Free Republic

It was only a matter of time, I suppose. Comic-book superheroes have gone into the liberal political indoctrination business.The September issue of the DC Comics book "Justice League of America," or "JLA," presents Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman as U.N.-promoting paper dolls for a thinly disguised propaganda play against President Bush's war on Saddam Hussein.The story begins with a "napalmetto" attack on home soil. President Lex Luthor -- how nice, a supervillain standing in for President Bush -- connects the terror attack to "Qurac" and says the "Joint Chiefs are recommending military pressure." Wonder Woman protests: "International law and...

AOL Time Warner will become simply Time Warner again, the Washington Post reported today, citing persons close to the company's board of directors. The board is expected to approve the name change at its meeting in New York on Thursday. The newspaper indicated that the change was being pushed by Chairman and CEO Richard Parsons, who had previously opposed it. The company also will revert to its former TWX stock-market symbol and return to its old logo, the Post said.

A day after the Recording Industry Association of America filed a slew of lawsuits against alleged illegal song swappers, it became the target of legal action over its own "amnesty" program. California resident Eric Parke, on behalf of the general public of the state, filed a suit Tuesday against the trade association because of its amnesty, or "Clean Slate," program, a provisional shield it introduced Monday that allows people to avoid legal action by stepping forward and forfeiting any illegally traded songs. The suit, filed in the Marin Superior Court of California, charges that the RIAA's program is a deceptive...

They make you wait 2 years for a new Soprano's but they can fire off a leftist propaganda piece in a couple of months

Director Sidney Lumet is shooting a movie for HBO called "Strip Search” that will look into supposed abuses of civil rights since 9/11. "It’s inspired by real-life incidents, examples of a sort of McCarthyism that has existed since the attacks,” MSNBC quotes an "insider" as saying. "It’s about people who’ve been punished for saying and thinking things in a country where there’s supposed to be freedom of speech and thought. There’s no doubt that it will be controversial, given the level of emotions on this subject.” Really? The primary places that Americans are punished for speaking and thinking are the...

(CNSNews.com) - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing has cut off all funding for Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, USA Today reported. According to the newspaper, "A person familiar with NASCAR's internal decisions confirmed that the racing organization has not paid Jackson's group any money in 2003 and doesn't plan to." USA Today reported that NASCAR has given a total of $250,000 to the Rainbow/PUSH sports division, generating criticism from conservative groups and racing fans, who see the money as appeasement. As CNSNews.com reported earlier, Bill Shack, a board member of Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said auto-racing organizations such as...

<p>With Fox News clobbering it by a 1 million to 2 million viewer margin at night and a 250,000 margin in the morning, CNN, the onetime cable news leader, is regrouping.</p> <p>Starting today, former NBC Weekend Today host Soledad O'Brien joins Bill Hemmer on American Morning from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET/4 to 7 PT. O'Brien replaces Paula Zahn, who has moved to the 8 p.m. ET/5 PT slot, where she faces cable king Bill O'Reilly. Former ABC anchor Anderson Cooper now anchors the 7 p.m. ET/4 PT hour.</p>

It is becoming increasingly clear that the mainstream press have become 'information brokers' who present very specific information in a manor which meets a very specific agenda. "Baghdad Bob" serves as an example even a casual viewer can understand of the crucial role control of the news media and the dissemination of propaganda plays in the ability to gain and maintain control of an entire nation. Yet here in the US, where we treasure our heritage of a free press, we've have hardly seemed to notice that ownership of vast media entities has been consolidated into the hands of just...

<p>March 19, 2003 -- Ted Turner says he tried to go to Baghdad to cover the war live for CNN but wasn't allowed. Turner, the largest shareholder of CNN parent AOL Time Warner, volunteered for dangerous war-zone duty, but said his CNN executives believed he couldn't handle it.</p>

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - AOL Time Warner Inc. on Thursday ruled out any further consideration of merging its CNN cable news network with ABC News, saying a combination proved too problematic to pursue. The decision, announced on the air by CNN's "Moneyline" host Lou Dobbs and followed by a brief corporate statement, came months after word first surfaced of merger talks between CNN and ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co. The two sides had said a potential merger could help the two companies save money and leverage their combined resources in the face of increasingly heated competition among television...

...Yesterday CNN confirmed that last Tuesday night, after anchoring the State of the Union address, [Aaron] Brown spent around $13,000 of his own money to charter a private jet from Washington so he could make his Wednesday morning tee time. Initially Brown had planned to fly commercial, a CNN spokeswoman told us, but those plans fell apart when President Bush's speech was scheduled. An expensive charter flight was Brown's only option if he was to keep his commitment in California....

<p>NEW YORK (AP) — CNN founder Ted Turner said Tuesday that he doesn't have the money to buy the network back from AOL Time Warner.</p> <p>Turner, who resigned as vice chairman of the AOL Time Warner board last week and is said to be dissatisfied with how CNN is being run, told CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace that he doesn't have enough money.</p>

[...]But beneath the surface, another figure marked a seminal moment for Dulles-based America Online Inc., the media company's Internet unit: The number of U.S. subscribers fell for the first time ever on a quarterly basis, dropping by 170,000 in the last three months of 2002. The dip occurred despite the aggressive launch last fall of the company's newest software, AOL 8.0; the distribution of millions of free AOL computer disks; and the outlay of more than $1 billion on advertising and promotion during the year."The modest decline in AOL's subscriber base will spark renewed fears over AOL's long-term viability," investment...

Pornography has become a huge business, with glitzy trade shows to promote its products. (ABCNEWS.com) American Porn Corporate America Is Profiting From Porn — Quietly Jan. 28 — Pornography has grown into a $10 billion business — bigger than the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball combined — and some of the nation's best-known corporations are quietly sharing the profits. Companies like General Motors, AOL Time Warner and Marriott earn revenue by piping adult movies into Americans' homes and hotel rooms, but you won't see anything about it in their company reports. And you won't hear them talking about...

Developing...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - AOL Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company, on Wednesday posted a loss for all of 2002 of nearly $100 billion, the largest annual loss in U.S. history, after taking a $45.5 billion charge in the fourth quarter to write down the value of assets. AOL reported a fourth quarter net loss of $44.9 billion, or $10.04 a share, after taking the non-cash charge to write down the value of its embattled America Online business and other assets, compared to a year-ago loss of $1.8 billion, or 41 cents a share. The company, which in...

The board of AOL Time Warner named its chief executive, Richard D. Parsons, to be its chairman this afternoon, succeeding Stephen M. Case, the architect of AOL's acquisition of Time Warner, who submitted his resignation under pressure. Mr. Parsons will take over as chairman in May. He will remain chief executive as well. The move completes the surprising consolidation of Mr. Parsons's power over the company in the last two years since AOL acquired Time Warner. Named co-chief operating officer at the time, Mr. Parsons was largely pushed aside during the merger negotiations and crucial decisions afterwards. But when the...

<p>Jim Walton, the new CEO of CNN, went to work at the network 22 years ago as a video journalist, a weighty title for the bottom-rung, low-pay job of delivering tapes and other gofer work. The infant network employed 200.</p>

breakin

AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) appears to be dissing investors -- even slapping them in the face -- by disclosing key information to analysts before sharing it publicly. This issue involves accounting for goodwill. We'll explain.Goodwill is value that an acquiring company pays above the estimated value of the assets it acquires. When a company acquires or merges with another, and the stated value of the deal at the time is higher than the asset's estimated worth later, there is goodwill to write down. And now, after new 2002 rules, goodwill must be reappraised and written down annually, rather than amortized over many years. AOL Time...