Just make
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/news-forum/index
your default bookmark for FR and you shouldn’t see the blog posts.
If people would stop clicking or responding to them they would disappear off the forum page pretty quickly most of the time.
But then I’d lose out on the childish pleasure I have of posting the blog they want us to click upon in the thread...
My problem is all the bloggers who post to News/Activism.
That helps a bit, but some of these pimp are posting in News/Activism. Your solution also means we might miss something interesting in other forums.