Tribune -- for what online newspaper analyst Ken Doctor said was reportedly a... The Chicago Reader http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275515/posts#comment Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:19:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2273384/posts There is little disputing that right now Barack Obama is the world’s biggest celebrity. Movie stars want to meet him. Foreign leaders want his autograph. Americans just want to shake his hand. But lately it seems the popular president has become a one-man stimulus plan for the television industry. Obama did a recent promo for “The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien” during the host's first week on the job. He participated in a skit via video on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” NBC was taking pre-orders for its “Inside the Obama White House” DVD ($19.99) the day after the two-part... The Poliico http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2273384/posts#comment Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:37:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271720/posts "Picking fights with late night comics" Meet the Press/NBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271720/posts#comment Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:40:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2260471/posts He was tall and stunningly good looking, a guy who could appear pensive and serious one moment and then, with smoke from an unfiltered cigarette swirling around his face, morph into the hippest looking dude this side of James Dean. Which is why budding photographer Lisa Jack knew the moment she saw Barack Obama walk into the campus snack shop at Los Angeles' Occidental College in 1980 that she had to get the freshman in front of a camera. "I was doing portraits of fellow students, the cool people on campus," Jack, a slender, 49-year-old bundle of energy, recalled this... The Belleville News / The Associated Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2260471/posts#comment Fri, 29 May 2009 13:10:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259357/posts The United States is facing its biggest financial crisis in ages. North Korea is blowing up nukes. Dick Cheney warns us of the "dangers that have not gone away." And there are still wars raging in Afghanistan and Iraq. But over in the White House press briefing room, it’s a veritable laugh riot. Whenever there’s laughter in the James S. Brady Briefing Room — by either the briefer or the briefed — the official White House stenographer indicates as much by inserting “(Laughter.)” into the transcript. And in Robert Gibbs’ first four months as President Barack Obama’s press secretary, there... The Politico http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259357/posts#comment Wed, 27 May 2009 21:51:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2253099/posts Jon Meacham admits it is hard to explain, even to his own people, why chopping Newsweek's circulation in half is a good thing. 'It's hugely counterintuitive,' the magazine's editor says. 'The staff doesn't understand it.' That step -- along with a redesigned, revamped publication that hits newsstands today -- may well determine whether the 76-year-old newsmagazine survives. Newsweek will concentrate on two things -- reporting and argument -- while kissing off any recap of the week's developments. Time has been gravitating in that direction as well. But Newsweek, owned by The Washington Post Co., is accelerating the process because it... The Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2253099/posts#comment Mon, 18 May 2009 10:47:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2248821/posts The Final Frontier I dreamed that Spock saved our planet, The Daily Planet of journalism. Instead of swooping in to figure out the dimensionality and logarithms to rescue the world from red matter, as Spock does in J. J. Abrams’s dazzling new “Star Trek,” I imagined Spock rescuing read matter for the world. Newspapers are an “endangered species,” as John Kerry called us in a Senate hearing last week, just as the Vulcans are in the new prequel. I know Barack Spock likes newspapers. An aide told me during the campaign that Mr. Obama would get cranky if he didn’t... The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2248821/posts#comment Mon, 11 May 2009 22:24:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2242867/posts 'The Axis of Idiots' Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief. Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings mboldened the killers. Each... email http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2242867/posts#comment Sat, 2 May 2009 20:38:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2234763/posts Last week I wrote of the nationwide tea party movement and our mainstream media’s lack of respect for it. I wrote: “That the numbers expected to participate are staggering can in no way be attributed to publicity in the odious mainstream media which can devote gallons of ink and expensive broadcast time on protests by small handfuls of left-wing groups opposed to the Iraq war or promoting gay marriage but can't find time or space to cover the birth of a genuine and spontaneous nationwide citizens movement honestly.” Right on. Instead of covering the tea parties a legitimate expression of... Newsmax http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2234763/posts#comment Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:10:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2231605/posts It was predictable that The New York Times would take one of two approaches to the nationwide Tax Day Tea Parties on April 15 — ignore them completely or downplay them. It chose the latter. In a story yesterday, it tried to portray the phenomenon as a partisan project, driven by conservative personalities at FOX and CNBC. In reality, it was grassroots groups like American Family Association that had more to do with the largest anti-tax protests in U.S. history. The Times listed a few of the smaller rallies, to make the Tea Parties seem piddling — “200 rain-soaked participants”... Boycott The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2231605/posts#comment Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:31:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226416/posts Buried in a “news” story on victories of same-sex marriage in Iowa and Vermont (the former by judicial activism, the latter by legislative action), The New York Times slipped in the following loaded language: “The mood among equal rights advocates is distinctly different now than in recent years, when state after state moved to legally define marriage as between a man and a woman” (emphasis added). The Times thus anointed proponents of homosexual marriage heroic champions of equality and civil liberties — comparable to Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. Year ago, The Times and other... Boycott The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226416/posts#comment Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:17:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2219177/posts WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Americans, from teenagers to baby boomers, soon will get a fresh chance to lend a helping hand in a time of need after Congress voted Tuesday to expand ways for people to serve the country and each other. The House voted 275-149 for a $5.7 billion bill that takes ambitious steps on public service, including tripling the number of positions in the Clinton-era AmeriCorps program, its largest expansion since the agency's creation in 1993, and establishing a fund to help nonprofit organizations recruit and manage more volunteers. Congress was sending the bill to... AP via Yahoo finance http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2219177/posts#comment Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:29:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2214056/posts SOURCE: Reporters were told in advance if president was going to call on them. Senior Administration Officials notified reporters from Stars & Stripes, Univision and other news outlets that they should have question ready. Several reporters moved up in assigned seats as result... Drudge http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2214056/posts#comment Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:42:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213672/posts CHICAGO Newspapers perform a public service for democracy and should be allowed to operate as tax-exempt non-profits, U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D.-Md., proposed Tuesday. Cardin introduced a bill that would explicitly include newspapers among organizations eligible for 501(c)(3) status. The non-profit status is the same that public radio and television have now. The legislation would give a national green light for newspapers to adopt the so-called Low Profit Limited Liability Company business model, often shortened to L3C. The L3C model, which the Newspaper Guild supports as an alternative newspaper ownership model, is the subject of a feature story in the... Editor and Publisher http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213672/posts#comment Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:47:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206196/posts Yesterday's New York Times featured this story contemplating the very real possibility that there could soon be a major American city with no daily print newspaper. Richard Pérez-Peña discusses the imminent demise of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's print edition (scheduled to cease next week). The Hearst Corporation, which owns the Post-Intelligencer, has also threatened to close The San Francisco Chronicle, which lost more than $1 million a week last year. The Hearst Corporation...founded by William Randolph Hearst...upon whom the title character of Citizen Kane is not so loosely based. Hmmm. (Cue Twilight Zone music, play video above.) OK, so instead of... The Nashville Scene http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206196/posts#comment Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:38:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2194833/posts Hearst Newspapers will roll out the "social publishing platform" of Helium, a sort of giant freelance marketplace for hyperlocal content, Andover, Mass.-based Helium said Wednesday. Helium provides a place where local writers can contribute articles on a wide variety of topics. The articles are rated by other writers for quality control, and writers are paid, usually for about $20 to $50 for each piece. Hearst will use Helium's freelance Marketplace to identify a stable of community stringers, who are compensated for contributing articles on a variety of topics. Hearst will also launch Helium's community debate that allows readers to post... Mediaweek / Editor and Publisher http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2194833/posts#comment Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:06:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2194304/posts The intended purpose of this letter is for you the citizen to see where you and I stand as citizens getting accurate information from the MSM or main stream media CBS, NBC, ABC, CNBC, and throw in both CNN and Fox. That's right even Fox restricts vital information from coming forth to "we the people". For instance, why doesn't Fox considered by most to be the voice for conservative people report or demand Obama prove he is a natural born citizen and why doesn't Fox report about the millions of dollars Obama is spending on the various law firms to... The Voice http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2194304/posts#comment Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:20:14 GMT