Free Republic

"Calling 'Em Out: The White House Takes on the Press"So states the headline from an article at Time.com. According to administration officials, most notably Anita Dunn, Obama's interim White House Communications Director, the "media" has been just too darn hard on President Obama and his agenda. As Time explains: "There was never a single moment when White House staff decided the major media outlets were falling down on the job. There were instead several such moments." Sounds a bit thin considering he dominated the Sunday talk show circuit with no less then five soft-ball interviews in a single day. To...

Respectable news outlets aren't the only ones having trouble processing the fact that a purple-eyed partisan like Andrew Breitbart is producing impactful journalism this season. The ancient Atlantic magazine–which, strangely, appears to have morphed into a sort of Blogger's Monthly–has been furrowing its brows at Breitbart & Co. both in print and online. Regular Atlantic contributor Conor Friedersdorf, writing at The Daily Beast (and earning a high-five from Andrew Sullivan), poses the question: ACORN is just the latest example of how conservative media love to blast The New York Times for its shortcomings. So why can't they live up to...

It all sounds so innocent and good-governmenty: The Federal Trade Commission will hold a workshop Dec. 1 and 2 concerning "How will journalism survive the Internet age?" An assembly of editors, owners, government officials, consumer advocates, advertisers and others is scheduled to discuss a dozen topics. Three ought to make the hair stand up on the necks of every journalist and anybody else who cares about the survival of freedom of the press: » Are new or changed government policies needed to support optimal amounts and types of journalism, including public affairs coverage? » Should the tax code be modified...

This was conservatives’ seething summer of discontent and unhinged hysteria: town halls, tea parties and tirades. They captured headlines and gained momentum. Misinformation ran amuck. President Obama’s approval ratings tumbled. Through it all, Obama maintained a Pollyannaish, laissez-faire disposition. Some found this worrisome. Others, like me, even thought it weak. But maybe not so fast...

"They would not listen, they're not listening still, "Perhaps they never will." -- Don McLean, "Vincent" Radio and TV commentator Glenn Beck was mentioned three times in separate opinion columns on the same day and in an article the next day in The New York Times, possibly a record for someone who does not hold elective office. Oh, and then there's this week's Time magazine cover. He's everywhere. Beck is also the Left's latest explanation for what is wrong with America. Many on the Left believe that if conservatives would just get out of the way, shut up and allow...

Van Jones — unfit for print: The green czar affair should put the final lie to The Times’ ‘objectivity’ (KYLE SMITH, September 13, 2009, NY Post) “This is not an excuse,” the managing editor of The New York Times said after offering the following excuse for completely missing the Van Jones story, except in a blog post: “Our Washington bureau was somewhat short-staffed during the height of the pre-Labor Day vacation period.” Here’s how long-staffed The New York Times actually is. Long after Glenn Beck reported — back in July — that Jones was history’s first communist czar, and even...

I feel guilty because originally I supported the decision by the Associated Press to release the photo of the young Marine that was taken as he lay dying. I lost readers over that and I do not blame them. Sarah Palin weighed in on Facebook. "Many of us join Secretary Gates in condemning the Associated Press for its heartless and selfish decision to turn its back on the wishes of a grieving family in order to exploit the tragic death of a true American hero. Lance Corporal Joshua ‘Bernie’ Bernard was a selfless young American who sacrificed everything for our...

How much public privacy do presidential families deserve? Not as much as Barack Obama wants. Earlier this month, according to the New York Post, Secret Service agents demanded that customers temporarily hand over cell phones in D.C.’s “Good Stuff Eatery,” where Michelle, Malia and Sasha were eating cheeseburgers, onion rings and fries. Why? To prevent diners from snapping cell phone pictures of the first daughters. Now on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama has issued strong media directives about photographing the girls when he’s not with them. No word on whether regular Joes and Janes will again have to hand over cell phones...

In their quest for a quiet family vacation on the posh resort island of Martha’s Vineyard this week, President Barack Obama and his family have retreated to a 28-acre spread with a stretch of beach so private — it’s sealed off by the Secret Service — that the chances of a paparazzi photo of the president in his swim trunks are all but nil. Immediately after arriving at a closed airport on Sunday afternoon, though, the Obamas’ "normal family vacation" got off to a not-so-normal start. Dozens of people lined the roads from the Vineyard Haven airport to the family’s...

It will surprise no one that has paid attention to the obvious slant (or perhaps plunge off the leftist cliff) of most traditional media outlets, that The Washington Obamost (formerly known as The Washington Post), is doing its part to assist Shrieker of the House Nancy Pelosi in her war. The fact that we have become accustomed to the actions of these media mutations does not lessen the magnitude of their harmful "reporting". Think about the object of Pelosi's war. Consider the potential effects of a Pelosi victory, with the aid of a sorry excuse for a press like The...

The glaring duplicity in media coverage of the current chaotic "healthcare" debate is unparalleled. When a lone gunman shoots an abortionist, the nightly news incessantly recounts the event for weeks, insisting that the brutal action most certainly reflects a universal mindset among any and all who call themselves pro-life. But let the people of heartland America rise up in unprecedented numbers at Democrat "town hall" meetings and voice their sincere opposition to the attempt by Obama and the left to implement socialized "health care," and they are derided as merely a loud but insignificant "fringe." In other words, the stories...

Ah, democracy! It never works better than when informed citizens gather in town hall meetings to discuss and debate the issues of the day. But, oh, democracy! It's never more damaged than when partisan zealots plot to disrupt town hall meetings in order to prevent any honest debate of the issues. And that's exactly what's happening in health care forums held across the nation by members of Congress. We've seen it in Philadelphia; Austin, Texas; Georgetown, Del.; Salisbury, Md; and other communities. Taking a page right out of a Nazi playbook, organizers bus in professional protestors and arm them with...

Barack Obama had his 48th birthday this week. Since we learned during last year’s campaign that he can be blamed for anything bad that’s happened in this country since he was a toddler, perhaps this is a good time to suggest that it’s his fault the Beatles didn’t perform at Woodstock. The president celebrated by having lunch with the Democratic senators, proving once again that this is truly a guy who knows how to party. He also showed up at a press briefing to sing “Happy Birthday” to Helen Thomas, the legendary reporter and columnist who turned 89 on the...

Gail Collins, editorial page editor of The New York Times through most of the George W. Bush presidency, gives us a progress report on his replacement: "[T]hings have been looking pretty good. American influence is rising abroad, and at home nobody in the White House appears to be plotting to undermine our civil rights on a daily basis. The economy's looking kind of stimulated. These things take time, but the "cash for clunkers" part of the plan seems to be working like a charm. [...] True, there's no health care bill yet, and members of Congress are getting yelled at...

During a discussion of the Obama birth certificate controversy, MSNBC host Chris Matthews and his guests implied that anyone who questions the official 9/11 story, thinks the Bilderberg group are exercising power to create a world government, people who are worried about gun control and immigration, or even people who are merely skeptical of government, are psychologically insane. Responding to Matthews’ implication that people who had questions about Obama’s birthplace were “full mooners” and insane, MSNBC political analyst Howard Fineman included “people who are worried about the government taking up the guns, people who deny the federal government has a...

Sarah Palin, the former Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate, will step down as Alaska's governor on Sunday with her political future clouded by ethics probes, legal bills and dwindling popularity. Palin made a surprise decision on July 3 that she would resign, raising questions about her next move and whether she was planning to mount a run for president. She has cited a variety of reasons for quitting -- the burden of fighting nearly two dozen ethics charges, which she has dismissed as "frivolous," her desire to avoid being perceived as a powerless "lame-duck" governor, and a "higher calling," among...

You've probably already heard about the little mini-drama kicked off by President Obama's daughter Malia wearing a t-shirt with a peace symbol recently. But the wingnuts at Free Republic went absolutely apesh*t over it in a thread that has since been removed, then restored, then removed again. The racist idiots came out of the woodwork to say things like this: "A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto thugs." "Ghetto street trash." "Wonder when she will get her first abortion." And as the Vancouver Sun notes: The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that...

Michelle Obama continues to cement her reputation as one of the most fashionable women in the world with a new hairstyle. The First Lady used a celebration of country music at the White House yesterday to unveil her swept back tresses. Looking elegant in a white patterned dress, Mrs Obama’s bobbed hairstyle topped off a classy appearance. The pair's daughters Malia and Sasha were also at the event, which featured performances by country stars Charley Pride, Brad Paisley, Alison Krauss and Union Station. While the mother-of-two’s style stakes continue to rise, her husband, President Barack Obama has confessed he feels...

The on-again, off-again debate over whether Barack Obama was born in the United States is, well, on again. Just a few days after an angry protester, waving a birth certificate, confronted Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) over Obama’s origins, California Rep. John Campbell took to MSNBC’s Hardball to promote his bill requiring presidential candidates to submit copies of their birth certificates. But it didn’t take long for the interview to turn to questions about whether Campbell believed Obama himself was American-born. “What is going on that so many Americans doubt the obvious, that Barack Obama is a citizen, to the point...

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it” Yogi Berra When Sarah Palin resigned as Alaska’s Governor, you’d have thought she confessed to having Muslim roots in three Islamic States while apologizing to the world for the atrocities committed by America. OOPS--I’m getting my stories mixed up with our president--silly me. My psychiatrist diagnosed me with multiple personalities. I was beside myself…and so was I. Unlike Sarah, the liberal press and a few conservatives could have been diagnosed with multiple personalities. The Sybil wannabes were filled with hubris as they spewed against the Palins. The newsies looked...

White House Press Corps Spent the Fourth of July Hanging Out With Obama, Off the Record By John Cook, 12:44 PM on Thu Jul 9 2009, 1,046 views (Edit, to draft, Top, Slurp) Copy this whole post to another site Slurp cancel select site advertising consumerist deadspin defamer fleshbot gay fleshbot gawker gizmodo idolator io9 jalopnik jezebel kotaku lifehacker valleywag artists gawkershop Reporters from more than 30 television networks, newspapers, magazines, and web sites celebrated the Fourth of July with Barack Obama at the White House last weekend. Why didn't you know that? Because they were sworn to secrecy. We...

My guess is that she really doesn't know what she wants, or who she really is. It's probably dangerous to admit to a moment of empathy. I'll either get disqualified from ever becoming being a Supreme Court justice or asked to turn in my press card. But after watching reruns of Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation from the governorship, after hearing every grammatically challenged sentence and inconsistent paragraph dissected by some talk show host, I started to (blush) feel her pain. There was the frozen smile, the vulnerability, the odd grab bag of unfiltered, unedited, unintelligible un-reasons scattered across the lawn....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

"Picking fights with late night comics"

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 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...

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 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 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...

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...

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”...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

...it was not intentional. In fact, quite the contrary. It happened when the press and networks covering the Democratic convention puffed up the likely defection of Hillary supporters -- inspiring McCain to name Palin as his running mate. Barack Obama might very well have won anyway, by a very narrow margin, but I believe that the true turning point in the fall campaign -- though rarely noted -- actually came in late-summer, at the Democratic convention in Denver. No, it was not the general good vibes about Obama, the ringing speeches by Teddy, Michelle, Bill, and by the candidate himself....

Chicago Tribune's Jill Zuckman joins President Obama's administration as the Department of Transportation's director of public affairs and assistant to Secretary Ray LaHood. Zuckman was a Washington-based correspondent at the Tribune and also made frequent appearances on MSNBC and Fox News. She is the second Tribune reporter to take a job in the administration. Peter Gosselin is now the chief speech writer for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. This move is somewhat of a trend- Jay Carney, formerly of Time Magazine, is now Vice President Biden's communications director and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is supposedly among the top picks to become...

The traditional newspaper is dying. The Evening Standard has been sold off for a pound to a former KGB agent, the Los Angeles Times is bankrupt and even the New York Times is in trouble. Mexican plutocrat Carlos Slim may become its largest shareholder in return for financing the paper's billion-dollar debt. Except for the financial press, newspapers have failed to convince readers to pay for online access – and there is no reason to think that readers will suddenly succumb to the charms of PayPal. The newspaper bust has been good for one business. Policy wonks have been charging...