Free Republic

A deputy press secretary for Barack Obama's reelection campaign married an ABC reporter over the weekend. The ABC reporter, Matthew Jaffe, "covering the 2012 presidential campaign," according to his biography on the website of ABC News. "For the past year he traveled around the country covering the Republican primary, from the Iowa Straw Poll to the various debates to this year's primaries and caucuses." The deputy press secretary Jaffe married is Katie Hogan. Many members of Obama's reelection team and the press celebrated the wedding together Saturday. Mike Allen of Politico reports on the wedding: MARRIED SATURDAY EVENING at Lake...

When U.S. news outlets' lucrative peddling of Chinese propaganda was exposed in 2019 and 2020, it was a scandal. Human rights groups condemned the practice, and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal swore off Chinese Communist Party money. In the years since, however, a number of major U.S. newspapers and magazines have kept at it—accepting hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars from the Chinese Communist Party in exchange for publishing content by China Daily, a state-owned English-language paper. China Daily's Foreign Agents Registration Act filings show that between October 2020 and October 2023, the CCP mouthpiece paid...

Four months before my daughter’s wedding, she told me that her uncle (my brother, “Dave”) would make her feel unsafe if he was a guest. She asked me not to invite him. My daughter is very politically progressive, as are many of her friends, and although she and Dave have always had a good relationship (I thought), he is a conservative voter and has supported candidates we all abhor. Dave has always been very nice, so my daughter’s request surprised me. I wrote Dave a very nice note, telling him that we would not be comfortable with him at the...

The Chicago Tribune congratulated Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson Wednesday, but balked at his lack of praise for former President Barack Obama, whose political rise began in their city, despite acknowledging God. The Tribune editorial board hailed "Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson" as the incoming 57th mayor of Chicago, noting he is an "inspiring orator" and claiming, "This will be a City Hall first for most Chicagoans." The paper praised his charisma on stage as a "quality that many of Johnson’s predecessors in the office have lacked," but said one aspect of his acceptance speech was noticeably missing. "He found a place...

The three jurors who voted against the death penalty for Parkland killer Nikolas Cruz did so based on “mitigating circumstances” from Cruz’s life. They made the wrong call, but their rationale is superior to the reason many will agree with the sentence: a blanket opposition to the death penalty. Public support for capital punishment has slid over the last 30 years, remaining a majority opinion but barely so. Those who oppose death as a punishment often have kind, even noble intentions. Yet their well-meaning beliefs do not translate into justice or the common good. The death penalty is consistent with...

Tom Jones at the Florida-based Poynter Institute -- touted by Johnny Dollar as a "Stelter press agent" -- has penned a deeply disturbed piece headlined "CNN ‘hewing toward the center’ is not necessarily good for our democracy: Pushing for fairness and completeness in journalism is never a bad idea. But presenting 'both sides' sometimes can be." Jones was attempting to shame the Chicago Tribune for an editorial touting this purported CNN move to the center -- which sorely lacks evidence so far, other than dismissing a few flagrantly opinionated staffers like Stelter and John Harwood. Jones sounds like a press...

The Chicago Bears have signed a purchase agreement for Arlington International Racecourse, a move that takes the team a step closer toward securing property for a new stadium and leaving their longtime home at Soldier Field. The Bears on June 17 submitted one of multiple bids to purchase the Arlington Heights property, which Churchill Downs Inc. last winter announced would be up for sale for redevelopment. Bears President and CEO Ted Phillips said in a statement that finalizing the agreement was the “critical next step in continuing our exploration of the property and its potential.” Churchill Downs announced the sale...

In an interview last year, Mr. Freeman argued that the austere cuts enacted at his newspapers reflected a more realistic understanding of the industry’s direction and better positioned Alden-owned publishers for the pandemic’s downswing. “We were prepared for a real step down in terms of a recession because we were honest about what was needed in the future,” he said. “Numbers don’t lie.” The newspaper industry’s numbers looked bleak even before the pandemic. Annual advertising revenue dropped 70%, or $34 billion, between 2005 and 2018, according to estimates by the Pew Research Center. More than 1,800 newspapers closed between 2004...

Click here to read the full articleUnearthed doc­u­ments from one of the lead­ing Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty pro­pa­gan­da groups reveal the names of “main­stream” U.S. jour­nal­ists tak­ing jun­kets from the group in exchange for favor­able cov­er­age, The Nation­al Pulse can exclu­sive­ly reveal. The trips often came just before opin­ion edi­to­ri­als and news reports excus­ing Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty crimes, or oppos­ing trade show­downs with the nation.The Nation­al Pulse can now exclu­sive­ly reveal West­ern jour­nal­ists – includ­ing those praised by Pres­i­dent Biden and mar­ried to poten­tial mem­bers of his White House – who are list­ed as hav­ing accept­ed trips from the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist...

In an effort to reach Black and Latino communities that have been hard hit by the coronavirus but have lagged behind the rest of the state on vaccinations, Illinois on Friday launched a $10 million public awareness campaign to combat vaccine hesitancy. The multimedia campaign was announced as the total number of vaccinations administered in Illinois passed 3 million, with more than 1 million residents now fully immunized with two shots. Speaking outside Family Christian Health Center in south suburban Harvey, Gov. J.B. Pritzker framed vaccine education as an issue of equity, a notion he and other state officials have...

A Florida appeals court ruled Wednesday that police violated the rights of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and others when they secretly video recorded them paying for massage parlor sex acts, barring the tapes’ use at trial and dealing a potentially deadly blow to their prosecution. The state 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Kraft's rights were violated under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. “The type of law enforcement surveillance utilized in these cases is extreme. While there will be situations which may warrant the use of the techniques at issue,...

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass is telling the woke apologist sharks for liberal billionaire George Soros at his paper’s union to pound sand.

I think Soros is pumping a lot of money into Political Opposition "Journalism." I remember when the Weekly Standard, failing and desperate for money and for a new buyer, started claiming that Soros had not meant he helped Nazis catalogue the art collections of Jews when he said he helped Nazis catalogue the art collections of Jews. George Soros seemed very interested in Reputation Management, and more determined than ever to impose socialism on America through spending his millions, and suddenly all sorts of people were very, very interested in helping him. Now Soros' paid minions have come to #Cancel...

After 23 years as the Chicago Tribune’s white male conservative standard-bearer, John Kass is about to lose his coveted spot on Page 2 and his status as the newspaper’s “lead columnist.” Colin McMahon, editor-in-chief of the Tribune, today announced plans to reorganize the paper’s columnists and separate their work from the news section. Within the next few days the changes will be unveiled in print and online to help readers differentiate between news and opinions, he said. One effect will be to relegate Kass and other columnists farther back in the print edition and label them more clearly as opinion...

All sports fans, and most everybody else, will get a kick out of this letter written to the Chicago Tribune. No matter which side you are on in the matter of renaming the Washington Redskins, this guy is hilarious. This is an e-mail sent to Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune after an article he published concerning a name change for the Washington Redskins. Dear Mr. Page: I agree with our Native American population. I am highly jilted by the racially charged name of the Washington Redskins. One might argue that to name a professional football team after Native Americans...

I love Elizabeth Warren. She’s got the the intellectual breadth of a policy wonk; the strategic touch of a U.S. senator who’s served on banking, housing, health, education, labor and pensions committees; the gentle, no-nonsense grace of a longtime schoolteacher; a progressive agenda; boundless energy; a sly wit and an enormous heart.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday lambasted as “clearly racist” and “deeply offensive” a tweet by the Chicago Teachers Union depicting an apparent cartoon version of her tied up, wearing a police uniform and being unmasked by the characters from the “Scooby-Doo” TV show. The tweet depicts the African American mayor bound with rope, surrounded by the white characters, who have taken a police officer mask off her head to reveal that the officer is actually Lightfoot. It’s a play on the scene at the end of each episode of the Hanna Barbera cartoon, when the team of youngsters would solve...

One of China’s main propaganda outlets has paid American newspapers nearly $19 million for advertising and printing expenses over the past four years, according to documents filed with the Justice Department. China Daily, an English-language newspaper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, has paid more than $4.6 million to The Washington Post and nearly $6 million to The Wall Street Journal since November 2016, the records show. Both newspapers have published paid supplements that China Daily produces called “China Watch.” The inserts are designed to look like real news articles, though they often contain a pro-Beijing spin on contemporary news...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city will not tolerate vigilantism after groups of mostly white men patrolled the streets of the Bridgeport neighborhood on Wednesday night in response to a nearby city protest. Multiple streets were blocked in the Bridgeport neighborhood Wednesday night as nearby protests dispersed. Near West Pershing Road, water gushed from an open fire hydrant as small groups gathered on corners. Some of the men held bats. One wore a shirt that said “All Lives Matter,” one sipped a beer and another waved at an officer as he drove by. Additional groups of people, some armed...

CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city will not tolerate vigilantism after groups of mostly white men patrolled the streets of the Bridgeport neighborhood on Wednesday night in response to a nearby city protest. Multiple streets were blocked in the Bridgeport neighborhood Wednesday night as nearby protests dispersed. Near West Pershing Road, water gushed from an open fire hydrant as small groups gathered on corners. Some of the men held bats. One wore a shirt that said “All Lives Matter,” one sipped a beer and another waved at an officer as he drove by. Additional groups of people,...