Free Republic

This is how the muzzling starts: not with a boot on your neck, but with the fear of one that runs so deep that you muzzle yourself. Maybe it’s the story you decide against doing because it’s liable to provoke a press-bullying president to put the power of his office behind his attempt to destroy your reputation by falsely calling your journalism “fake.”

What are liberals going to say for themselves if Donald Trump gets assassinated? That’s a question worth pondering as a new effort is under way to delegitimize The Donald in the wake of his remarks on the Second Amendment. Leftists are accusing Trump of trying to incite an attack on Hillary Clinton from “Second Amendment people.” They have been using such intemperate language that it wouldn’t be surprising if someone took a shot at The Donald. (Feds suspect a British national tried to do so at a rally in June after attempting to grab a police officer’s gun to carry...

Because everyone knows that Trump’s followers are barely civilized, some of them in more distant regions man-ape hybrids. And everyone knows that “Second Amendment people” are not united behind part of the Bill of Rights; they are using that as disguise of their true nature as bloodthirsty assassins. The media are once again making themselves appear ridiculous, twisting Trump’s words and exposing their own disdain for Trump’s followers. They are following a general script. Samantha Strayer of The Federalist identifies the pattern: The media frenzy surrounding this election, the 24/7 news-cycle, and Trump’s gumption ensure we’re constantly talking about him,...

The president-elect has to take a stand on Bush's dark legacy. A small and largely unnoticed spat among the transition planners for the president-elect, Barack Obama, broke out last week. It was the first genuinely passionate debate among the Obamaites and it centres on a terribly difficult and terribly important decision that will be among the first that Obama has to make. How does he deal with the legacy of criminal actions of his predecessor's administration when it comes to detention, interrogation, abuse and torture of terror suspects? That has long hovered in the back of the minds of those...

Are you looking for hard hitting, serious journalism? Don't turn to the syndicated "newsmagazines" like Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, or The Insider (not that anyone ever did, of course). They are apparently admitting right up front that they have every intention of pumping up the Obama mythos by treating him "like royalty." TV Week is reporting that all the so-called "newsmagazines" (a misnomer for sure as tabloid spectacles are more to the truth of the matter) are going to try and fuel a ratings bump by promulgating Obamalot in a direct emulation of JFK's mythical "Camelot" years in office --...

The purest “Countdown” segment you’ll ever see: Not only is his reaction a foregone conclusion before the tape begins, but the commentary itself is largely dispensed with in favor of a sustained, closed-captioned sneer. Why they don’t use this gimmick for all footage of Republicans, with Olby’s theatrical mugging acting as a form of sign language to the nutroots faithful about precisely how disgusted they should be, I don’t know. No special comment, at least. In the spirit of the season, for this we give thanks. (Video after the jump_

Warning its readers to “be prepared to gag,” the “Scrapbook” page of this week's Weekly Standard magazine recited “some of the worst over-the-top reactions to The One's ascendance,” starting with Time's Nancy Gibbs who opened this week's cover story by comparing Obama with Jesus: “Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope...” In the November 17 issue, she heralded (citing his full name) the greater meaning of Obama's victory:

On Thursday’s Countdown show on MSNBC, New York Times columnist Frank Rich charged that it looks "morally bad" and "idiotic" that Republicans have not elected a black candidate to federal office in six years. The Republican party also seemed to remind Rich of South Africa’s racist Apartheid policy of the past: "The fact is, this isn`t South Africa 25 years ago, this is a major political party that is essentially all white. And the hierarchy of it is definitely white. There hasn`t been a new black Republican elected to federal office, I think, in six years. And so, what does...

Add this to the Republicans' lessons learned in 2008: One man's maverick is another man's diva. John McCain thought he was being clever picking a fellow maverick to be his running mate. The problem with mavericks, however, is that they don't follow instructions. Pretty soon they go rogue and before you know it you've got a full-fledged diva on your hands. When Sarah Palin, looking sharp in a black suit that could have come from Neiman Marcus, took the stage at a campaign rally in Leesburg yesterday, it didn't take long for roguish elements to creep into her speech. She...

Has Mike Barnicle called Sarah Palin stupid? Seems that way. In a Huffington Post column that Mika Brzezinski read on today's Morning Joe, Barnicle, referring to Palin, wrote of the: "preposterous pronouncements of a woman whose candidacy is an insult to intelligence." Let's deconstruct. The normal formulation is to speak of something being an "insult to our intelligence" in the sense of asserting something that is obviously unbelievable. For example, you might say Barack Obama insulted our intelligence when he claimed against all evidence during this week's debate that his only tie to ACORN is his past representation of the...

Warner Todd Huston Examiner.com Attacks Gov. Palin’s Unborn Grandchild 2008-10-05 -By Warner Todd Huston Ben Kamin: In Year 2024 Palin’s Grandchild a ‘Bastard,’ Loser Palin Operates a ‘Lenscrafters,’ Hates Grandson Apparently, Rabbi Ben Kamin thinks he’s a funny guy. Yes, he must be auditioning for SNL with his latest column on the Examiner.com, a Denver based, Internet news service. You see, to devise the newest way to smear Governor Sarah Palin, the “Rabbi” thought it would be hilarious to wonder what the life of Palin’s grandchild, son-to-be of Palin’s daughter Bristol, will be like in the year 2024. This odious...

UNSIGNED EDITORIAL: Dick Cheney, Role Model: In all the talk about the vice-presidential debate, there was an issue that did not get much attention but kept nagging at us: Sarah Palin’s description of the role and the responsibilities of the office for which she is running, vice president of the United States. Bob Herbert: Palin’s Alternate Universe: Sarah Palin is the perfect exclamation point to the Bush years. We’ve lived through nearly two terms of an administration that believed it could create its own reality: GAIL COLLINS: Talking in Points: The Republicans were euphoric over Sarah Palin’s debate performance, particularly...

Just when you think mainstream media people can't stoop much lower in their final stages of Palin Derangement Syndrome, they plunge to new depths. Suzy Shuster works as a sideline reporter for ABC Sports. She also blogs at the Huffington Post. Her most recent contribution is,"Say It Ain't So: Trig Palin's Post-Debate Photo Op." She describes what irritated her most at last night's vice presidential debate: It actually came after the debate, when for seemingly the millionth time, Sarah Palin trotted out her piece de resistance, her favorite prop of this campaign season: her five and a half month old...

The CBC has issued an apology and retraction for posting a controversial online column by freelancer Heather Mallick about Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin earlier this month. Following 300-plus complaints from readers, and attacks from Canadian and American media organizations, including Fox News, publisher John Cruickshank said the public broadcaster had erred in its editorial judgement and the item should never have appeared on the CBC website. In an online statement, Cruickshank said reaction to the column has caused the CBC to install new editing procedures that will ensure inappropriate work won't appear. "We are open to contentious reasoned argument...

So Sarah Palin's participation in the vice presidential debate is going to be the sparring equivalent of bumper bowling. The McCain camp insisted upon a tightly formatted structure for Palin's debate with Joe Biden, one that is designed to protect her from spontaneous questions and discussion. Geraldine Ferraro was granted no special protection when she debated George H.W. Bush in 1984, and it is inexplicable why the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates gave in to McCain's demands now. It's hard to call this progress. An experienced, knowledgeable female candidate should not require special treatment. But Sarah Palin is a female...

It's no secret that everyone is weighing in on politics these days, from David Letterman to Barbara Walters and the esteemed ladies of "The View," who, as the New York Times pointed out today, have had Barack Obama, John McCain and even Bill Clinton on their couch, with McCain clearly getting the toughest grilling. But should film critics be weighing in on the presidential race as well? It's no secret that America's leading film critic, the Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert, has been on quite a roll lately, writing a series of barbed commentaries about GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin....

..... The economic crisis brings a new question, unarticulated so far but there, and I know because when I mention it to people they go off like rockets. It is: Do you worry that neither of them is up to it? Up to the job in general? Is either Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama actually up to getting us through this and other challenges? I haven't heard a single person say, "Yes, my guy is the answer." A lot of shrugging is going on out there. This is a read not only on the men but on the moment. ........

'SNL' Palin 'Incest' Skit Angers Viewers Viewers, Bloggers Think Skit Went Over Line POSTED: 11:30 am EDT September 22, 2008 UPDATED: 12:14 pm EDT September 22, 2008 For the second week in a row, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" has taken to lampooning Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin -- but this time, it has angered conservative viewers over a skit that suggests that the Alaska governor's husband, Todd Palin, was having sex with the couple's daughters. In the skit, show guest host James Franco plays an assignment editor at the New York Times at the head of an editorial meeting....

On last nights Saturday Night Live, there was an eight minute clip that focused on the NY Times coverage of Sarah Palin. The skit addressed a fictional meeting where the Peter Conolly Assignment Editor of the NY Times explains his plans to send 50 reporters to Alaska, to dig dirt on the Palins. The media may try to play this off as SNL bringing up the topic of incest in the Palin household.  The real story is that SNL framed the NY Times and it's staff for precisely what kind of tactics they have used against the Palins so far. ...

A week after a high-profile send-up of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live," the NBC comedy show returned to making fun of the Alaskan governor in a skit where New York Times reporters sought to probe the possibility Palin's husband was having sex with the couple's own daughters. "What about the husband?" asked a Times reporter during a mock assignment meeting for the paper. "You know he's doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It's Alaska." The assignment editor for the Times, portrayed by actor James Franco, responded: "He very well could be. Admittedly, there is...