Free Republic

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, those who buy health insurance as individuals or through a small business are about to be socked with huge premium increases, ironically as a result of efforts to make health care reform more palatable.

This last summer, it was widely (and embarassingly) reported that a shadowy internet group had formed with the intent to 'discuss' (read: orchestrate, collude, plan and slant) the news. This group of approximately 400 journalist from many different 'media' outlets had met regularly to decide on what -- and how -- the news would be presented. From WikiPedia: JournoList (sometimes referred to as the J-List)[1] was a private Google Groups forum for discussing politics and the news media with 400 journalists, academics and others, all with political views ranging from centrist to center-left to leftist. Ezra Klein, an American blogger...

Harry Reid may have deserted Pres. Obama over the Ground Zero mosque, but PBO can count on at least one stalwart defender: Norah O'Donnell. On today's Morning Joe, the MSNBC "correspondent" declared that the prez is deserving of praise for his position. Then, dancing a quantum leap further, O'Donnell accused mosque opponents of acting "like the people who attacked America and killed 3,000 people." View video here.

Spencer Ackerman - Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect Thomas Adcock - New York Law Journal Ben Adler - Newsweek, POLITICO Mike Allen - POLITICO Eric Alterman - The Nation, Media Matters for America Marc Ambinder - The Atlantic Greg Anrig - The Century Foundation Ryan Avent - Economist Dean Baker - The American Prospect Nick Baumann - Mother Jones Josh Bearman - LA Weekly Steven Benen - The Carpetbagger Report Ari Berman - The Nation Jared Bernstein - Economic Policy Institute Michael Berube - Crooked Timer, Pennsylvania State University Brian Beutler - The Media...

In the first voter referendum on ObamaCare, Missourians on Tuesday overwhelmingly (by 71 to 29 percent) backed Proposition C which called upon the state to enact a statute to “deny the government authority to penalize citizens for refusing to purchase private health insurance,” an outcome the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described as “rebuking President Barack Obama's administration.” On Wednesday night, however, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts skipped the bad news for President Obama – yet all found time to celebrate his 49th birthday. (The Missouri repudiation of a central tenet of ObamaCare came a day after another setback...

Trevor Loudon Obama File #109 JournoList was an email group of up to 400 prominent U.S. journalists, academics and “new media” activists, who reportedly colluded in the run up to the 2008, to influence public opinion in favor of the Barack Obama and the Democrats and against their Republican opponents. Many “JournoListas” were involved with Marxist based based organizations such as Democratic Socialists of America, or the far left Institute for Policy Studies. Some, like Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect, had close ties to the Obama campaign and Administration. An overlapping group of “JournoListas” , at least eight strong...

It's no secret that POLITICO is a biased news organization. The online polictical blog is as progressive as they come. Very agenda driven. In our reporting we have already addressed the fact that Journolist members are solidly entrenched inside POLITICO's upper levels. Something Roger Simon, who calls the website home, tried to downplay. John Nolte over at Big Journalism isn't buying it, and has a simply marvelous retort: You say MSM, I say Politico. You say corrupt, I say Politico. Today, Politico’s Roger Simon was kind enough to almost scold JournoList for its lasting effect on his precious little profession...

Spencer Ackerman - Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect Thomas Adcock - New York Law Journal Ben Adler - Newsweek, POLITICO Mike Allen - POLITICO Eric Alterman - The Nation, Media Matters for America Marc Ambinder - The Atlantic Greg Anrig - The Century Foundation Ryan Avent - Economist Dean Baker - The American Prospect Nick Baumann - Mother Jones Josh Bearman - LA Weekly Steven Benen - The Carpetbagger Report Ari Berman - The Nation Jared Bernstein - Economic Policy Institute Michael Berube - Crooked Timer, Pennsylvania State University Brian Beutler - The Media...

Spencer Ackerman - Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect Thomas Adcock - New York Law Journal Ben Adler - Newsweek, POLITICO Mike Allen - POLITICO Eric Alterman - The Nation, Media Matters for America Marc Ambinder - The Atlantic Greg Anrig - The Century Foundation Ryan Avent - Economist Dean Baker - The American Prospect Nick Baumann - Mother Jones Josh Bearman - LA Weekly Steven Benen - The Carpetbagger Report Ari Berman - The Nation Jared Bernstein - Economic Policy Institute Michael Berube - Crooked Timer, Pennsylvania State University Brian Beutler - The Media...

Today’s lead story at Politico is one of the finer examples you will find of ideological ax-grinding dressed up as straight-news reporting. The piece, by Ken Vogel and Keach Hagey, uses just about every journalistic trick in the book, assembling a selection of quotes and points to establish a narrative that was set in the authors’ minds long before they sat down at their keyboards. But the piece does so much more too; it flirts with some blurry ethical lines as well. Shouldn’t, for example, a Politico article about Journolist have perhaps mentioned or disclosed that at least some reporters...

The oil tanker spill in the Delaware River, caused by a Venezuelan-chartered single hull (cheap and old) tanker is worse than previously thought. First reported (in gallons - to make it seem bigger) at just over 700 barrels of oil, it is now suspected that as much as 11,000 barrels or more could be spilled. This may loom as a huge PR problem for the Castroite Chavez regime. The MSM will avoid referring to Venezuela's role as long as possible, but that's why the internet still has a role, even after Rather's resignation. Chavez: slayer of duckies and birdies.