Free Republic

HOLLYWOOD, California—A planned protest over the lack of diversity in the film industry by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) has been canceled. The group will instead seek direct dialogue with Hollywood’s central authority, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

<p>Hollywood (United States) (AFP) – African-American civil rights groups plan to protest outside Sunday’s Oscars show, where every single one of this year’s 20 acting nominees is white.</p> <p>However small, the demonstration will revive debate about diversity at the Oscars-awarding Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose voting members are overwhelmingly white and with an average age in their 60s.</p>

Back in the fall of 2006, long before Brian Williams confessed to “conflating” his helicopter adventures over Iraq, Neal Santangelo knew the NBC news anchor was a fraud. Santangelo, a Boston firefighter, former president of Local 718 and a proud veteran of the Navy submarine service, served on a committee that brought the Congressional Medal of Honor Society to Boston that year for its national convention. About six months before the society’s gala banquet at the Convention Center, Williams agreed to serve as master of ceremonies. But when he arrived on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006, Williams told committee members Tom...

Media Yawn at Obama and Biden Snubbing Auschwitz Anniversary; Mocked Cheney’s Appearance in 2005 By Curtis Houck | January 28, 2015 Tuesday marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and, naturally, the event attracted plenty of media coverage. In addition to each of the three major networks devoting segments to it on their evening newscasts, the Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post and published stories on the topic. Over on cable, CNN covered it multiple times throughout the day for a total of 10 minutes and 27 seconds worth of airtime. At the other...

The wording in the Constitution is simple and straightforward: the President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.” There's nothing in there about the Supreme Court justices and, accordingly, there's nothing simple and straightforward about their attendance. This year, six justices were in attendance, while three of the most conservative members of the court, Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were noticeably absent. In the modern era, custom has held that the justices would show up in their official robes and sit impassively. But in recent years, they've become...

MSNBC host and civil rights activist Al Sharpton is calling for an emergency meeting of his eight-member diversity task force to discuss action against the Academy Awards after the movie “Selma” received only one Oscars nomination. “The movie industry is like the Rocky Mountains, the higher you get, the whiter it gets,” Sharpton said with usual flair in a statement released Thursday after the announcement of Oscar nominations. Many, including Sharpton, were outraged that none of the actors in “Selma,” a movie about the 1965 Voting Rights Act, were nominated for the golden statues. David Oyelowo, who portrayed Rev. Martin...

In what appeared to be a snub to Al Sharpton, Oprah Winfrey recently argued that demonstrators in New York City and Ferguson lack the same motivation and leadership of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “I think it’s wonderful to march and to protest, and it’s wonderful to see all across the country people doing it,” Ms. Winfrey told People magazine while promoting her upcoming movie “Selma” in the magazine’s new issue. “ What I’m looking for is some kind of leadership to come out of this to say, ‘This is what we want. This is what has to...

<p>Thousands of NYPD cops turned their backs on Mayor de Blasio on Sunday outside a Brooklyn funeral home as he eulogized a murdered NYPD officer inside.</p> <p>As de Blasio addressed the loved ones of Detective Wenjian Liu in the Aievoli Funeral Home in Bensonhurst, the sea of blue watching the funeral on huge TV screens outside showed their disgust for Hizzoner by turning around as he spoke.</p>

Watching local coverage of Detective Wenjian Liu's funeral. NBC reporter mentioned dozen of officers in front of the church turned their backs when De Blasio spoke but further down the road there were hundreds who turned their back.

Thousands of police officers are paying their respect to a New York Police Department officer shot to death along with his partner as mourners converge from around the country Sunday for a second funeral that stands to test tensions between the city's mayor and police. Buddhist monks led a Chinese ceremony for Officer Wenjian Liu, followed by a traditional police ceremony with eulogies led by a chaplain. Liu, 32, had served as a policeman for seven years and was married just two months when he was killed with his partner, Officer Rafael Ramos, on Dec. 20. Despite commissioner Bratton's warning...

Update: Despite pleas to leave politics away from the funeral, hundreds of cops turned their backs when Mayor de Blasio spoke at Ramos' funeral. "All of the city is grieving and grieving for so many reasons but the most personal is we lost such a good man," he said during the remarks.

EXCERPT Commissioner Bill Bratton acknowledged that de Blasio has lost support of some police. “I don’t think it (the hallway protest) was appropriate, particularly in that setting, but it’s reflective of the anger of some of them,” Bratton told NBC’s “Today” show. (snip) “I don’t know that an apology is necessary,” he said. “One of the things, a concern at the moment, is this issue is really starting to go down partisan lines, Republican-Democrat. This is something that should be bringing us all together, not taking us apart.”

Police officers turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as he walked into the police press conference about the two NYPD officers shot and killed execution-style in Brooklyn.

Video posted by WPIX shows two rows of New York City police officers with their backs turned as Mayor Bill de Blasio walked down a hallway to his press conference Saturday night about the execution of two New York City police officers on Saturday afternoon.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKueC2o0mkI

President Obama made a rare appearance on the 2014 campaign trail on Sunday and attendees walked out as the President spoke.44 President Barack Obama made a rare appearance on the campaign trail on Sunday with a rally to support the Democratic candidate for governor in Maryland, but early departures of crowd members while he spoke underscored his continuing unpopularity. Obama showed up to support Lt. Governor Anthony Brown who is running for Governor. "You've got to vote," Obama repeated over and over at a rally for Brown in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, near Washington. A steady stream of people walked...

The Obama administration announced this weekend that it will be sending not one, but three, officials to attend the funeral of Michael Brown on Monday. President Barack Obama is sending three White House officials to the funeral service of the Missouri teenager whose death in a police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, has sparked days of racial unrest. Leading the group for Monday's service will be the chairman of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force, Broderick Johnson. My Brother's Keeper is an Obama initiative that aims to empower young minorities. Johnson is also the secretary for the Cabinet. Also attending will...

House Democrats are frustrated with what they say is a lack of election-year communication from the White House. The lawmakers say it’s difficult to defend President Obama from GOP attacks, when he doesn't confer with his allies about his strategy and intentions. Some are scratching their heads why, after nearly six years in office and a reshuffling of his legislative affairs team, Obama's working relationship with Congress remains prickly. “It's hard for us to fathom; I mean, is it just lack of full staffing and resources? [Is it] professional commitment? Is it a disdain for the legislative branch? I mean,...

There's no question that Emmy-winning sitcom "Modern Family" is influencing American cultural opinions on same-sex relationships through its characters Mitch and Cam, and that influence goes all the way up to the most powerful people on the planet. . . . "President Obama mentioned in an interview like three weeks ago, just casually, that Michelle and the kids watch Mitch and Cam and they're in tears," Stonestreet said. "To hear the leader of the free world, the president of the United States, say that and to know we have that sort of reach with people and that the people in...

President Barack Obama received a chilly reception for his warnings against the alleged dangers of climate change during his address at West Point Wednesday. The cadets exhibited little warmth in applauding their Commander in Chief, which should come as little shock when considering the actual dangers these American soldiers will face upon graduating. The Commander in Chief took the time to warn of the so-called dangers of global warming, urging the cadets to “make commitments to combat climate change.” Our troops, many of whom lay down their lives each and every day to protect the individual freedoms of every American,...

Obama’s “philosophical” speech to the 2014 graduates of West Point about a new direction for America’s foreign policy was “not a great” speech for that audience, said CNN anchor Jim Clancy on Wednesday. He said that the president did not sound like a “commander-in-chief speaking to his troops” and got an “icy reception” as a result...