Free Republic

PBS NewsHour stands up to presidential diatribes and viewer complaints A global pandemic demands tough questions from journalists. Amid the coronavirus crisis, journalist Yamiche Alcindor has delivered robust and sober reporting that some PBS NewsHour critics mistake as political bias. On March 29th, in this Year of the Pandemic, the nation had ground to a halt. We were heeding orders and pleas to stay home and collectively disrupt deadly waves of COVID-19 infection. With the crisis deepening, President Donald Trump was on television, live, launching verbal salvos at the media. Once again, he’d been set off by a hint of...

President Trump’s declaration that “I don’t have an attorney general” was not merely the cry of an executive feeling betrayed by a subordinate. It was also a raw expression of vulnerability and anger from a president who associates say increasingly believes he is unprotected — with the Russia investigation steamrolling ahead, anonymous administration officials seeking to undermine him and the specter of impeachment proceedings, should the Democrats retake the House on Nov. 6. In a freewheeling and friendly interview published Wednesday, Trump savaged Attorney General Jeff Sessions, mocking the nation’s top law enforcement official for coming off as “mixed up...

CNN will boycott this week’s White House Christmas party amid ongoing tensions between President Trump and the network, a CNN spokesperson told Politico on Tuesday. “In light of the President’s continued attacks on freedom of the press and CNN, we do not feel it is appropriate to celebrate with him as invited guests. We will send a White House reporting team to the event and report on it if news warrants,” the spokesperson said. A CNN spokesperson did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment. The White House Christmas party is held annually, and is typically a casual...

I grew up in a family of 11 children in the days before SUVs. So we took our road trips in two-car caravans led by a steamy station wagon with crank-handle windows and hot vinyl upholstery. That wagon was always packed with obstreperous kids singing obnoxious songs. But one song we were emphatically discouraged from singing has now emerged as a theme song for John Kerry's presidential campaign. My father loved popular music and never ceased being interested in it. In the 1960s, he happily escorted my older sisters to see the Beatles. A decade later, he bought me tickets...

The slavering, slobbering hyenas in the Republican party, by tearing at the flesh of their own senatorial candidate Todd Akin, are doing their best to blow their shot at taking control of the Senate. By eating their own, they are consuming themselves. And they seem too brainless to know it. If he loses this race, it will be the fault of party poobahs, not Todd Akin. One of the party leaders actually suggested last night that the GOP try to run a third-party challenge to their own candidate. That would be a certifiably guaranteed way to forfeit victory to the...

Today is the day. SCOTUSblog live at 8:45 AM.

When Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced her support for three prominent Republicans, her Facebook statement entitled “Ride the Tide with Commonsense Candidates” resounded with laudibles such as supporting those who offer “commonsense government,” and those “who promise to fight FOR the people and AGAINST politics as usual.” by Bob Adelmann SOURCE:http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/2806-sarah-palin-enigma

IT'S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely."

Okay, folks, here is our chance to record - for all time - the dimwitted comments made by leftwingers in the U.S. regarding the fall of the evil dictator, Saddam Hussein. Imagine that you are in occupied Europe in 1945, and it's your duty to get collaborators commentary out - written down on your trusty Underwood. It's our duty and our privilege. Write on. Here's a sampling of what I've found: Washington (com)Post writer Robin Wright, "this isn't going to transform the situation" Time's Joe Klein, "another terrorist attack on America would completely change this dynamic." Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich,...

<p>At first I thought I was dreaming. I was half asleep and only turned on the TV for a weather report. Snow and an accompanying "wintry mix" had been forecast for the Washington area, and I was concerned about not being able to shop for family Christmas presents.</p>

In a recent newspaper profile, CNN anchor Aaron Brown is captured trying to be witty as he cobbles together his "Newsnight" show. He asks his co-workers, "So what the hell are we going to sell here?" There’s an easy answer if you watch television: failure. For most of the post-war period, the networks have sold us failure. The details change here and there, but the pitch remains the same. Failure to find weapons of mass destruction. Failure to work with do-nothings at the UN. Failure to restore water and electricity supplies even as saboteurs seek to undo every good deed....

<p>"With their dominance in sport, at work and at home eroded, Bush thought white American men needed to know they were still good at something. That's where Iraq came in. . . .</p> <p>When The Wall Street Journal asked me to react to Mr. Mailer's latest daft screed, I almost took a pass. I've never written an opinion piece for a newspaper before, and furthermore I know as much about Norman Mailer as I do about Mary Quant. I think they were both kinda hot for a few minutes in the '60s.</p>

U.S. Searches More Than 80 Iraqi Sites for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Comes Up Empty WASHINGTON April 23 — American forces are changing their search strategy after coming up empty at most of the top suspected weapons sites in Iraq, officials said Wednesday. And the White House appeared to be trying to scale back expectations that weapons of mass destruction will be found. Troops on the ground have searched more than 80 sites that prewar U.S. intelligence judged the most likely hiding places for chemical and biological weapons as well as evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program, Defense Department officials...

On to the next quagmire! Don't get mired in the bog of yesterday's conventional wisdom, when the movers and shakers have already moved on to new disasters. America may have won the war but it's already losing the peace! Here's your at-a-glance guide to what the experts who got everything wrong last week will be getting wrong next week: 1) "Iraq's slide into violent anarchy" (Guardian, April 11). Say what you like about Saddam, but he ran a tight ship and you didn't have to nail down your nest of tables: since the Brits took over, Basra's property crime is...

Actors Guild Warns Against Blacklisting Tue Mar 4,10:08 AM ET LOS ANGELES - The entertainment industry must not blacklist people who speak out against war with Iraq the Screen Actors Guild. "Some have recently suggested that well-known individuals who express `unacceptable' views should be punished by losing their right to work," the union said in a statement posted Monday on its Web site. "Even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated in this nation," the statement added. The reference was to the Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s, when actors and writers suspected of harboring pro-Communist sentiments were...

<p>LOS ANGELES -- The Screen Actors Guild is warning the entertainment industry that it better not blacklist people who speak out against war with Iraq.</p> <p>The statement released Monday champions free speech, and said, "Even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated in this nation."</p>

Why aren't there more Byrd dogs? The nattering nabobs of negativism are back - and making up for lost time. The national press corps, Clinton's lap dogs for eight years, have all of a sudden decided to be watchdogs again - and their incessant barking just won't stop. While Clinton's irresponsible and incoherent foreign policy decisions drew scarcely a yip from the "mainstream" press, every Bush move provokes a chorus of warning howls. There's a good deal of inconsistency here - and more than a little hypocrisy. Did Washington reporters ever demand that Clinton "make the case" for his war...