Free Republic

...The Internal Revenue Service, apparently determined to get out ahead of an inspector general report critical of its handling of tax exemptions for Tea Party groups, came up with a plan: Lois Lerner, the official responsible for the tax-exempt division, would publicly apologize in response to a question at the American Bar Association conference in Washington... ...It was the day after Lerner had testified to Congress last week, failing once again to disclose the extent of the Tea Party targeting even under direct questioning. The damning inspector general report would come out any day, and Lerner and Miller wanted to...

Larry Connors, the KMOV anchor who asked Barack Obama some tough questions about his family's vacation habits and claimed earlier this week that he might have been harassed by the IRS as a result, has been taken off the air.

Media Matters is an organization dedicated to finding conservative media bias — which means it’s an overstaffed, over-funded group with little to do but quibble over details and interpretations and engage the most conspiratorial-minded and least influential conservatives in America. But they’ve really done it this time. As it turns out, a free press matters a lot less than President Obama matters.

Hillary better thank her god, The Father of Lies, that she’s not a conservative like Sarah Palin, because if she were a conservative, after last week’s blistering testimony against her by the Benghazi whistle blowers, all news outlets, far and wide, would be yelling “off with conservative Hillary’s head”. But not The Original, Leftist, Hillary. Original Hillary gets a pass. Yep, the numb-nuts that make up the ubiquitous fake news organizations gave scant to zero coverage of the testimonies that completely contradicted Mrs. Clinton’s account of the Benghazi Massacre. For instance, MSNBC gave no live coverage for the Benghazi hearings...

It's been a rough end to what started out as a record-breaking season for openly gay characters on the small screen.

CBS Anchor: 'We Are Getting Big Stories Wrong, Over and Over Again' "Our house is on fire." Daniel Halper May 11, 2013 12:09 PM CBS anchor Scott Pelley said at a speech at Quinnipiac University that journalists "are getting big stories wrong, over and over again." "Our house is on fire," said Pelley. The video of Pelley's speech is courtesy of nowthisnews.com. "These have been a bad few months for journalism," he added. "We're getting the big stories wrong, over and over again." The CBS newsreader was quick to take at least partial blame. "Let me take the first arrow:...

The White House held an off-the-record briefing with reporters on Friday afternoon to discuss recent revelations about the Benghazi investigation, sources familiar with the meeting tell POLITICO.

Stretching Oscar Wilde’s adage “I never put off til tomorrow what I can do the day after,” some in the mainstream media have finally started to Think Again about the Benghazi attack launched last year on the anniversary of 9/11 — thanks to new revelations by high-ranking State Department whistle-blowers including experts in security, counterterrorism, and the No. 2-ranking diplomat in Libya under slain Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Contrary to the “spin” that the U.S. Consulate assault was a spontaneous response to an anti-Islam YouTube video, the truth is that American officials knew “from the get-go” that it was a premeditated...

Political satirist Greg Gutfeld said: The media would not know a good story if they woke up next to it after they were drunk last night. For them Benghazi is like an ugly wallflower at the prom. They just want to dance with Obama all night. It's a way of life that's not without consequences to them or us. The Washington Post Co. reported Friday an 84% drop in first-quarter profit. To be sure waltzing Obama's not the only reason. There's the mindless drivel of the style section gushing over Michelle and her latest upscale food and clothing fancies; the...

**SNIP** The short video played just before Perry took the stage to a welcome applause from the crowd. It shows Perry taking aim at an egg from about 100 yards out with a LaRue Tactical rifle, which is made by a company that recently opened up shop in Texas. The video then shows Perry hitting metal targets like a marksman. The video got quite a reaction online, and not all of it was good. The responses on Twitter ranged from folks saying Perry’s video did nothing but “promote and excite the already gun-thirsty and violent society” to others saying “I...

Back in 2011, I wrote about how George Creel's plan with the Committee for Public Information (CPI) was to make journalists associates of the state. Here is in part what he wrote: (page 17) With the nation in arms, the need was not so much to keep the press from doing the hurtful things as to get it to do the helpful things. It was not servants we wanted, but associates. Better far to have the desired compulsions proceed from within than to apply them from without. And from page 18: My proposition, in lieu of the proposed law, was...

(Reuters) - New York Times Co reported a decline in quarterly revenue on weak advertising sales but said it would try to grow out of the slump by expanding its suite of digital products. The 11.2 percent drop in advertising revenue in the first quarter underscores the pressure that the New York Times faces to increase its subscription revenue, especially for its digital products, and find new veins of income. The company plans to roll out a line of lower-priced products - including an expansion into e-commerce and games - to attract more readers around the world. Compounding the challenge...

On Wednesday, Mother Jones ran an article making a shocking claim: more Americans have been killed by conservative terrorists than by Islamic terrorists since September 11, 2001. “While America has been fixated on the threat of Islamic terrorism for more than a decade, all but a few domestic terror plots have failed,” the article explained. “Between September 11, 2001, and the end of 2012, there were no successful bomb plots by jihadist terrorists in the United States …. [R]ight-wing extremists killed 29 people during those 11 years.”But is it true?The Mother Jones piece is based on a study by the...

Anthony Lewis, a former New York Times reporter and columnist whose work won two Pulitzer Prizes and transformed American legal journalism, died on Monday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 85. *** Mr. Lewis wrote several books, two of them classic accounts of landmark decisions of the Warren court, which he revered. Chief Justice Earl Warren led the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969, corresponding almost precisely with Mr. Lewis’s years in Washington. One of those books, “Gideon’s Trumpet,” concerned Gideon v. Wainwright, the 1963 decision that guaranteed lawyers to poor defendants charged with serious crimes. It has...

Peter Sagal, host of NPR's highly entertaining "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," is planning a new PBS special on the US Constitution. In an interview with Politico, Sagal explains that he will be using the show to "educate" Americans about our government's framing document . The tax-payer funded show, "Constitution USA with Peter Sagal," sounds harmless enough: … We talked to people who were basically living the Constitution whether they wanted to or not, as opposed to the usual array of pundits or activists who have opinions about it. But as Sagal reveals his personal views of the constitution, a...

WASHINGTON -- CNN's John King says he is embarrassed after wrongly reporting last week that a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was arrested, calling the mistake a "double kick in the head" because he's a Boston native. "When you do something like this, it's embarrassing," King, the network's chief national correspondent, told WTOP on Tuesday. "The one thing you have to do is look straight in the camera and say, 'We were wrong.'"

Obama's Marxist socialist government is in a mad rush to destroy the final remnants of our constitution and our traditional American way of life. We love America. We love freedom. We love and defend our constitution. We cherish our God-given unalienable rights. We cherish and depend on our rights to free speech, free press, freedom of religion, freedom to keep and bear arms, freedom to be secure in our homes and personal affairs, freedom to travel, freedom to enjoy the fruits of our own labor. But the socialist don't. The Marxists don't. The Islamofascists don't. The socialist Democrat party led...

72 Congressmen slam media for failing to cover Gosnell, Planned Parenthood infanticide remarks WASHINGTON, D.C., April 18, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a sternly worded letter, 72 congressman have accused the three leading mainstream media networks – ABC, NBS, and CBS – of “blatant media bias” for failing to cover two of the biggest abortion-related stories in recent years: the trial of “House of Horrors” abortionist Kermit Gosnell, and remarks made by a Planned Parenthood representative in support of infanticide. “The broadcasters’ blackout of the Planned Parenthood infanticide lobbying scandal and the Gosnell ‘House of Horrors’ murder trial are the biggest...

Colorado --(Ammoland.com)- It has been brought to our attention that FOX31 reporters Julie Hayden and Josh Bernstein have been attempting to set up straw purchases via online firearm markets. Keep an eye out for these FOX31 reporters trying to SCAM you in their “investigative reporting”: Many of our members have made us aware of these activities through a website called armslist.com. If you are selling a firearm through this website, or any other website for that matter, please make sure that you exercise caution and your best judgment when completing a transaction in person. Remember, while journalists have used these...

MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell made the case this evening that the National Rifle Association is to blame for the slow investigation into the Boston bombings: Video here"There are new developments tonight in the bombing investigation here in Boston," said O'Donnell. "But that investigation could be moving faster were it not for the successful lobbying efforts of the National Rifle Association. The NRA's efforts to guarantee that American mass murderers are the best-equipped mass murders in the world is not limited to murderers who use assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. The NRA is also in the business of helping bombers get...

An article published on CNN's website makes an unproven claim that pressure cooker bombs like the ones used at the Boston Marathon terror attack are a 'signature' of 'right-wing extremists.' The article was co-written by Jennifer Roland and Peter Bergen. Bergen is the CNN ananlyst made the claim that right-wing extremists could be behind the bombing less than two hours after it took place. The article says (emphasis added) : A senior U.S. counterterrorism investigator told CNN that pressure cooker bombs have also been a signature of extreme right-wing individuals in the United States who he said tend to revel...

The hysterical screeching has already started. The Left is drawn to blame a terrorist attack on American soil on conservatives like a moth is drawn to a flame. They’re psychopaths who only care about moving their destructive agenda forward. Liberals will say anything; they can’t do otherwise. They’re not bound by any restrictions of common human decency because they have none. Despicable cancers such as Chris Matthews, Michael Moore and lunatic Cynthia McKinney have already started accusing conservatives of this ugly attack. Let them keep talking. Either the Boston Police or the media are lying about whether...

Predictably, the American Pravda Press immediately began conjecturing that the tragic terrorist act in Boston, at the Marathon, was possibly caused by 'right wing extremists'. Quoted Peter Bergen: ""One of the things that I'd be looking at, once the device, if it is a device, is found, what kind of explosives were used. If it, for instance, if it was hydrogen peroxide, sort of a signature of al Qaeda. If it was more conventional explosives, which are much harder to get hold of now, it might be some other kind of right wing extremists..."We've also seen other extremist groups, right...

It pains my soul when Liberals almost always assume, or should I say hope, a tragic event such as today’s Boston Marathon bombings are the handy work of “Right Wing extremists” – it conveniently validates their war against traditional America – while most moderates and conservatives believe it is the calling card of Islamic/foreign born terrorism because history, the era in which we live, speaks for itself. Fully cognizant of the fact countless, plausible explanations can exist as the potential genesis for such a catastrophe, I’m all for waiting, exercising due diligence, to collect the necessary data and making an...

The last check and balance on President Obama is the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. He has made clear that he intends to remove that check on his power in the 2014 elections. Our Founding Fathers wisely provided for a free and independent press as an additional check on government power. But the New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC, CBS and ABC decided they had a better idea. They concluded that it is more important to behave voluntarily like the old Soviet press did under government compulsion, when the socialist party is in power. Of course, we...

On the Monday broadcast of Current TV's "The War Room" network host Cenk Uygur observed Americans would not be as outraged if the Boston bomber turns out to be a "right-wing white guy" instead of a Muslim terrorist. "Now, if it's a right-wing white guy, those same exact people will turn around and say, 'Well, look, let's not over blow this. I mean it's just one crazy guy, he doesn't affect anything else. It has no other implications, let's just all calm down," Uygur said. Michael Shure, the host of "The War Room," said Cenk could be totally wrong about...

<p>Come on. Can’t even the media hacks stop the political BS for just a few hours while we pray for the people and victims of the bombings in Boston at the Marathon? Already, CNN leftist hack Wolf Blitzer is blaming ‘anti-tax’ groups or in other words the Tea Party for the explosions at the Boston Marathon. I’ll post video as soon as it comes out. Go F*ck Yourself Wolf Blitzer and CNN. Seriously!</p>

Thanks to conservative new media, the Kermit Gosnell trial is finally part of the national dialog. But before the mainstream press got around to doing their job, ten congressmen took to the floor of the House to protest the lack of media attention being paid to the horrifying story. One such congressman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), contrasted the abortionist's trial to another ongoing narrative that the media covers obsessively: gun control. “If Dr. Gosnell had walked into a nursery and shot seven infants with an AR-15, it would be national news and the subject of presidential hand-wringing,” said Smith, a...

I firmly believe why the MSM up until recently failed to report on the trial of Dr. Gosnell is the fact that they would look hypocritical along with President Obama, who has been using the deaths of 23 innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary to push for new gun control measures in the Congress, but the truth of the matter is that is you took all of Dr. Gosnell's victims and total them up you would come up with more than 9000 Sandy Hook Victims. The other reason for the media blackout is the fact that the trial would calling...

The gay son of Rep. Matt Salmon, Arizona Republican, told KPNX-TV in Phoenix on Sunday that both MSNBC’s “The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell” and CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live” canceled interviews with him because he refused to attack his father on the air. Matt R. Salmon, the son, said MSNBC canceled his appearance because “they had intended to be critical of him and … I was unwilling to do so.” He also said CNN “seemed very gung ho about” an interview at first, but when he said he was supportive of his father, “they seemed to lose interest.”

For the past couple of weeks there has been a steady drip of bad news for ObamaCare, but you wouldn't know it if you only get your news from the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks. From a Society of Actuaries report that determined premium costs will shoot up thanks to a thirty-three percent average increase in claims; to thirty-three Senate Democrats joining Republicans in voting to repeal an ObamaCare tax on medical devices; to a Quinnipiac University poll showing even two-thirds of self-identified Democrats saying the law will either hurt them or have no effect, the recent news has...

Rachel Maddow talks about a group of counter protesters that showed up at a "moms for gun reform" event in Indiana.Her disdain for the pro gun rights protesters is obvious as she makes comments like:"You can tell who the counter protesters were because they were the ones showing off their weapons, circling around the moms' group." and"You know what? It *is* intimidating to be in the presence of a loaded AR-15 assault rifle, especially when it is not held by, say, an instructor on a range or, say, a cop or somebody else who is there to ensure your safety...

CAIR Claims Victory Over AP Stylebook’s Restrictions on Word 'Islamist' April 5, 2013 By Elizabeth Harrington (CNSNews.com) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) praised the Associated Press (AP) for revising its stylebook to forbid the use of the word “Islamist,” if it is used to describe Islamic militants or extremists. In a press release on Friday, CAIR said revising the term is a "step in the right direction,” and that they helped influence the AP’s decision. “Late last year, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) approached AP about modifying the reference, which had been added to its influential...

CHRIS MATTHEWS: I'm left with the idea we live in an imperfect society with some people who are violent and the people who are known to be violent shouldn't get guns. Do you agree with that? LARRY PRATT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA: Yes, and as long as you don't take my guns away from me, I can handle the guy with the gun. MATTHEWS: See, this is pure rhetoric. I’m sticking to one point tonight. PRATT: Oh, I see. My linear logic is pure rhetoric and you're jumping from… MATTHEWS: No, you’re changing the topic. I'm talking about...

Rather than focusing on the real issues here, the AP is doing everything in its power to avoid pointing out the relationship between radical Islamists and terrorism. Similar to the Benghazi terror attack, in which the media found every possible angle to focus on other than the link between Islamic extremists and the attacks. They pointed to Mitt Romney for his statements, they pointed to Newsweek’s ‘Muslim Rage’ cover, at the author, Ayaan Ali Hirsi, and they pointed it at an obscure film that was at that time unknown to the general public. The relationship between radical Islam and terrorism...

(CNN) -- On the evening of March 19, Tom Clements, the director of Colorado's prison system, was shot and killed when he answered the door of his home near Colorado Springs. The slaying sparked a police chase that ended a few days later in Texas, with authorities finally killing the suspect, 28-year-old Evan Ebel, in a shootout. It was soon discovered that Ebel had been part of a violent white supremacist gang during the eight years he spent in Colorado prisons. Clements was the latest victim of increasingly active violent right-wing extremists. While American politicians and the U.S. public continue...

On this Sunday's "Meet the Press," guest-host Chuck Todd was interviewing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) about the current status of the Senate's gun legislation, specifically what is being called the "Universal Background Check" which Democrats and their media counterparts favor as a "common-sense measure" in reaction to the Newton murders a few months ago. Forget the fact that a background check would have had absolutely no impact on Newtown, or Aurora, or Tucson, or Columbine, or Virginia Tech, or any other high-profile crime; progressives are bound and determined to use these massacres to slowly whittle away at Americans' constitutionally protected,...

Over at the Washington Post, two “researchers and consultants on social and political issues� argue that American mass shooters are overwhelmingly white males, and that therefore the opinions of white males on what to do about mass shootings should be discounted.They are correct that the demographics of mass shooters are interesting — certainly, mass shooters differ from other murderers (and from the general population) in various ways. But mass shooters are not as overwhelmingly white as the authors imply, and the conclusions they draw are utterly bizarre.Frankly, the authors don’t seem to have a very good grasp of the...

Is the mainstream media biased against gun owners? You bet it is. Are gun owners aware of this fact? Yes. Do we care? I suspect most of us don’t. At this point, it’s pretty much expected. With that said, we do get irked from time to time at the media’s portrayal of gun owners, which frequently hews to the narrative that we’re all a bunch of paranoid zealots, blood-thirsty and pernicious, who horde supplies and hideout in subterranean bunkers awaiting a zombie apocalypse. Naw, that might be overstating it. It’s probably more accurate to say that the media propagates or...

As with its rush to declare Eric Holder “cleared” upon release of the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General’s report, major media outlets are unquestioningly accepting Department of Homeland Security OIG conclusions from its long-awaited “Fast and Furious” report, strategically pre-released last Thursday to the Los Angeles Times. “[T]he report determined that top Department of Homeland Security officials in Washington did not learn about Fast and Furious until [Border Patrol Agent Brian] Terry was shot to death in December 2010 and two of the 1,430 lost firearms were found at the scene of his murder,” The Times dutifully accepted,...

In the book "Public Opinion", Walter Lippmann writes the following: (Page 355) It is a problem of provoking feeling in the reader, of inducing him to feel a sense of personal identification with the stories he is reading. News which does not offer this opportunity to introduce oneself into the struggle which it depicts cannot appeal to a wide audience. The audience must participate in the news, much as it participates in the drama, by personal identification. Just as everyone holds his breath when the heroine is in danger, as he helps Babe Ruth swing his bat, so in subtler...

Those who are losing an argument often resort to smearing their opponents. Mike Barnicle, who a few years back was caught plagiarizing and Al Sharpton, The Worst of Al Sharpton who a few years before that built his career by accusing an innocent man of rape have resorted to smearing those of us who think New York Mike Bloomberg should at least confine his overbearing nannyist instincts to the city that actually elected him. “Let’s get down to it, Mike Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, there’s a level of anti-semitism in this thing directed towards Bloomberg,” Barnicle said on...

In a fresh New Republic story, reporter Rebecca Dana profiles Phil Griffin, the boss of a surging MSNBC. It’s a sympathetic look at the network exec, complete with a detailed rundown of how he and others happened upon the programming identity that has captivated liberal Americans across the land. One aspect of the piece that Griffin himself must adore is its disavowal of equivalence between MSNBC and cable top dog Fox News. Here’s how Dana makes the case that these outlets are distinct: Still, MSNBC isn’t an instrument of the Democratic Party in the way that Fox is of

Found myself in a group conversation that included one of the more instantly recognizable media figures -- someone who personifies the phrase "mainstream media." Since this isn't something that happens every day, why not make the best of it? Why not ask this VIMP (Very Important Media Person) a question or two on the topics that I frequently criticize the press for not covering?

In January 2009, Sarah Palin had the world on a string. A potential Republican presidential field-clearer for the presidency, every sentence she uttered was news. A Fox News contract awaited her. So did book deals. Four years later, Palin is without a clear option for elected office - or a clear sense she has an interest in any position of real public influence. She never took an active, leadership role in the tea party movement, beyond showing up at a scattered handful of events and talking it up on television. For many Americans, her name is now primarily a punchline...

Sarah Palin rocked a packed ballroom here at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday afternoon. The applause was roaring. The hollers many. The atmosphere crackling. In other words: Dog bites man. Palin's speech, if you can call it that, was Palin at her most Palinesque: heavy on one-liners and folksy charm; light on, you know, anything resembling substance and solutions. Here, a sampling of Palin's many zingers: "They talk about rebuilding the party. How about rebuilding the middle class?" "They talk about rebuilding the GOP? How about restoring the trust of the people?" "Let's be clear about...

The recent cultural madness surrounding guns in America offers a chilling example of the selective outrage and cynical manipulation employed by the cultural elites of our country. Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qISmi78Y86A The New American 12 March 2013

There's something odd with a Sunday New York Times report on gun ownership in America.  They claim the number of Americans owning guns are at its lowest since the 1970s.  They attribute it to a reduction in violent crime, which contradicts the media narrative that we need more gun control, and the increased rates of Americans settling in urban areas.  The problem is two years ago; the number of Americans owning guns was at 47 percent. Now, it's 35 percent.  So, there was a twelve-point drop in two years, and a little over three months after Sandy Hook.  How could...

Washington DC - -(Ammoland.com)- National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) president Steve Sanetti is warning gun owners to be beware the mainstream media’s efforts to pit one gun rights group against another in an attempt to divide and conquer. For example, Sanetti points out that a March 5 Washington Post article is constructed around the theory that the NSSF does not stand with the NRA in opposition to universal background checks. The WAPO does this by equating the NSSF’s support for improvements to the current background check system with support for universal background checks. Sanetti rejects this argument out of hand,...

In a case of apparent plagiarism, Fox News pundit Juan Williams lifted — sometimes word for word — from a Center for American Progress report, without ever attributing the information, for a column he wrote last month for The Hill newspaper. Almost two weeks after publication, the column was quietly revised online, with many of the sections rewritten or put in quotation marks, and this time citing the CAP report. It also included an editor’s note that read: “This column was revised on March 2, 2013, to include previously-omitted attribution to the Center for American Progress.” But that editor’s note...