Free Republic

Elon Musk has recently put his Twitter ownership to good use, first slapping American and British state media with a disclaimer label identifying them as government propaganda outlets on their Twitter profiles. Now he’s going to work on Canada’s government propaganda machine, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. ... Public broadcaster Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Twitter account was on Monday labeled as “69% Government-funded Media” by the social media website. The Twitter label on the CBC site previously showed “70% Government-funded Media”, but Twitter owner Elon Musk said the “Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re “less than 70% government-funded”, so we corrected the...

The taxpayer-funded leftists at National Public Radio flung proverbial sewage at critics who dared raise Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s financial ties to billionaire George Soros. NPR’s Apr. 6 edition of All Things Considered decried “conservative politicians” who made Soros a “bogeyman” in Bragg’s highly politicized prosecution of former President Donald Trump. The outlet railed at critics like Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). NPR Host Mary Louise Kelly brought on guest and liberal Soros biographer Emily Tamkin who downplayed the fact that Soros gave $1 million to the anti-police Color of Change PAC...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson shreds 'state-sponsored media' NPR on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

A Republican state senator in Florida has introduced a bill that, if passed, would require bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, his Cabinet or state legislators to register with the state. Sen. Jason Brodeur's bill, titled "Information Dissemination," would also require bloggers to disclose who's paying them for their posts about certain elected officials and how much. "If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register" with the appropriate office within five days of the post, the legislation says. It defines "elected state...

One of the main reasons for the current low uptake of the COVID mRNA bivalent booster (less than 43 million doses administered) is the scary anecdotes of side effects overreported in the media. These stories are not effectively countered by presenting unexciting low-risk data, or the equally boring but true knowledge that the more immunity you have the better off you are against COVID’s short- or long-term side effects. You will likely get less sick and you will recover more quickly and completely. But fear of a rare side effect overcomes reasoned reassurance every time. There is also some evidence...

Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency is reporting for the first time Wednesday that the Russian military occupied southern Ukrainian city of Kherson will soon petition the Kremlin to become part of the Russian Federation. It was in late April that a pro-Moscow “military-civilian administration” was installed after Kherson fell to the invading forces, complete with a local transition to the Russian ruble. While the news hasn’t been officially confirmed by the Kremlin, it’s significant that the report surfaced through RIA and not Ukrainian or opposition sources, suggesting such referendums or even simple declared annexations in captured regions could be...

BBC boss sparks anger with Brexit comments – Beeb ‘lives in metropolitan elite bubble’BBC boss Tim Davie admitted he does not know if anyone in the corporation's senior management supported Brexit - sparking an angry backlash. The director-general insisted that staff leave their political views "at the door" during a grilling by MPs on bias at the broadcaster. Mr Davie also insisted the BBC was right to start charging the over-75s for the licence fee. Ministers are currently in the final stages of negotiations with the broadcaster over how much public funding it will receive next year. At a Commons...

House Democrats are offering more than $1 billion in subsidies to local newspapers as part of a massive spending proposal released this week, even as polls show record levels of distrust in the media. The $3.5 trillion spending plan includes up to $25,000 in payroll tax credits for each journalist on a local newspaper’s payroll. The carve-out will cost $1.3 billion over the next decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. To offset this and other tax credits included in the bill, Democrats are proposing $2.9 trillion in tax hikes through higher corporate, capital gains, and personal income tax...

It is called reader loyalty. And it still exists. But only just. “What we have recently experienced is that a growing number of readers have been phoning in to our offices to let us know how important it is for them that we are still putting out a print version of our paper.” Those are the words of Benjamin Piel, the editor-in-chief of the MindenerTageblatt, a daily newspaper published in the town of Minden in the northwestern German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its circulation is currently running at around 26,000. But that number is shrinking — despite those loyal subscribers...

After Chinese state media showed little sympathy for President Donald Trump following news of his positive coronavirus diagnosis, China's president has sent a message expressing hope that the American first couple recover quickly soon. On Friday, the Global Times, which reflects the more hawkish aspects of Chinese government policy, said that Trump had himself to blame. The publication's editor-in-chief, Hu Xijin, tweeted that the U.S. president and his wife, Melania Trump, "have paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19." "The news shows the severity of the U.S. pandemic situation. It will impose a negative impact on...

Chinese state media has admitted it views the novel coronavirus as a tool to “beat” President Trump, confirming the Trump administration’s insistence China has sought political gain from the virus. China Global Television Network (CGTN) issued a nearly six-minute video entitled “Can COVID-19 beat populism?” in which the Chinese Communist Party-run network leverages the coronavirus as “another straw on the camel’s back to expose [Trump’s] hollow politics.”In addition to attacking President Trump, the video also went after China-skeptic political leaders such as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Britain’s Boris Johnson.The video confirms Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s insistence that China has...

Chinese state and social media have been filled with reports highlighting the nationwide demonstrations against police brutality in the US and attacking American politicians who supported the Hong Kong protests. State news agency Xinhua described the chaotic scenes as "Pelosi's beautiful landscape", a veiled reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's comments last year that the mass protests in Hong Kong were "a beautiful sight to behold". State broadcaster CCTV on Saturday referred to the protest cities as "warzones" and produced round-the-clock updates and analyses highlighting the racial divide in the US. The clashes in multiple cities were triggered by the...

Xelil Åžirvan, a commander of a group of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, told Sputnik that a US military base had been detected near the town of Al-Qa'im in northwest Iraq on the border with Syria. "According to our data, the United States has set up a new military base in the strategically important region of Al-Qa'im in Anbar province on the Iraqi-Syrian border. Americans are building up their military presence in the region, which is why Iraqi government forces have sent more military reinforcements to Al-Qa'im to boost border protection," he said. A spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led...

  Reports: WaPo's Jason Rezaian convicted in Iran http://t.co/8H5bVnPY5K | AP Photo pic.twitter.com/D1MH9fICXI   — POLITICO (@politico) October 12, 2015 For people who might not have followed the story as it unfolded there’s an easier explanation for why Iran is holding Jason Rezaian.   The underpinning is Iran knowing the U.S. State Department and CNN collaborate to use media as a tool to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives. In December 2014 CNN ran and episode of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown filmed in Iran. It seemed innocuous at the time, yet as with all things Turner Broadcasting, it also seemed to be another set...

On April 8, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi headlined a Boston conference on ''media reform.'' She was joined by four other congressmen, a senator, two FCC commissioners, a Nobel laureate and numerous liberal journalists. The 2,500-person event was sponsored by a group called Free Press, one of more than 180 different media-related organizations that receives money from liberal billionaire George Soros. Soros, who first made a name for himself in investing and currency trading, now makes his name in politics and policy. Since the 2004 election, the controversial financier has used his influence and billions to push a laundry list...

Have you noticed your liberal friends on Facebook spotlighting some unbelievably shocking comments from Republican presidential candidates lately? Comments like Ted Cruz declaring on May 22, “While there may have been an age difference, Josh Duggar’s transgressions are far less an affront to God than what gays do to each other.” Or Dr. Ben Carson saying on May 10, “Mother’s Day is a sad, lonely day for women who aborted their babies. Even if they have a living child, they focus on the one they murdered. It’s why suicide rates are so high on Mother’s Day.” Or Marco Rubio asking...

In the wake of the George Stephanopoulos scandal, most voters doubt the accuracy of political news coverage and think most reporters will slant their coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% of Likely U.S. Voters now do not trust the political news they are getting. That's a 16-point jump from 45% last October. Twenty-one percent (21%) still have confidence in the political coverage they get, but that's down from 33% in the earlier survey. Seventeen percent (17%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.) When it comes to...

MADISON, Wis. – Of all of the frightening accounts of government abuses in Wisconsin’s political John Doe investigation, David French’s description in National Review of the early-morning raid on Cindy Archer’s home may be the most stunning. But there are two nearly forgettable lines in French’s retelling of the raid that reveal volumes about the secret investigations aimed at bringing down Wisconsin’s conservative activist community. Archer, French writes, “looked outside and saw a person who appeared to be a reporter. Someone had tipped him off.” Supporters of the Democrat-launched political John Doe probes into conservatives have argued secrecy is key...

"....The president—speaking at the dinner for a third time as president, fourth time overall — told the room that Democrats had determined they needed to do better with older white voters....Why is this night different from all other nights? Because on this night, when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker makes a joke about Hillary Clinton, it’s not part of a future negative ad campaign.“I really do have a lot of close friends who are Democrats,” said Walker, serving as the official Republican speaker for the evening. “ I even have Hillary’s private email. . . It’s HillaryClinton@Wallstreet.com. You know the best...

Many aspects of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2015-’17 budget have come under heavy criticism, but this headline on a state Democratic Party news release really caught our attention: "Scott Walker's Iowa Caucus Budget Would Sell Off Wisconsin's State Parks." The Iowa part didn’t surprise us -- it’s just the party’s latest dig at Walker for spending more time out of state as he weighs a potential 2016 presidential bid. That includes Iowa, home to the first voting in that contest. But would Walker’s budget "sell off Wisconsin’s state parks"? As in, to private bidders? No. It wouldn’t. When we asked Democratic...