Free Republic

The press is a willfully ignorant advocacy group Charlie Rose, Norah O’Donnell, and Gayle King are all very wise people who know what they’re talking about. Frankly, it’s tough to overestimate their brilliance. They’re smarter than you, smarter than me, and their analysis should always be considered sacrosanct. For years, they wisely ignored the warnings of conservatives who argued that ObamaCare would destroy the American healthcare system. They scoffed at concerns about rate hikes, evaporating choices in terms of plans and doctors, diminished or rationed care, and stuck to the company line about “saving the average family” money.

Bob Schieffer was not a fan of Sunday night's presidential debate. The CBS News contributor and former "Face the Nation" host called the debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump "disgraceful." "How have we come to this? This is supposed to be a campaign for the most powerful office of the land. Here we're marching in women into the hall who supposed to have some relationship with one of the candidate's spouses. What's that supposed to prove?" Schieffer said, citing women who claim former President Bill Clinton of sexual assault sitting in Trump’s box at the debate. "I mean this...

Bill Clinton sat down with CBS’s Charlie Rose on Monday evening and said that Hillary Clinton “frequently” faints because of dehydration, but the word “frequently” was edited out of that night’s broadcast, TMZ reported. In a longer version of the interview that aired Tuesday on CBS This Morning, “frequently” was not removed. (snip) “When you look at the collapse, that video that was taken, you wonder if it’s not more serious than dehydration,” Rose said to Clinton. “No, no. She’s been—well, if it is, it’s a mystery to me and all of her doctors. ‘Cause frequently—not frequently, that’s not—rarely, but...

CBS released two battleground state polls today, one from Pennsylvania and one from North Carolina. Both polls showed a Clinton lead, +8 in Pennsylvania and +4 in North Carolina. Looks good for Hillary, right? At first blush, yes. But these are just registered voter polls, which always favor Democrats and do not predict the result on election day. To my great surprise, in both polls 1100 registered voters were interviewed. And in both polls, the CBS pollster assumed a 99% voter turnout rate!

Support for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ticked up across battleground states following the Republican National Convention last week, according to the new CBS News Battleground Tracker Poll. Trump now has 42 percent support across the 11 battleground states surveyed — up from the 40 percent he had last week before the convention. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has 41 percent support, unchanged from last week's poll. According to the poll, 55 percent of Republicans said Trump's message at the convention made them feel hopeful, and about 40 percent said it made them feel enthusiastic. Among independents, 32 percent...

Earlier today WikiLeaks released more documents showing how the Democrat National Committee (DNC) specifically worked to destroy the candidacy of Bernie Sanders in a united effort with the media to support Hillary Clinton. The revelations within the release are quite astounding, and unfortunately confirm all the prior suspicions of the Bernie Sanders supporters about the democrat party apparatus working with the Clinton campaign to eliminate the threat posed by Senator Sanders.

June 12, 2013 State Department Whistleblower, a Career Foreign Service Officer, Seeks Congressional Protection After State Threatens Her Kids Bryan Preston The State Department whistleblower is Aurelia Fedenisn. She worked in the department’s inspector general’s office until her retirement in December 2012. According to USA Today, she has sought protection as an official whistleblower after the State Department directly threatened her, once at her home. It threatened her with criminal charges when she turned over documents to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) showing evidence that the department had watered down her report, in which she alleged that the department at the...

A CBS News crew decided to join apparently dozens of journalists across the country this week and purchase an AR-15 rifle on camera to show “how easy” it was to purchase a firearm by sending reporter Paula Reid to purchase one of these rifles, along with ammunition, from a Virginia gun shop. (Video at link)

During a conversation Wednesday night at a YMCA in New York City, CBS’ late night host Stephen Colbert interviewed CBS News political director John Dickerson on the race for the White House. At some point in the interview, they took audience questions in which one person asked if Bill Clinton’s past should affect Hillary Clinton’s future. Dickerson responded by admitting that it was one of journalists’ “jobs” to steer the conversation away from candidates' pasts.

Donald Trump's tweets are biting and his insults are painful and sometimes even career ending. Yet, CBS anchor John Dickerson, who moderated presidential debates during the primary season and had a front row seat to Trump's bombastic behavior, says it's Hillary Clinton who is "more vindictive" toward her opponents. He told Hugh Hewitt as much on his radio show Friday morning when the host asked him which presidential candidate was more ruthless toward their opponents. "I think Clinton," Dickerson said, after hesitating a bit. "Trump is very tough on those he does not like," Dickerson noted. "But, he gets over...

Morley Safer, an intrepid storyteller and interviewer whose name became synonymous with the newsmagazine "60 Minutes," has died. He was 84. Safer was the longest-serving correspondent in "60 Minutes" history. He joined the CBS program in 1970, just two years after it launched, and worked there ever since, contributing 919 reports over the years. He filed his last report in March. CBS announced Safer's retirement last week and televised a special hour-long retrospective about his career on Sunday. The timing of the announcement was partly due to Safer's poor health.

Morley Safer, an intrepid storyteller and interviewer whose name became synonymous with the news magazine "60 Minutes," has died. He was 84. Safer was the longest-serving correspondent in "60 Minutes" history. He joined the CBS program in 1970, just two years after it launched, and worked there ever since, contributing 919 reports over the years. He filed his last report in March.

I'm hours late on this post, but better late than never. For National Vietnam Veterans Day A great episode from the CBS News Vietnam Series with Walter Cronkite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTcLw8l9rQQ

It may not be good for America, but it's good for CBS." That's how network executive chairman and reliable Democratic donor Les Moonves described Donald Trump's frontrunner status in the GOP primary, noted the Hollywood Reporter's Paul Bond today. "Bring it on, Donald," cheered Moonves in remarks to the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference being held in San Francisco.  While Bond didn't note as such, a quick check of the FEC's donor database – see screenshot below – shows Moonves has a long track record of contributing to Democrats John Kerry and Al Gore as well as Democratic political action committees...

Rush Limbaugh blasted the moderator of the CBS Republican debate, John Dickerson, arguing "he is a Democrat Party hack, he is liberal through and through" in reference to Dickerson's attempted take-down of Ted Cruz. Monday, on "The Rush Limbaugh Show," Limbaugh said, "Cruz was a millimeter away from launching on this guy and kept it back. He did not do it. But this guy went Candy Crowley on him." Limbaugh said, "John Dickerson, you can't get more Democrat operative, this guy is George Stephanopoulos without a job at the Clinton war room. John Dickerson is the son of a drive-by...

Sharyl Attkisson, the former CBS reporter and independent journalist, has a long history of getting under the government’s skin. In her book Stonewalled, she detailed many of the battles she encountered when attempting to expose the truth in the tradition of the Fourth Estate and how unpopular stories tended to wind up being discounted or silenced. Later, her Nosy Nellie ways attracted the interest of the Department of Justice, though they have thus far failed to file any actual charges against her. This week, Attkisson tells the story of how she finally sought to obtain her own FBI file and...

Marco Rubio embarked on something of a post-debate victory tour today, visiting six national morning shows to reflect on last night's proceedings. One of his stops was CBS This Morning, where puzzled host Charlie Rose pressed Rubio about what he meant when he said that last week's Benghazi hearings proved that Hillary Clinton had lied.  The Florida Senator basically reiterated his explanation from last night (via the Weekly Standard): Charlie Rose Sticks Up for Hillary in Interview With Rubio Rose counters with Clinton talking points, muddying the waters by blaming confusing and conflicting intelligence offered by the CIA -- but as they say, that...

Touted as a film showing how hard journalists work to get the story right before putting it on the air, Truth is based on Mary Mapes’ self-justifying view of her role in “Rathergate,” which cost her, and CBS Evening News host Dan Rather, their jobs and tarnished their reputations. For years Mapes had harbored the hope that she could prove that George W. Bush, as a member of the Texas National Guard, had joined the Guard (thanks to help from family friends) as a way to avoid going to Vietnam. As a principal producer for CBS News, primarily for the...

The film “Truth” will be released commercially later this month to retell the Rathergate scandal from the perspective of Mary Mapes. The film is based on Mapes’s almost laughable 2005 Rathergate memoir. The left routinely seeks to rewrite even yesterday’s news; events eleven years ago, when Mapes committed her misconduct, have now attained the status of ancient history. John and I therefore sought to reiterate the basic facts of the Rathergate scandal in the Weekly Standard article “Rather shameful.” Our article is intended to constitute Rathergate 101. Now comes Atlanta attorney Harry MacDougald — the pseudonymous “Buckhead” — to give...

By Curtis Houck, an excerpt Commentary by John Velisek USN (Ret), CiR staff writer “In its ongoing coverage of the sheriff’s deputy from Harris County, Texas being shot Friday night outside a gas station, Monday’s edition of the CBS Evening News criticized the slain officer’s boss for making ‘controversial statements’ about the Black Lives Matter movement that ‘some have called…insensitive.’ Correspondent Omar Villafranca made the judgement after explaining the latest news concerning the murder investigation with Monday marking the first court appearance for alleged shooter Shannon Miles. What exactly was so ‘controversial?’ Here’s what [Harris County Sheriff Ron] Hickman stated...