Free Republic

... putting Benghazi, the IRS's Tea Party targeting and the Justice Department's leak-hunting seizure of Associated Press phone records in the same basket is like comparing a mirage to a dishwasher to a diamond. There is no common thread. Benghazi is a scam, not a scandal. It began as a political ploy during the 2012 presidential campaign. Republicans tried to pin a cover-up on the President.... The Justice Department's secret seizure of AP phone records is more a policy dispute than a scandal..... The irs's targeting of Tea Party groups is, however, an actual full-blown scandal. In fact, it is...

When it comes to investigative reporters, how do you change a bulldog into a lapdog? Easy: change the occupant of the Oval Office from a Republican into a Democrat. Witness Carl Bernstein's pitiful performance on today's Morning Joe. The man who teamed with Bob Woodward to bring down Richard Nixon now credulously claims that he "can't imagine" that President Obama is possibly involved in the IRS targeting of conservative groups. Bernstein instead blames the "hyper-partisanship" in Washington. Yeah, cause politics were so kumbaya in 1972, Carl. View the video here.

Sarah Palin has said many controversial things in her life — but did John McCain’s running mate really call for the invasion of the Czech Republic? No, but a leading eastern European weekly wrote that she did — mistaking a satirical article written about Palin as fact. “Let’s burn Prague: Sarah Palin Calls for the Invasion of the Czech Republic” screamed a headline in Wprost, one of Poland’s top news publications. Wprost later yanked the article from its website after readers began questioning its authenticity on Facebook, the journalism blog JimRomenesko reported. Editor's Note: Should ObamaCare Be Repealed? Vote in...

Gun debate triggered media bias By: Dylan Byers April 18, 2013 07:09 PM EDT If you thought President Obama was outraged after the Senate killed the plan to expand background checks on guns, you should have seen some members of the press. Even by the standards of today’s partisan media environment, the response has been noteworthy. Television hosts, editorial boards, and even some reporters have aggressively criticized and shamed the 46 Senators who opposed the plan, while some have even taken to actively soliciting the public to contact them directly. The decision by some members of the media to come...

The trial of notorious Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell -- as close to a demonic presence as anything this country will ever see -- was almost a month old when the network blackout finally ended. CNN broke its silence, as did CBS. National newspapers sent reporters to the trial for the first time. They started covering it only because of a national outrage that they would so deliberately withhold this horror story from the public -- for political reasons. Kirsten Powers in USA Today insisted: "This should be front page news. When Rush Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke, there was non-stop...

One admitted to kidnapping and ransoming hostages in the Ivory Coast. Others said they had molested children or committed rape. And one, as he prepared for survival in a post-apocalyptic world, contemplated assassinating President Barack Obama. These are among the thousands of applicants who have sought sensitive law enforcement jobs in recent years with the U.S. Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection. In many cases, these people made it all the way through the hiring process until one of the last steps – a polygraph exam. Once sitting with a polygraph examiner, they admitted to a...

“Hi,” she says, striding into the room with a smooth gait and a low, sure voice. “I’m Chelsea!” The handshake is confident, the eyes firmly fixed. With the ease of her father and the directness of her mother, Chelsea Clinton is stepping out into the world. At 33, she wears her political royalty in triplicate: There are her famous parents, of course, but also her mother-in-law, former Pennsylvania congresswoman Marjorie Margolies. After several years in the private sector (with McKinsey & Company, then with a hedge fund), Clinton has emerged onto the civic stage in her own right, graceful and...

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews seems to think that only white people can be racist. On Monday’s Hardball, he actually said, “Racism is the belief that one race - whites - should rule all others” MATTHEWS: Well actually, Rushbo, racism is the belief that one race – whites - should rule all others. Get your definitions straight.

MIAMI — George Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, is all but certain to take his case directly to a jury on June 10 and skip a highly anticipated pretrial self-defense hearing, his lawyer said Tuesday. At a “Stand Your Ground” hearing, the judge is tasked with weighing whether to grant immunity from prosecution under a Florida law that gives people who believe they are in imminent danger of being killed or seriously hurt the benefit of the doubt to protect themselves. A defendant who claims self-defense in Florida has a right to...

In the wake of the discovery that the Rachel Maddow show has been promoted by multiple fake twitter accounts, a liberal blogger has found MSNBC host Ed Schultz guilty of the same "sleazy but legal" behavior. A portion of what he found: "Also, the blog Help The 99ers has examples of Twitter spam involving the Ed Show... and these accounts are different. In these cases there's a connection to an actual company that offers web promotion services. Here are phrases promoting the show that seem to involve spammers: Hahahahahaha, what threatening e-mails. #edshow #p2 #p21 Oh boy, Michael .E.Dyson is...

A few salient facts are known about the Americans whose lives might be changed by a Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage expected this summer. About one in five gay and lesbian couples are raising children that are under age 18. Same-sex couples are less likely than traditional married couples to have health insurance covering them both. One in 10 men with a male partner or spouse is a military veteran. As many as 6 million Americans, roughly 2 percent of the population, have a parent who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. These nuggets of demographic insight into same-sex...

Many have rightly condemned MSNBC's serpentine editing of a video to make it appear that certain gun rights activists heckled the father of a 6-year-old victim of the Sandy Hook shooting massacre, but let's not pretend this was a one-off event. The liberal media long ago forfeited their respected role as watchdog over the government and have voluntary descended to the status of a public relations arm of the Democratic Party and various liberal causes. It doesn't do it justice to call them cheerleaders, for they are active participants, every bit as much involved in bringing about the events...

Twitchy.com has been all over the story of NBC’s latest… I was about to say “latest ethical lapse,” but that would imply they have any ethics to begin with. Let’s just call it the latest example of NBC lying so egregiously, even a few other liberal media outlets are calling them out on it. Twitchy deserves our thanks for catching the lie and presenting the truth. And now the cover-up begins at NBC. Erik Wemple at WaPo has the latest: MSNBC is reviewing its portrayal of the testimony of Neil Heslin, the father of a Sandy Hook victim, at a...

The coverage of two recent events in the District of Columbia shows how the old media in this country has dropped all pretence of impartiality. The first image is from yesterday, 25 January, in Washington, D.C. Please consider how much media coverage you have heard about it. It was a pro-life protest. The second image is from the next day, today, the 26th of January. It was from a protest against the the people's right to keep and bear arms: Consider how much media coverage that you have heard of this event. The camera shots are completely different. The first...

An abortion bill introduced in the state House of Representatives by a Carlsbad Republican caused a political uproar in New Mexico and got some national notoriety Thursday — though the bill’s sponsor says it’s all a misunderstanding. Rep. Cathrynn Brown’s House Bill 206, as written, would subject a victim of rape or incest to possible felony prosecution for obtaining an abortion. It equated termination of a pregnancy in these situations with “tampering with evidence.” Her bill says, “Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that...

As NewsBusters has been reporting for years, there is no objective press anymore - only sycophants gushing and fawning over the political leaders they agree with and admire. More evidence of this came Friday from the Washington Examiner's Charlie Spiering who shared with readers some startling observations in Buzzfeed reporter Michael Hastings' new book including journalists swooning over Barack Obama at an off-the-record event held at a bar in Orlando, Florida, last year: “The behavior of the assembled press corps was telling. Everyone, myself included, swooned. Swooned! Head over heels. One or two might have even lost their minds,” Hastings...

A newspaper in New York has received a wave of criticism from its readers after publishing the names and addresses of all of the individuals with handgun or pistol permits in its coverage area. Hundreds of residents in New York’s Westchester and Rockland counties were surprised to find their names and addresses listed on a map posted by The Journal News on Sunday. Users can click any dot on the map to see which of their neighbors has a permit for a gun. The map sparked more than 500 comments from readers within a day of its appearance on the...

Now that’s compliance for you. The blackout from these “influential progressives” – as the White House so boosterishly calls them — raises an historic prospect. Could this be the first White House meeting with journalists in which more information about the proceedings came from the White House than from the journalists? After all, the White House did at least issue this statement: “This afternoon at the White House, the President met with influential progressives to talk about the importance of preventing a tax increase on middle class families, strengthening our economy and adopting a balanced approach to deficit reduction.”

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo made headlines and raised eyebrows Monday when he said that while Hurricane Katrina was deadlier than Hurricane Sandy, the latter storm was “more impactful” over all and “affected many, many more people and places than Katrina.” Mr. Cuomo added that Hurricane Sandy had a greater economic impact, destroyed or damaged more units of housing, affected more businesses and caused more customers to lose power. For our part, City Room decided to undertake a little truth-squadding. While apples-to-apples numbers for the two storms are very difficult to come by, especially given that Hurricane Sandy’s costs are still...

As I wrote this morning to the NewsBusters editor who alerted me to the Washington Post's editorial, "The GOP’s bizarre attack on Susan Rice," I don't read WaPo much, but somehow assume they're not quite as extreme as the New York Times. Silly me, judging by WaPo's ugly, over-the-top opinion item. Here's the ugly last paragraph from today's editorial: "Could it be, as members of the Congressional Black Caucus are charging, that the signatories of the letter are targeting Ms. Rice because she is an African American woman? The signatories deny that, and we can’t know their hearts. What we...

Obama Is Prominent in ‘SEAL Team Six,’ Weinstein Film LOS ANGELES — Thanks to the magic of editing, President Obama will have a starring role in a television drama about one of his biggest accomplishments — the killing of Osama bin Laden — that will be shown just two nights before the presidential election. But promotional materials and a copy of the movie provided to The New York Times this week also show that the film has been recut, using news and documentary footage to strengthen Mr. Obama’s role and provide a window into decision-making in the White House.

Jeff Burnside, the investigative reporter who was fired several months ago from NBC owned WTVJ, has landed a job with Seattle’s KOMO. WTVJ fired Burnside for placing an edited version of George Zimmerman‘s 911 call in his story about the Trayvon Martin case. Martin was the 17-year-old who was shot while walking through a gated community near Orlando. George Zimmerman faces second-degree murder charges in the case. Burnside is now the Seattle ABC affiliate’s senior investigative reporter.

WHAT MEDIA BIAS? NATIONWIDE RALLY SATURDAY OCTOBER 20th at a NEWS STUDIO NEAR YOU! http://politichicks.tv/column/nationwide-rage-against-the-media/ Please try to attend this rally OCTOBER 20th. If you can't attend I suggest you tape your rage and upload it to YouTube on October 20. We need to send a clear message that we have had enough, that we deserve better and that we know they are in bed with the White House "Crap Weasels". Lots of suggestions on the Los Angeles Facebook page. Los Angeles, https://www.facebook.com/groups/437279762974273/

A photograph taken by Getty Images on Friday of a man wearing a racist t-shirt at a Mitt Romney rally in Ohio has caused controversy over Getty’s unsubstantiated claim the man is a supporter of the Republican presidential nominee. The photo showed a tight shot of the back of a bald-headed white man wearing a black t-shirt emblazoned with all-capitalized white lettering that said, “Put the white back in the White House.” Above the lettering at the nape of the man’s neck a Romney-Ryan sticker was neatly applied to the t-shirt. Getty captioned the photo: LANCASTER, OH - OCTOBER 12:...

I went to Hulu and watched the SNL skit of the Obama/Romney debate. They made Romney into the unlikable person, made him say the most outrageously false statements such as he killed Osama bin Laden (Romney lied-straight out of the DNC talking points), and even had Obama being excused for his performance because he was thinking about what gift to get to his wife on their anniversary (such a romantic fellow!) and SNL even made a centerpiece of Al Gore's buffoonish excuse that Obama was affected by the altitude. I just turned off SNL after I watched their skit on...

Perhaps this one of the most important discussion threads ever regarding Legacy Media manipulation. We sincerely hope you will take the time to digest the content, think about the ramifications to what is here, and then share the information with others. This is not a matter of opinion, the CNN stories are documented, attributed and cited. They are factual. Everything is verifiable within the embedded links and citations. Believe it or not, just creating this discussion thread is risky. We are unable to expand. Before getting to the CNN Amber Lyon expose’ (which is incredible and troubling) let’s first back...

I am the woman in the Green Bay Packer jacket at Rep. Paul Ryan’s rally in Clinton who asked him the question about specific plans to fix our economy. Needless to say, I was quite shocked to learn the Obama campaign seized my question, putting out the statement “Even Ryan can’t attend his own rally without being called out.” I was not calling Ryan out. I had the opportunity to ask a direct question to Paul Ryan and what I got was a complete direct answer with no spin. Even though 600 other people were attending, I felt Mr Ryan...

This breaking story comes straight from The Blaze. A clip from a recent Romney/Ryan rally has recently been played over and over at MSNBC highlighting what appears to be an embarrassing moment on the campaign trail for Governor Romney. Originally aired on Wednesday's "Morning Joe," the clip shows Paul Ryan introducing Romney as the MSNBC-added text appears on the screen proclaiming that the crowd is shouting "Ryan!" Romney gets the mic and asks the crowd to say "Romney/Ryan!" Joe Scarborough covers his face and grumbles out the words, "Sweet Jesus." Then the Blaze received a call from one of the...

This election year, so much of the broadcast networks, their cable counterparts, and the major establishment print media are out of control with a deliberate and unmistakable leftist agenda.  To put it bluntly: you are rigging this election and taking sides in order to pre-determine the outcome.  In the quarter century since the Media Research Center was established to document liberal media bias, there has never been a more brazen and complete attempt by the liberal so-called “news” media to decide the outcome of an election. A free and balanced media are crucial to the health of this country. It...

During a Saturday fundraiser in Beverly Hills, Calif., which took in $6 million, Mitt Romney expressed his concerns over Ann Romney’s emergency landing on Friday. The candidate cast doubt on the mechanical design of airplane windows, in a general sense. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous....” he said.

The Romney campaign and other Republicans say polls showing President Obama with a significant lead over their candidate are inaccurate. They argue many mainstream polls skew in Obama’s favor because of sample sizes that base 2012 turnout projections on 2008, when Democrats — and Hispanics, blacks and young voters in particular — turned out in record numbers. “I don’t think [the polls] reflect the composition of what 2012 is going to look like,” Romney pollster Neil Newhouse said in an interview. Frustration that polls are skewed in favor of Obama has escalated among some on the right in recent weeks....

Did anyone think the release of Mitt Romney's tax returns would satisfy Democrats and make them focus on the real issues in this campaign, including President Obama's failed domestic and foreign policy record and approaching massive tax increases? If so, please call me for a great deal on Arizona swampland. The Obama campaign's deputy manager, Stephanie Cutter, accused Romney of taking advantage of lower tax rates for capital gains available only to "those at the top." Is Cutter saying Romney is wrong to obey tax law? The tax code is a mess. It, not Romney, should be the object of...

David Corn of Mother Jones released the “complete” audio and video of the secretly recorded Mitt Romney speech at a private fundraiser. Yet the complete audio and video is not complete. There is a gap in the recording immediately after Romney’s now famous discussion of the 47% of voters who don’t pay taxes. The cut in the audio and video comes while Romney is in mid-sentence, so we actually do not have the full audio of what Romney said on the subject.

Politico has abandoned any attempt to pose as an objective news source and is now functioning as the unofficial outlet for the Obama campaign, trading pieces they write that promulgate the Obama campaign’s narrative for scoops they get from the White House that either are from “anonymous” sources or access to White House documents. It’s a slimy and a contemptible relationship.

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times is reporting as the California state government is setting up its ObamaCare exchange, the exchange has hired a PR firm (with federal government money).

Zogby: Romney Running Worse Than McCain in ‘08 Thursday, 13 Sep 2012 06:05 PM President Barack Obama received a surprisingly strong bounce after the Democratic National Convention, and now leads GOP challenger Mitt Romney by nearly 6 points according to a new JZ Analytics poll. The national poll of likely voters shows Obama leading 47.7 percent to 42 percent, and indicates that Romney is not polling well enough among some conservative demographic groups: NASCAR fans, evangelicals, and the so-called “Walmart voters.” According to JZ Analytics pollster John Zogby, Romney is in a somewhat worse position than GOP nominee Sen. John...

@PeterHambyCNN: Ryan just called Florida "the breadbasket of the South" ... phrase has Civil War origins. Florida a major supplier food to the Confederacy

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I'm trying to put my finger on what bothers me the most. There's something that's been gnawing at me. I always try to not get caught up. It's very hard. It's hard to avoid this. The narrative. I was talking about the narrative when the program started. The daily media narrative. There is one. We wonder how they can all end up using the word "gravitas." We wonder how they can all end up using the same words. We heard it with Jan Crawford and Ari Shapiro setting the narrative. Grab audio sound bite 26. I'm sorry...

CBS REPORTER: I’m just trying to make sure that we’re just talking about, no matter who he calls on we’re covered on the one question.

New York - A prominent Catholic priest says he believes “youngsters” are often to blame for sexual abuse by priests and that priests who are first time offenders should not be jailed for their crime. Father Benedict Groeschel, founder of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, is well known as the host of Sunday Night Prime with Father Benedict Groeschel, a weekly show on Catholic television network EWTN. It was not what he said on his television show that has sparked controversy however, it is comments he made in an interview with the National Catholic Register that has outraged many. According...

The era of fact-checkers being trusted as honest brokers might be over, but that doesn't mean they won't do what the equally irrelevant mainstream media does: double down in their spewing of narrative-lies and propaganda to aid and abet the left. Case in point, Politifact. Politiact is the worst of the mainstream media's dishonest fact-checkers (no small feat). They're the ones who ruled as true the absolute lie that Obama increased federal spending at a lower rate than any other modern president. Because there is no bottom to how low Politifact will go, Politifact is now brazenly lying by awarding a...

Earlier this week, Senator Al Franken of Minnesota joined Vice President Joe Biden for a campaign event in Minnesota. "Biden got plenty of support from Minnesota Democrats," PostBulletin.com reports. "Sen. Al Franken praised Obama for pushing the health care law, saying it will help more seniors get help paying for prescriptions and will ensure Medicare's solvency for an additional eight years." But before Franken was a senator he was a writer on the TV show Saturday Night Live. Then, he famously joked about raping CBS reporter Lesley Stahl. As New York magazine reported in 1995, from a writing session that...

Brittney Leon and Terri-Ann Simonelli, a pregnant same-sex couple, went to a Las Vegas hospital where they were told their legal domestic partnership was invalid, as far as the hospital was concerned. Hours later, after being “emotionally upset” over their treatment, Brittney Leon, the pregnant mother, lost their baby. Nevada has banned same-sex marriage, but a 2009 Nevada law makes domestic partnerships equivalent to marriage, yet Spring Valley Hospital’s official policy is that same-sex couples must secure a power of attorney in order to be able to make medical decisions for each other, or even to be notified of the...

DEBATE MODERATORS ANNOUNCED: PBS Jim Lehrer, first Pres debate, Oct 3 Denver... CNN Candy Crowley, town hall, Oct 16, Hempsted LI... CBS Bob Schieffer, third Pres debate, Oct. 22, Boca Raton... ABC Martha Radditz, VP debate, Oct 11, Danville VA... FLASHBACK: CROWLEY: Some Think Ryan Pick 'Some Sort of Ticket Death Wish'..

WASHINGTON—In his debut as Mitt Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan promised "America's comeback team" won't duck tough budget issues, although the man standing next to him has kept his head low so far. Romney vowed the duo would "preserve" Medicare, an eye-popping claim considering Ryan wants to transform the program from the ground up. Not all the rhetoric fit neatly with reality or with the record when Romney introduced his Republican vice presidential choice to the nation Saturday. A look at some of the claims by the Wisconsin congressman and Romney, and how they compare with the facts. ROMNEY: "Unlike...

Via the Washington Free Beacon, why on earth is the White House press secretary wading into a dispute related to the presidential race? I'm sure GOP press secretaries have done that too for Republican incumbents but I don't like it from either party. Carney's supposed to be a liaison between the president and the media so that the public can stay informed about what's going on with the executive branch. The only questions he should be fielding vis-a-vis Romney are when Team Mitt makes a charge about the administration’s policies that requires fact checking. The One's paying Ben LaBolt for...

Sandra Fluke will introduce President Obama at a campaign event in Denver on Wednesday, a further sign that the incumbent's re-election team is putting a heavy emphasis on women's issues. Fluke, a Georgetown student, testified before Congress earlier this year in favor of health insurance granting coverage of contraception. Her stance was cheered by women's rights advocates and many on the left -- but denounced by conservative outlets, including the influential radio host. Limbaugh slurred the 31-year-old student as a "slut" and a "prostitute," creating a frenzy that led some of his advertisers to abandon him. While Limbaugh later apologized,...

Gay marriage activists are planning to swarm Starbucks on Tuesday in an attempt to counter the record sales from last week’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. The chicken chain enjoyed a surge of support during the Wednesday event, dreamed up by former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee after Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy went on the record backing the “biblical definition of the family unit.” A follow-up protest from Chick-fil-A critics on Friday, which was dubbed Same Sex Kiss Day, was more subdued.

Los Angeles police were called to a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Hollywood on Friday amid a national "kiss day" related to the company president's opposition to gay marriage. Authorities said the call was prompted by a heavy media presence at the restaurant that was making it difficult for the business to operate. There were no problems related to protests.

New polling data out from Pew Research Center finds President Obama with a double-digit lead over Mitt Romney nationally: Currently, 51% say they support Obama or lean toward him, while 41% support or lean toward Romney. This is largely unchanged from earlier in July and consistent with polling over the course of this year. Across eight Pew Research Center surveys since January, Obama has led Romney by between four and 12 percentage points. Obama holds only a four-point edge (48% to 44%) across 12 of this year’s key battleground states. While the data does not allow a state-by-state analysis, the...