Free Republic

November 08, 2015 Walter_Brasch One of the basic tenets of journalism ethics and practices is that reporters must keep their distance from news sources. They’re allowed to be friendly. They’re even allowed to share a meal with a news source. But, they must be independent. It’s a “Caesar’s wife” thing—they must be above suspicion. This past week, Lara Spencer, co-anchor of ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America,” snuggled up to Donald Trump. In a photo posted to Instagram, she is seen with her left arm around Trump’s shoulder, her right hand across his stomach. Both are looking at each other and smiling....

As reported by the Blaze earlier today, CBS News's online store is selling seven different Obama-related items, but complementary Republican merchandise is suspiciously absent. The online store includes paperback and hardback copies of Obama's memoir, "Dreams From My Father," and five memorabilia books and DVDs of his campaign and election. When the Blaze looked into the matter, CBS News had even dedicated an entire tab of its store to the president. The category has since been removed, but searching "Obama" in the online store still returns all the merchandise. When the items are clicked on, though, shoppers are redirected to...

American commentators hang on the former Alaska governor's every word. What do foreign pundits have to say about her? Sarah Palin makes headlines in American newspapers nearly every time she expresses an opinion, whether it is as a Fox News contributor or tireless Twitter-user and Facebooker. But the former GOP vice presidential candidate's countrymen aren't the only ones obsessed with her — she gets nearly as much attention overseas as she does at home. Here are some uniquely foreign takes on the Tea Party queen: Spain: We need a Sarah Palin figure Sarah Palin has given America a fresh start,...

Part of the fun—well, torture really—of election night is flipping between the three “news” channels, mostly to avoid their most irritating commentators (hello Messrs. O’Reilly and Schultz) or channel-hopping pols (our inability to escape Michael Steele literally made my wife scream). But one thing I find really striking is how the three cable networks are approaching their coverage—most particularly that MSNBC has given up any pretense of being a straight news channel. Here’s how it breaks out: •CNN is anchored by Wolf Blitzer who occasionally throws it over to Anderson Cooper and CNN’s cast of roughly 435 pundits from across...

Now that Fox News contributor Juan Williams has been dropped from National Public Radio, the liberal website Media Matters for America is now targeting Mara Liasson, the last remaining NPR correspondent who works with Fox News. “NPR’s Mara Liasson and her long-running association with Fox News has often raised questions. This might be the proper time for NPR to finally address that thorny issue,” wrote Media Matters columnist Eric Boehlert Thursday in a post entitled “What about Mara Liasson?” “[I]f you look at NPR’s code of ethics, there’s simply no way Liasson should be making appearances on Fox.” Boehlert cited...

A new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll offers what is, I think, a somewhat misleading way to look at Sarah Palin. The poll finds that 59% of Americans and 40% of Republicans don't think she'd make an "effective president" -- numbers that come very close to disqualifying her even in the primary, if she chooses to run. This trouble imagining President Palin is constant across the polling since soon after she was chosen as John McCain's running mate, and it reflects both her own lack of experience and the higher bar set for a woman -- Hillary Clinton did years of...

But not only has that fact not gotten through to many Americans, the percentage of adults who believe he is a Muslim has now risen sharply after holding steady for two years, according to a new Pew poll out today. For my money, though, the real headline--and the news that should be causing heartburn over at the White House right now--is that the percentage of Americans who can correctly identify Obama's religious faith as Christian has dropped by 14 points in the past year and a half. A plurality of Americans (43%) have no idea what religion he practices. I'm...

Today 44 turns 49. President Obama is celebrating his birthday in Chicago tonight...home alone. The First Lady and Sasha are in Spain, and Malia's at summer camp. On those rare nights we parents are truly on our own, we may exhibit what Carrie Bradshaw calls "secret single behavior." A mud mask. A marathon of Top Chef. Maybe staring in the mirror to find new gray hairs. And the president admits...he sees a lot more grays these days. The job has aged him, as it did his predecessors. Dr. Michael Roizen at the Cleveland Clinic stated constant stress can age the...

Technically it’s a dollar plus an agreement to assume their huge financial liabilities, but if you throw me an opportunity for a headline that sweet, I’m going to take it every time. Hopefully, in a few years and with a few trillion more tacked onto the national debt, the U.S. can get a deal like this from China. According to several people who have been briefed on the process, Mr. Harman’s bid appealed to Mr. Graham and the Post Company because Mr. Harman has said he would retain a significant number of the magazine’s 325 employees. The financial details of...

Since August 29, 2008, when Sarah Palin was first introduced as John McCain’s Vice Presidential choice of a running mate, reactions to Palin were and continue to be extreme. The extremity of Palin hatred started within hours of the announcement, as did the hideous rumors (about her son Trig for instance) that were passed from one leftist website to the next without one shred of evidence to back them up. The goal, simply put, was to destroy Sarah Palin by any means possible. Being as passionate as they always are, progressive bloggers, media pundits, leftist groups and even comedians started...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blames her upside-down approval rating among independents on one of her favorite foils: the media. Palin, who serves as a paid commentator for Fox News, said on "Fox News Sunday" that "if I believed everything I read or heard in the media, I wouldn't like me either." Fox host Chris Wallace cited recent polling numbers from Quinnipiac University that showed 50 percent of independents viewed the former vice presidential GOP nominee in an unfavorable light. Just a third said they viewed her favorably. "I've never committed to running for president for one and I know...

One of the delights about the Internet is watching new people use a new technology to make the same old mistakes. Consider the admissions by Politico and Greg Sargent that they regularly run items on Sarah Palin simply to drive traffic. From Politico: “More traffic comes from an item on Sarah Palin’s ‘refudiation’ faux pas than from our hundreds of stories on the complexities of health care reform or Wall Street regulation.” Perhaps if Politico were as vigilant in its coverage of health care reform and Wall Street regulation as it is every slip by Sarah Palin readers would be...

This week we’re peering a little further into the future: to 2012. If the presidential election were held today, Sarah Palin would defeat Barack Obama. That’s according to a new poll published in Mayan Prophecy Weekly. Here’s what you need to know about a Palin presidency. Her first official act will be to cancel the agreement between nouns and verbs. Next, she’ll replace the English language with Palinese: a language known only to her. Even her husband Todd doesn’t speak it -– although, to be fair, no one has ever heard him speak. We got a little taste of this...

On the seventh day of Journolist, Daily Caller gave to me — the party line on post-debate sensibility. The latest from Jonathan Strong looks at the access by political operatives of Journolist and their sometimes-naked attempts to push the members into political advocacy. The strongest evidence comes from a posting by Jeff Hauser, who advocated to Journolist members to skew their opinions on an upcoming debate between Barack Obama and John McCain: The single biggest thing journolist can do is to lay the analytical framework within the media elite necessary for an actual Obama debate win to be viewed as...

Somebody needs to say it. The Journolist scandal will not be finished until someone says it. Who let the dogs out? The website iowntheworld.com is posting pictures of the Men of Journolist, the listserv where “journalists” got together to hammer out talking points to help liberal politicians. The Journolist has been called corrupt. A disgrace. Something that will never be lived down. But it’s also the ugliest group of life forms this side of a National Geographic special. When do these orcs march on Helm’s Deep? It’s childish to make fun of someone’s looks, I know. So I’ll get to...

NEW ORLEANS -- One hundred days after the rig explosion that set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, the oil giant behind it is hoping to move beyond the losses, the gaffes and the live video that ran for weeks of the busted well coughing up massive amounts of crude every second. BP is replacing CEO Tony Hayward with Managing Director Robert Dudley, selling $30 billion in assets and setting aside $32.2 billion to cover the long-term cost of the spill. It's also claiming a $9.88 billion tax credit in the second quarter based on the $32.2...

Sarah Palin’s speech to the 2008 Republican convention impressed more than a few doubters, including even some members of Journolist, an online community for liberal journalists. “This speech is gangbusters,” wrote Ari Melber of the Nation. “Her tone is pitch perfect.” Adele Stan of the Media Consortium agreed: “Palin is golden.” The exuberance appeared to unnerve the Guardian’s Michael Tomasky. “People get a hold of yourselves!” Tomasky wrote to his fellow Journolisters. “It’s a very good speech with good lines. But there’s very little substance.” Rebecca Traister of Salon wrote to say she was grateful for Tomasky’s message. (“This is...

Matthew Yglesias and other Journolist coconspirators don’t want to hear it, but conservative journalists are independent actors who kowtow to no one and no movement. One of the rationales that the Journolisters use to justify their now-defunct secret listserv is that everyone does it, even conservative journalists. But this is simply not true. Most conservative journalists do not belong to secret listservs. Wall Street Journal editorial page editors Paul Gigot, James Taranto and John Fund don’t. “I don’t know of anything like this,” Gigot said Sunday on Fox News’ Journal Editorial Page Report. The Washington Examiner’s Bryon York agrees. “Is...

CNN's "Reliable Sources" from Sunday is worth watching. American University's Jane Hall has the best quote, in my opinion: The former Fox contributor said Shirley Sherrod was the victim of "virtual world McCarthyism." I wasn't that disciplined or clever in my comments. I was angry at the attempt to make this story about the Obama administration (I've already stated my objections to how Obama handled the mess), to whitewash the role of Fox in the scandal, and to try to turn the tables on Shirley Sherrod and insist she's wrong to call either Fox or Breitbart "racist." Our conversation quickly...

Like her or not, Sarah Palin will play a decisive role in who gets the Republican nomination in 2012. Since being plucked out of relative obscurity by 2008 GOP nominee John McCain, Palin has emerged as a celebrity in her own right. Anyone longing for the nomination will have to deal with her persona, her influence, and her supporters. Along with Palin’s notoriety, the rise of the Tea Party movement has created a number of inviting venues for the Palin message. She is now a regular commentator on Fox News, adroitly uses social media to comment on current issues, and...