Free Republic

<p>On Wednesday, a nasty piece of character assassination summited YouTube's trending list. The video spread like a rash, and not just among those sympathetic to its wingnut paranoia. If the comments on YouTube and in the media were any indication, it also fascinated hate-watchers.</p>

Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates has agreed to plead guilty to fraud-related charges and will testify against former colleague and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, according to the Los Angeles Times. Gates was going to plead not guilty after being indicted in October alongside Manafort but now reportedly has reached a deal to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, the Times reported. Gates served as the deputy campaign manager for the Trump campaign. Both were indicted for hiding millions in Ukraine-based payments from U.S. authorities. The plea deal is the latest development surrounding the Mueller’s probe into Russian interference...

As Marvel's latest superhero movie, "Black Panther," draws praise and rakes in millions of dollars at the box office, Twitter trolls have emerged across the country attempting to stoke racial division by spreading false reports about the film's largely African American fans. Over the last few days, users have posted false claims that they were attacked by blacks while going to see "Black Panther," the first movie from Marvel Studios led by a predominantly black cast. "It's very unfortunate that a film that is poised to become a cultural icon is being marred by this fake news," said Darnell Hunt,...

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) This past week saw the fake news media have what probably was its fakest week ever – which is saying an awful lot – and here a few of the highlights: The fake news media, lacking any other negative story on which to focus in order to avoid reporting on the massive, mushrooming scandal of corruption at DOJ and the FBI, spent the first several days of the week hammering the Rob Porter story. While Porter’s likely a wife-abusing turd who needed to be fired and needs to be punished, that hardly...

Journalist Carl Bernstein on Sunday expressed doubts that President Trump would sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, citing the president’s “compulsive, continual lying.” “I think many of us will believe it when we see him sit down with Mueller. Look, we have no reason to believe almost anything that DT says. What is so extraordinary about him and his presidency is the incessant, compulsive, continual lying,” Bernstein said on CNN. “We’ve never had a president who lies like this, certainly in the modern era. Even Nixon,” the Watergate reporter added.

ANALYSIS/OPINION: One of the more disconcerting revelations from the long-anticipated FISA memo released by the House Intelligence Committee Friday was that the FBI had barely begun a verification process of the Russian dossier when they used it to justify a FISA surveillance warrant on Carter Page. Meanwhile the media refused to publish the dossier allegations because they could not be verified. In short: The media had higher standards than the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The dossier, a compilation of political opposition research compiled at the behest of the Hillary Clinton for President campaign, was peddled to multiple media outlets in...

Paying union dues and baking a wedding cake may not seem like classic examples of free speech—except perhaps at the Supreme Court. This year, the high court is poised to announce its most significant expansion of the 1st Amendment since the Citizens United decision in 2010, which struck down laws that limited campaign spending by corporations, unions and the very wealthy.

The Rise of the #MeToo-Toos: It would be laughable if it were not so cunning in intent: the Journalist Protection Act to protect reporters from the “toxic environment” supposedly created by President Donald Trump, who truthfully accuses media outlets like CNN of reporting “fake news”. If California Democrat Eric Swalwell gets his way—and with Maxine Waters among 12 other Congressional Democrats on his side, who’s to say he won’t—it will now be a federal crime to “intimidate” or attack journalists.

Link to his post, which he has since deleted: https://twitter.com/jonathantasini/status/958765928602157056

Obama, Ayers, and PLO supporters toast Edward Said's successor, but the press doesn't think it's quite as newsworthy as Sarah Palin's wardrobe. Let’s try a thought experiment. Say John McCain attended a party at which known racists and terror mongers were in attendance. Say testimonials were given, including a glowing one by McCain for the benefit of the guest of honor … who happened to be a top apologist for terrorists. Say McCain not only gave a speech but stood by, in tacit approval and solidarity, while other racists and terror mongers gave speeches that reeked of hatred for an...

Many of the country’s top media outfits blamed the Democratic Party for allowing the government to shutdown instead of bridging a budget impasse with Republicans in the Senate.

Conservative Republicans are pushing to release a memo containing classified information about the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign, sparking new controversy in a case that has already caused deep partisan rifts. The contents of the four-page memo, which was written by staff working with Rep. Devin Nunes have not been publicly revealed. But President Trump’s allies in Congress say that they are explosive. Democrats on the committee have dismissed the memo as a dishonest attempt to undermine the Russia investigation, and Rep. Jackie Speier called it a “pack of lies.” Rep. Matt Gaetz said the information...

The Los Angeles Times posted an article yesterday suggesting that Donald Trump's presidency and the future of the Republican Party is in danger...because of white college graduates. Their argument? This demographic, who once supported Trump, has had enough of the President's 'shenanigans.' Republican hopes for keeping control of the U.S. Senate next year will hinge on affluent, mainly white suburbs like Summerlin, Nev., where Trump’s unpopularity is weighing on GOP Sen. Dean Heller in his run for reelection. It’s an open question whether the Republican Party — encumbered by Trump’s often racially charged cultural appeals to blue-collar voters — has...

<p>“I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who’ve been here for a quarter of a century … [and] separate them from their families and expel them,” Gingrich said during a discussion about illegal immigration and border security. “I do believe we should control the border. I do believe we should have very severe penalties.”</p>

s a youthful looking 42-year-old, Jeff Glor is the youngest anchor of “CBS Evening News” since Douglas Edwards first sat in the chair in 1948. It’s not all they have in common. Edwards was a veteran radio journalist who was asked to move over to television when it was still a young, emerging medium. Glor, who took over the broadcast on Monday, has a mandate to lead the flagship evening newscast into the digital future. The assignment comes as the evening news format is fighting to remain vital in an age when smartphones can provide headlines and video instantly. CBS...

April Ryan, an inexplicably esteemed member of the White House press corps, having tried and failed to promote a "fake news" controversy over White House's Press Secretary Sarah Sanders' Thanksgiving pecan pie, has not apologized or acknowledged her error, has rejected Sanders' face-saving attempt to smooth things over, and is apparently worried that Sanders will publicly poison her and her fellow journalists. You can't make this stuff up. Ryan's history, as documented at NewsBusters, is full of embarrassing statements, unhinged rants, and stunning ignorance of very basic facts. The pie saga began when Sanders posted a photo Thursday afternoon of the pecan...

everal years ago, a woman who lives around the corner in Inglewood told me a story common to black people who were among the first to move into once-white cities. She and her husband bought their house in 1967. Every day that summer, she said, her next-door neighbor came out on his porch, glaring. Whenever he saw her, this white man shouted not a greeting, but a question: Why are you here? In a few months, he was gone, along with pretty much every other white family on the block. I grew up in and around Inglewood and have lived...

Let’s be clear. Everyone in the government at the federal, state and local levels is very concerned about the ongoing sexual harassment crisis and they want you to know that they’re all over this problem. Evil shall be rooted out wherever it’s found, exposed to the sunshine of public scrutiny and eliminated, providing women with the safe, healthy working environments they should have always had. Unless, that is, you’re talking about the halls of government itself.Out in California, the land of progressive equality and human rights, the Golden State’s legislature has been getting some polite inquiries from the state’s largest...

Friday morning on Fox & Friends, Washington Post Writers Group columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. gave President Donald Trump only grudging and partial credit for the steep decline in illegal border crossings from Mexico into the U.S. so far this year. Navarrette's "logic," which went unchallenged by host Steve Doocy, ignored several policy-related Trump administration announcements which have had direct impact, and failed to recognize how the tone which has been set at the administration's highest levels has had an impact on how the law is enforced on the ground.Navarrette has been called "the most widely read Latino columnist in the...

The Los Angeles Times has published an editorial arguing that the Electoral College shouldn’t be allowed to choose the next U.S. president, on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. Needless to say, Kenneth Jost’s argument is a very bold one, since the Constitution explicitly creates the Electoral College and describes how it works; the system was even refined with the 12th Amendment. But Jost, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, says that’s no barrier to having the Supreme Court abolish the Electoral College by fiat.