Free Republic

Media: Does the Washington Post ever consult a dictionary? In what looks like an effort to lasso Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's rising star, they've built a shoddy two-story attack on a faulty definition of "exile." It started Oct. 20 when, on the front page, the Post headlined, "Marco Rubio's compelling family story embellishes facts, documents show." The hit piece, by Manuel Roig-Franzia, cited Rubio's repeated self-reference as the "son of exiles," saving the "Gotcha!" for the second paragraph: "The documents show that Rubio's parents came to the United States and were admitted for permanent residence more than two-and-a-half years before...

NEAH BAY, Wash. — A California gray whale that was harpooned and shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state has died, officials said. Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah Tribe shot and harpooned the whale Saturday morning. Petty Officer Shawn Eggert said the whale disappeared beneath the surface in the evening, dragging buoys that had been attached to the harpoon, and did not resurface. A biologist working for the Makah Indian tribe declared it dead, Eggert said. Tribe members were being held by the Coast...

NEW YORK - Unionized Wall Street Journal reporters didn’t show up for work Thursday morning to protest Rupert Murdoch’s bid for the Journal’s parent company, as well as Dow Jones & Co.’s proposals for a new labor contract. The Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees said in a statement that the reporters would return to work in the afternoon. Steve Yount, president of the union, said it wasn’t yet clear how many Journal staff participated in the protest. Yount said the employees were concerned both about the pending $5 billion offer from Murdoch’s media conglomerate News Corp. as well as the...

Bush's Ohio Valley Why has he stopped campaigning here? By Chris Suellentrop Posted Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004, at 1:37 PM PT Could he win without Ohio? Maybe. COLUMBUS, Ohio—White House press secretary Scott McClellan wandered into the press cabin on Air Force One this week to let the media know where President Bush would be campaigning. On Thursday, Pennsylvania. On Friday, Pennsylvania and Florida. On Saturday, Florida. Those are two of the presidential campaign's "Big Three" states, which nearly everyone assumes will decide the election. The glaring omission: Ohio. "Why aren't we going to Ohio? The president hasn't been there...

Matt Lauer acted astonished that NRA President Charlton Heston had never reconsidered his support of gun rights after hearing about a shooting. During a taped interview played on Thursday's Today, Lauer wanted to know, given that Heston has guns in his house as he is showing signs of Alzheimer's, whether there is "a concern that if you become of diminished mental capacity that that could be a problem?" Lauer was also appalled by Heston's disrespect of Bill Clinton. Today showed a clip of Heston proclaiming: "Mr. Clinton, sir, America doesn't trust you with our health care system. America didn't trust...