Free Republic

“Local” news reporters are among the most contemptible; almost all “local” news stations are owned by large conglomerates like Cumulus, Townsquare, iHeart, or are “affiliates” of national networks. They posture as “local” but mostly all report the same nationally-curated crap. If you’ve ever lived in a “red” programming market, you’ll know that any station owned by these companies basically acts as a subversive force on the local culture.

CNN has made sweeping changes to its line-up in an effort to boost its ratings - following the departure of its CEO Chris Licht. Veteran journalists Chris Wallace and Christiane Amanpour will be the new faces during weekend shows in the reshuffle at the network. Abby Phillip will take the 10pm weekday slot, while Laura Coates will take the hour later, at 11pm. Kaitlan Collins will continue to anchor her 9pm show. Collins was previously sat with Poppy Harlow and Don Lemon on the morning show, before Lemon was sacked from the company in April. CNN This Morning is now...

Experts cite declining viewership of hosts like Colbert and Kimmel, begging the question if they're still relevant. Political satirist Tim Young says their months-long absence makes it "easy to forget" about them. "Their tired attempts at making funny news-based monologues that were always about Trump had become exhausting and unquotable, so they'd rarely even be covered by entertainment news anymore," Young told Fox News Digital. "Late night shows are so forgettable that I think people have just moved on... they just aren't missed." Viewership across the late-night landscape had been dropping long before the writers strike. In 2018, the midpoint...

If any of you are having a hard to sitting through any content coming out of Hollywood without screaming, gagging or pulling out your hair, I made the following database that I will be continually updating (and you can help): https://www.notwokeshows.com

Nielsen is launching a new product aimed at shoring up the accuracy of its TV ratings system: a series of datasets meant to quantify a program’s “bingeability,” along with a show’s propensity to keep viewers coming back for more episodes down the line. The ratings giant explained in a statement Thursday that streaming services and major networks could each use this data to figure out which shows are better at wooing new viewers or retaining old ones. These insights are coming courtesy of a metadata-centric company called Gracenote, which Nielsen acquired back in 2017 to provide its clients with “deeper...

Biden: "I make a special appeal to social media companies and media outlets — please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that's on your shows. It has to stop."

Please help bring sanity into my routine. The lock-down is beginning to act like a disease - not a horribly bad one - but a disease nevertheless. What programs are on Netflix (my brother's account, not mine) or Amazon Prime that are worth the time. I wish we could get Poirot here in the states. Thanks for any suggestions.

So many golden ages, so much brilliance from which to choose. In culling from the "60 Greatest" lists we've compiled during our 60th-anniversary year, we shook things up, blending drama, comedy and other genres to salute the shows with the biggest cultural impact and most enduring influence.

A second dog is reported to have died after appearing at Crufts, amid fears that at least six of the animals were deliberately poisoned at the world famous show. The shih tzu is believed to have died over the weekend, just hours after the 'murder' of Irish setter Jagger. The three-year-old died on Friday after eating meat which his owners say was laced with poison. Today, Jagger's bereft co-owners are preparing to cremate the prize-winning dog at his rural home in Belgium, before scattering his ashes across a field where he used to love walking. It comes as the show's...

One New York state lawmaker believes that allowing children younger than 12 to attend gun shows increases the possibility that the youngsters will be future perpetrators of firearm crimes. Concerned that the firearms industry is making firearms and shooting sports too appealing to children, Hell’s Kitchen-area New York state lawmaker Linda Rosenthal wants to ban children from entering gun shows. “As the gun industry prepares a public campaign to broaden the appeal of guns, it is important that we establish reasonable age limits for admission to gun shows by children,” the lawmaker said in a memo attached to her proposal....

An autopsy conducted on Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old fatally shot by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson last Saturday, shows that Brown was shot at least six times, twice in the head and all in the front of the body. The New York Times reported the results of a private autopsy conducted by Dr. Michael Baden, who was hired by the Brown family. Baden conducted the autopsy on Sunday, according to the Times. One bullet entered the top of Brown’s skull. Four struck him in the right arm. All bullets hit Brown in the front of the body, according...

The controversial deal freeing Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban prisoners will likely dominate Sunday news shows. The exchange has come under fire from lawmakers who ripped the Obama administration for not notifying Congress in advance of the swap that freed Taliban leaders from the Guantanamo Bay military facility. President Obama has made “no apologies” for securing Bergdahl’s release and said he'd do it again. Here's the lineup: ABC's "This Week" will talk with House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) about the growing criticism surrounding Obama's decision to negotiate Bergdahl's release. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) will...

NASA explains: In this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image taken on October 9, the comet’s solid nucleus is unresolved because it is so small. If the nucleus broke apart then Hubble would have likely seen evidence for multiple fragments. Moreover, the coma or head surrounding the comet’s nucleus is symmetric and smooth. This would probably not be the case if clusters of smaller fragments were flying along. What’s more, a polar jet of dust first seen in Hubble images taken in April is no longer visible and may have turned off. So, its not disintegrating, its not a three-piece body,...

A record number of U.S. counties -- more than 1 in 3 -- are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere. New 2012 census estimates released Thursday highlight the population shifts as the U.S. encounters its most sluggish growth levels since the Great Depression. The areas of natural decrease stretch from industrial areas near Pittsburgh and Cleveland to the vineyards outside San Francisco to the rural areas of east Texas and the Great Plains. A common theme is a waning local economy, such...

Secretary of State John Kerry showed off his French speaking skills at a joint press conference with his counterpart in Paris today: The official State Department transcript of the event translates Kerry's remarks into English: "SECRETARY KERRY: (In French - Via interpreter) Thank you very much, Minister. Thank you for your warm hospitality. Thank you very much for welcoming us here today. It’s a great pleasure for me to be here with Foreign Minister Fabius. We just finished one of those wonderful French lunches that have been drawing Americans to Paris for centuries. Of course, it’s a privilege to share...

President Obama and Mitt Romney are statistically tied in Michigan, according to a poll from Mitchell Research released on Thursday. Obama leads Romney 47 percent to 46 in the poll, which has a 3.5 percent margin of error. It’s the fourth poll in June to show the candidates neck and neck in the Wolverine State, which has swung reliably Democratic in recent elections and where Obama was up by double digits as recently as mid-May. “Obama will have to campaign very heavily in Michigan, something he did not want to do,” said Mitchell Research Chairman Steve Mitchell in a statement....

Monday morning's attack by terrorists against Israeli workers building the security fence on the southern border is further evidence of the increasing failure of Egyptian security efforts in Sinai, said Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Speaking at a meeting of his Atzma'ut faction, Barak said that several recent events, including Grad rocket attacks against Israel over the weekend, meant that Egypt needed to do more to fulfill its international obligations. “We see Monday's attack as a very serious incident,” Barak said. “It comes in the wake of an incident on Shabbat in which two Grad rockets were fired into southern Israel...

A major Israel TV station on Sunday night broadcast a detailed report on how Israel will go about attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in the event that diplomacy and sanctions fail and Israel decides to carry out a military strike. The report, screened on the main evening news of Channel 10, was remarkable both in terms of the access granted to the reporter, who said he had spent weeks with the pilots and other personnel he interviewed, and in the fact that his assessments on a strike were cleared by the military censor. No order to strike is likely to be...

The Obama administration lived up to its legal obligations today by withholding the first payment of U.S. funds to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since it voted to recognize “Palestine” as a member state. The State Department​ said a scheduled $60 million payment would not be in the mail to the world body and warned that the same treatment would be given to any other UN agency that pulls the same trick. But Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also said the U.S. would maintain its membership in the organization and continue to participate despite the group’s decision to...

Internet-streaming company Netflix experienced its biggest exodus in its history after a price hike earlier this year - the loss of 800,000 customers. But the web-streaming giant isn't washed up yet. TV shows and films streamed via Netflix account for a third of total downstream bandwidth use in the U.S - an astonishing amount for any one company to control. Neftlix use accounts for 32.7 per cent of total bandwidth use in the U.S., UP from 29.7per cent a year ago, says Canadian company Sandvine.