Free Republic

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana recently wrote an opinion column that was critical of trans athletes and USA Today-owned newspapers deleted the piece without even notifying Kennedy. This is reminiscent of the time in 2020 when Republican Senator Tom Cotton wrote an op-ed for the New York Times that was censored because it sent the paper’s staffers into fits of rage. Cotton had suggested using the military to control the riots in the ‘summer of love.’ Isn’t it fascinating that this censorship always seems to go in only one direction? ... Kennedy commented: “They think they are the speech...

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle called upon the president of Chicago’s Federal Reserve to tell viewers that they are economically far better off than they think. "We need an economic explainer," the MSNBC host said. "People are confused, they’re exhausted, but they’re also doing quite well." Ruhle, who hosts MSNBC’s "The Eleventh Hour," had been discussing a recent Federal Reserve report that "shows people are still struggling to cover day-to-day expenses, even as inflation has slowed." She noted how some major brands are responding by enticing consumers with slashed prices, "Target says it is cutting prices on 5,000 essential items, things...

Some wealthy Jews would like to influence American public opinion. They also appeal to their elected representatives. That is the "news" in a Washington Post "exclusive" that ran Thursday, and the paper makes clear that there is something very untoward about it. The piece, by reporters Hannah Natanson and Emmanuel Felton, is based on an inside look into an online chat that included New York City mayor Eric Adams and several wealthy New York businessmen. In that chat, several people pressed Adams to send the New York Police Department to clear out Columbia University’s dangerous, disgraceful, and violent pro-Hamas encampment,...

Overwhelming majorities of Americans have lost their trust in the media to accurately report the news, according to a new poll out Wednesday. In a survey from the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a whopping 83 percent of respondents said they were concerned the media would “report inaccurate information or disinformation” in their 2024 election coverage. Eighty-one percent said they are worried the media will report unverified information, and 77 percent said they feared the media would stick to the facts — but be dishonest in their framing, only covering things favorable to...

Below is my column in The Hill on the trouble brewing at CBS over the seizure of the files of acclaimed investigative reporter Catherine Herridge. The column broke the story on the uproar over not just her being laid off but her being locked out from her files. I am now hearing from CBS sources that the network is moving toward a resolution to turn over the files after the outcry. However, the concerns over Herridge’s firing and the network’s handling of her confidential notes continues to draw fire from journalists and commentators. The union issued a statement (below) after...

When are 335,000 new jobs not 335,000 new jobs? When Washington makes them up and the media dutifully report them with all due breathlessness. ... The workweek, itself, contracted to 34.1 hours from 34.3 in December and 34.4 in November. This is the lowest number since March 2020 (the pandemic) and, before that, November 2008 (Great Recession)." Rosenberg Research calculated that, despite the job gains, total hours worked actually contracted .. In fact, the Household Survey — "the one the media ignores," as Barone put it — "showed up with a -31K headline jobs number, and a fall of -63K...

Earlier this week, reports emerged that digital news outlet The Messenger would shut down entirely.. More than 500 journalists lost their jobs in January as multiple outlets shed staff in the face of adverse industry conditions. A report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas highlighted the 528 layoffs across digital, print, and broadcast news media in January. The figure marked a substantial uptick from the 30 layoffs the firm identified the prior month and the highest total since last March's 532. The news industry lost more than 3,087 positions last year, an increase from 1,808 in 2022 and 1,511 in 2021....

Is The Washington Post in full-scale collapse? A recent look at the numbers provides a fairly convincing answer to that question. According to the report, not only is the Post losing $100 million a year, but it lost over half of its online engagement by the end of 2023. The signs were already there by mid-year, and the worst has come to pass. See: The Washington Post Is Facing a Financial Buzzsaw“Of that audience, less than one in five read more than a single article per month, while less than one in 500 actually convert to a paying subscription.”— Josh...

The New York Times is at it again with its dissemination of fake news. This isn’t just another accidentally incorrect story, like so many before, or their “Pulitzer prize-winning” fake Russia hoax stories; this time, they’re actively altering quotes, presumably to shield Joe Biden. This latest fake news scandal comes on the heels of a recent Gallup poll that highlighted a historic low in American trust in the fake news legacy media. Axios: American’s trust in media has fallen to a historic low, according to new polling from Gallup. Why it matters: Trust in media had previously dropped to 32%...

After a much longer delay than I hoped would happen, I am very happy to say that Will Irwin's The American Newspaper is now available as a public domain audio book. For those of you who have strong feelings against media bias, this one is one you will not want to overlook. It's also a short work. There are only 15 segments, and the average runtime for each segment is often times in the 20-25 minute range making it both easy and quick to consume. Irwin properly frames how media use their power for political ends, and how their power...

Jazmine Hughes, a writer for the New York Times Magazine, resigned this week after a conflict with her editors over signing of an anti-Israeli letter. New York Times Magazine Editor Jake Silverstein said Hughes violated the company’s policy on public protest. The incident exposes the inherent conflicts — and hypocrisy — in the shift away from neutrality in reporting in media companies and graduate programs. I have long been a critic of what I called “advocacy journalism” as it began to emerge in journalism schools. These schools encourage students to use their “lived expertise” and to “leave[] neutrality behind.” Instead,...

A major broadcaster in North America is reportedly instructing its journalists not to refer to Hamas attackers as "terrorists." ... Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, or CBC, which issued an internal memo over the weekend in the wake of Hamas' onslaught of killings and kidnappings in Israel, with more than 700 murdered and at least 2,300 wounded. ... written by CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corp) employee George Achi instructing reporters to: 1. not to mention Gaza has not been occupied since 2005. 2. not refer to Palestinian terrorists as terrorists.. ... do not describe 2005 as 'the end of the occupation' as Israel...

After a full media cycle of apoplexy and pearl-clutching, which included Andrew Weissmann appearing on MSNBC to declare “It’s the end of Trump,” CBS is now reporting there is no Defense Department memo about attacking Iran – the foundation of the media claims surrounding the leaked audio tapes from Special Counsel Jack Smith. Worse still, and exactly as CTH previously outlined, despite the claims by CNN about how this audio would be used as the “central element” by the prosecution of Trump, the audio and mysterious memo are not part of the Special Counsel case. ..... Snip..... (Via CBS) –...

All three evening news broadcasts Thursday ignored the United States Supreme Court ruling against the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and sharply limited its powers to regulate wetlands. It was a big win for property rights in the United States and a stinging defeat for the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA. Since that was the case, it's unsurprising that the "big three" evening news broadcasts of ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News would ignore the story. Instead, news about a recent shark attack (ABC & CBS), and another segment on recently deceased singer Tina...

When asked if they agree that the media are “truly the enemy of the people,” 59 percent of those polled agreed, while only 36 percent disagreed. In other words, a pretty large majority of Americans agree with former President Trump that the media are our enemy — which is 100 percent true. Rasmussen surveyed 1,002 likely American voters between May 16-18 and also discovered most people know the political media cannot be trusted, and this same political media favor the Democrat party. “Do you trust the political news you are getting?” Only 30 percent said yes, while 52 percent said...

The Washington Post and The New York Times knew from the beginning that the purported Russia “collusion” story — the assertion that Donald Trump conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election — was a hoax, ... WaPo and the NYT garnered Pulitzer Prizes — the most prestigious award in American journalism — for their “deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage” of the Democrat-pushed hoax. Uh-huh. Deeply sourced from the likes of thoroughly discredited former FBI director, James Comey and others. Moreover, both formerly-respected papers refuse to return the Pulitzers, following the release of the damning Durham Report, which...

Attacks on churches and Christian institutions on American soil are at an all-time high. The March 27, 2023 killings in Nashville — where a woman claiming to be a man (aka “transgender”) stormed a private Christian school and murdered three children and three adults — is just the spectacular tip of a growing but concealed iceberg. According to recent reports by the Family Research Council, “criminal acts against churches have been steadily on the rise for the past several years. ... there were more church attacks in the first quarter of this year than there were in the first quarters...

To give scale to the growing insignificance of broadcast news networks, consider this fact-based analysis. Tucker Carlson released a two-minute video on Twitter that had 72.7 million views in 24 hours. The entire cable news industry combined, every show on every channel, over the corresponding timeframe had 53.1 million views. ... Tucker Carlson had more viewers than the combined total legacy media cable news networks combined. Yeah, there are more of us than them…. and Tucker Carlson is the most powerful man in the media right now. “When honest people say what’s true … they become powerful. At the same...

Fifty percent of Americans believe that the news media lies in order to promote a narrative. Only 25% actually believe this isn’t true. The rest are skeptical, unsure of what to think. Guess who that 25% are… ... These numbers don’t come from some right-wing polling outfit. They come from Gallup, not Rassmussen or OneAmerica. If you look at these numbers Americans believe that the news media is rich, but don’t care about them or tell the truth. Which, to be honest, is exactly right. They are wealthy and do only care about themselves and their allies. And they surely...

VIDEOWho out there would actually pay $4.50 for the weekday edition of a newspaper consisting of only 26 pages total? That is an even bigger mystery than how newspapers think they can get away with charging that much for their ultra-thin newspapers. Oh, and I would love to know the TRUE circulation numbers of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. I've seen the "official" circulation figure and no way does the real circulation come close to what they are pretending for the benefit of the few advertisers they have left.