Free Republic

While the Obama administration continues its war against its media critics, well-known liberal journalists — instead of defending freedom of the press — are joining the attack on a news network they despise as much as does the administration. Gone is any seeming concern for the right of commentators to voice their own opinion, because mainstream liberal editorial writers are sure their opponents are both extremists and wrong. Take, as our first example, Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of The Slate Group. Writing in last week’s Newsweek, Weisberg explained at the start that anyone who watches Fox News knows immediately that Anita...

It is an odd, and we'd say regrettable, pattern of this White House that it lets itself get dragged down into fights with specific media outlets. George W. Bush experienced acrimony with the New York Times, but for the most part, other than general frustrations of a conservative administration, complaining about a liberal media, it was no big deal. But in addition to Fox News, now The White House is going after highly-respected and influential car site Edmunds .com. They're actually using The White House blog to dispute the site's analysis of Cash-For-Clunkers (via Detroit News). The post is snarkily...

The Obama White House has apparently decided to wage a two-front war on the media. After a blistering analysis of the Cash for Clunkers program from the well-established auto industry analyst Edmunds, the White House tried attacking their credibility while claiming that automakers were planning for greatly-increased demand for their new products. Business Insider wondered what the administration could be thinking: On the same day that we found out that motor vehicle output added 1.7% to economic growth in the third quarter – the largest contribution to quarterly growth in over a decade – Edmunds.com has released a faulty analysis...

The Center for American Progress is a powerful Washington, D.C.-based think-tank that has as its main benefactors George Soros and his allies and political soul-mates, Herbert and Marion Sandler, who are also major benefactors. The Center (CAP) has become a one-stop shop for staffing the Obama administration with key officials (Van Jones hailed from the CAP and returned to his sinecure there when his radical ideas became known to the rest of us). Bloomberg news titled an article about the Center this way "Soros-Funded Democratic Idea Factory Becomes Obama Policy Font." The CAP promises to become a hydra-headed beast as...

An early progress report on President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports," the Associated Press reports. Time magazine's Joe Klein has not yet labeled the AP's reporting seditious, but the Obama administration does seem to have added the wire service to its enemies list. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite.com reports Ed DeSeve, senior adviser to the president for Recovery Act implementation, complains that "the story draws misleading conclusions" and "looks at only a small portion...

Republican senators and members of the media highlight President Obama's failure to live up to his pledge to conduct health care negotiations in full view of the public. Senators and media members also highlight the White Houses alarming tendency to seek to punish those who dont share its views.

With all the talk about President Obama's "enemies list," including less than flattering comparisons to former President, Richard M. Nixon, I think it's appropriate to add some perspective to the issue. People apply the Nixonian label when searching history for a precedent nearing the level of Obama's attacks against his so-called "enemies list".

For eight years Democrats pounded at the doors of D.C., throwing their own fecal matter around, and claiming that it was only a matter of time until Bush had them all rounded up for being unpatrotic. And like the frenzied mob at a Black Friday sale waiting for the doors to open, shoving and shoving against the glass, until the doors finally open, and the mob bursts through stomping over any store personnel in the way, Democrats have been completely unable to let go of the attack dog politics of the last 8 years and actually govern. Instead what we’ve...

A radio service which belongs to the government fights to stay off of the Obama's enemies list. The graphic on the front page is from Hot Air. Designed by one of their readers they’re using it to help identify those news outlets that have earned the official White House News seal of approval … and its my guess NPR has just retained that designation. Courtesy of Hot Air picks … Apparently NPR reporter Ken Rudin described Obama’s war on Fox News as Nixonian. Hardly news making, considering Lemar Alexander, Karl Rove and Mike Huckabee already beat him to the punch....

A topic I first raised in March rings ever more true!In March I wrote: "Is Obama the New Nixon? How long before full White House involvement in enemies list and attack politics is revealed?" At the time, their primary target was Rush Limbaugh. Since then, they have expanded their field of fire considerably. Anyone who has a policy disagreement with Obama, even a fellow Democrat, can be targeted for destruction by this White House. Is the Real Obama a Uniter or a Divider?Readers may recall these words from Obama's inaugural address: "We gather because we have chosen hope over fear,...

If Obama and his Chicago thugs simply focused on the country's real enemies rather than American citizens and institutions which provide constructive criticism and honest discourse on the policies emanating from the White House, effective policy might be put in place which would advance an agenda supported by a true majority of citizens. But rather, we see an administration so focused on what, in its paranoid state, it perceives as enemies, that all of its energies are centered on discrediting Bush and Cheney, Fox News, talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, town hall attendees, tea party organizers, health insurance companies, Wall Street...

It's pretty unremarkable to describe the Obama White House's growing enemies list -- the insurance companies, Chamber of Commerce, Fox News -- as "Nixonian." But there's one place where, if you venture such an opinion, you'd better be prepared to apologize -- quickly and profusely. On National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" Wednesday, NPR political editor Ken Rudin said the White House campaign against Fox News is a bad idea. "It's not only aggressive, it's almost Nixonesque," Rudin said. "I mean, you think of what Nixon and Agnew did with their enemies list and their attacks on the media;...

Fox Wars The 'Post-Partisan' President Makes An enemies List By Charles Krauthammer Friday, October 23, 2009 Rahm Emanuel once sent a dead fish to a live pollster. Now he's put a horse's head in Roger Ailes's bed. The White House has declared war on Fox News. White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Fox is "opinion journalism masquerading as news." Patting rival networks on the head for their authenticity (read: docility), senior adviser David Axelrod declared Fox "not really a news station." And Chief of Staff Emanuel told (warned?) the other networks not to "be led [by] and following...

There has been much talk of late about the "Enemies List" that the Obama administration is working off of. As a public service to our readers, we are publishing the items one must be aware of in order to be taken off the Obama Hate list.You might be on Obama's Enemies List if: If you have a degree from a college in something other than Law, Civics, Theater Arts, Education or Political Science If you have ever attended a tea party or ever complained about paying your taxes If you make enough money to have to pay taxes If you...

I have argued before that the tone and manner in which one practices politics are undervalued commodities, especially at a presidential level. The public looks for leaders who are large-minded rather than petty and peevish, who engage in public arguments rather than in personal attacks, who want to solve problems rather than settle scores. Tone and approach are important not simply for the aesthetics of politics but also because of what they reveal about a person's predisposition and attitude, temperament and spirit. That is but one reason why President Obama's war on Fox News -- being carried out by him...

Rahm Emanuel once sent a dead fish to a live pollster. Now he's put a horse's head in Roger Ailes's bed. Not very subtle. And not very smart. Ailes doesn't scare easily. The White House has declared war on Fox News. White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Fox is "opinion journalism masquerading as news." Patting rival networks on the head for their authenticity (read: docility), senior adviser David Axelrod declared Fox "not really a news station." And Chief of Staff Emanuel told (warned?) the other networks not to "be led [by] and following Fox." Meaning? If Fox runs...

Most recent........

A growing number of conservative talkradio show hosts, including Jim Vicevich have been bringing up that President Obama has set up an "enemies list" just like Richard Nixon has done. Lemar Alexander brings this up in an interview by Neil Cavuto. Well he’s not the first. Krauthammer and Rove said the same thing right here. But this is a Senator who’s been there and seen that so it carries a little more weight. I agree with Rush. I think this does nothing. This doesn’t even give Obama a tingle.

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Republican Conference Chairman, suggested on the Senate floor this morning that the Obama White House is plotting a political strategy similar to that of ex-President Richard Nixon and may be on the verge of preparing its own “enemies list.” This afternoon, Fox News’ Neil Cavuto interviewed him regarding the comments. (videos below) Alexander, who served in the Nixon White House, offered what he said was a “friendly suggestion” to the White House not to repeat the errors he saw committed by the staff of the disgraced former president. “This behavior is typical of street brawls and...

The third-ranking Senate Republican said Wednesday the Obama administration appears to be launching a Richard Nixon-like political strategy of making an "enemies list" of people who disagree with the president. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who once worked in President Nixon's administration, warned the White House that such a "street brawl" approach of attacking political opponents "can get you in a lot of trouble." Alexander offered no evidence that Obama is developing an actual list, as Nixon famously created for his opponents. But, he said, "I have an uneasy feeling only 10 months into this new administration that we're beginning...

"President Obama is working systematically to marginalize the most powerful forces behind the Republican Party, setting loose top White House officials to undermine conservatives in the media, business and lobbying worlds. With a series of private meetings and public taunts, the White House has targeted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest-spending pro-business lobbying group in the country; Rush Limbaugh, the country’s most-listened-to conservative commentator; and now, with a new volley of combative rhetoric in recent days, the insurance industry, Wall Street executives and Fox News"

[ABOVE: Remember this enemies list, titled "Smears, Inc" from Obama's Fightthesmears.com? Click image to enlarge.] "What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon -- that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but enemies to demonize." – Barack Obama, June 3, 2008 featured at the top of Obama's Fight the Smears.com website OBAMA ENEMIES LIST NOTHING NEW FIGHT THE IMAGINED "SMEARS" with REAL SMEARSBefore Fox News and Glenn Beck, there was Floyd Brown and Bob Perry. This White House has...

WASHINGTON — The White House has gone on the offensive against its critics in the press, singling out Fox News and going so far as to accuse the News Corp.-owned network of waging a "war against Barack Obama." White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has led the charge, appearing on CNN television and conducting interviews with Time magazine and The New York Times in recent days to make her case.The unusual White House campaign comes as President Obama faces mounting opposition to his health care reforms, growing concern over the situation in Afghanistan and a continuing general economic malaise.The president...

The Obama Administration rejected concerns that it is collecting information from the Internet for the purpose of compiling an “enemies list.” “Granted, we are gathering information—names, addresses, and the like—from those who have posted comments critical of the Administration’s policies,” admitted White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro. “But our purpose is to better target future educational efforts.” Shapiro contended that “so much of the opposition to the President and his program is based on ignorance and erroneous information that it should be obvious to any sound thinking person that many in our country need a significant amount of reeducation. Rather than...

A doctors' group and an organization that advocates for the interest of the inner-city poor have joined forced to sue the Obama administration, charging that its abortive effort to collect criticisms made by those opposed to President Obama's plan to change the U.S. health care system infringed on their First Amendment rights. In a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education said the White House had attempted to "unlawfully" collect information on protected political speech when it asked Obamacare supporters to report any negative comments...

August 14, 2009…It is August of 2009, but it might as well be George Orwell’s 1984. The author’s nightmare vision of an oppressive government is coming true in Barack Obama’s America . The latest example is the administration’s blatant assault on free speech. The Obama White House is asking supporters to spy on fellow Americans and inform on any friends, family members or colleagues who may be opposed to the President’s trillion dollar health care plan. According to the White House website: “There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there…These rumors often travel just below the...

So claims Erick Erickson at Redstate, and Greg Sargent’s attempt to explain the White House response does appear to confirm it. Even Greg sounds less than convinced by the latest Obama administration pushback on its Snitch Central e-mail line, now defunct, which is to claim that Senator John Cornyn’s website also collects information from submissions to an information line. Greg, Erick, and Cornyn point out the very obvious difference: Now the DNC is striking back by pointing out that similar email collection is done on the Web sites of Senators and members of Congress, including … John Cornyn. Over on...

P&G, Progressive Pull Ads From Glenn Beck's Fox Show After "Obama Is Racist" Remarks By Jim Edwards | August 7th, 2009 @ 8:57 am 3 Comments Share Email My BNET Twitter del.icio.us Google StumbleUpon Newsvine Facebook LinkedIn Digg My Yahoo Technorati Reddit Print Recomend 1 Fox is proving uniquely sensitive to advertising boycott campaigns this summer. Three major advertisers — LexisNexis-owned Lawyers.com, Procter & Gamble and Progressive Insurance – all abandoned Glenn Beck’s Fox News Channel show after he called President Obama a racist (video below). The move comes after Fox axed host Steven Cohen from Fox Soccer Channel because...

Obama goes after media for 'enemies list' rumor @ 2:17 pm by Eric Zimmermann President Obama attacked the media today for helping circulate a story that the White House is compiling an "enemies list." "This is another example of how the media ends up just completely distorting what's taking place," Obama said. "C'mon, guys!" he added later. The story started when the White House asked supporters to forward "fishy" claims about Democratic healthcare legislation, the goal being to check and refute those claims. Critics said that forwarding emails would let the White House compile a list of political opponents. Sen....

Last week, the debate about health care reform was transformed into one about free speech — specifically, whether the Obama administration is trying to chill the speech of its critics by creating an “enemies list.” The ruckus started when the White House called on its supporters to help it combat what it calls “disinformation” about its health care agenda that is being propagated through emails, websites, and “casual conversation.” Specifically, it asked: “If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.” Of course, the emails forwarded to...

According to Democrats.com, Obama has pressured these companies into pulling their ads from FOXnews. Let's boycott these wimps and let them see that losing the mainstream dollar hurts more than losing the radical left dollar: Campbell Soup Chrysler General Motors Kellogg Kraft Foods Lawyers.com Nestle Pfizer Proctor & Gamble Progressive Insurance

Battle of health care videos 8:01Reliable Sources: W.H. wades into war of YouTube videos about health care. Howard Kurtz talks to Linda Douglass.

Douglass stands by W.H. effort to gather 'fishy' health information @ 4:49 pm by Jordan Fabian Obama administration official Linda Douglass on Sunday dismissed claims that the White House has tried to compile an "enemies list" and censor debate on healthcare reform legislation. Last week, the White House made a blog post accusing opponents of spreading "disinformation" on healthcare and encouraged supporters to submit "fishy" information floating around the internet. "We don't have a list we're not keeping any of the sources of information those are all crazy charges," said Douglass, who is Communications Director of the White House Office...

It is incredible that in American an Administration has created a Public Enemies List. Please write your representatives, the Whitehouse and the MSM showing your distrust of this government the Media that is silent.

White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs gets caught ina HUGE LIE today. After repeating over and over that the White House wasn't keeping any names off their wierd email snitch initiative, a sharp reporter points out that THAT would be brealing the law...

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, accusing the White House of compiling an "enemies list," has asked President Barack Obama to stop an effort to collect "fishy" information Americans see about a health care overhaul. Cornyn, who leads the Republicans' Senate campaign effort, said Wednesday in a letter to Obama that he's concerned that citizen engagement on the issue could be "chilled." He also expressed alarm that the White House could end up collecting electronic information on its critics. "I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward e-mails critical of his policies to the...

Public Discourse: The candidate who told his supporters "to argue with them and get in their face" now finds the shoe on the other foot. So they're taking names and encouraging you to turn in your neighbors.So this is hope and change — telling American citizens who in a democracy disagree with you that they are mind-numbed robots participating in mob action and expressing "manufactured" outrage. Considering that upward of 80% of those hooligans like their doctors, like their insurance and like their care, anger over your government-run health care was not that hard to assemble. It was not that...

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismisses a question from a reporter asking about the flag@whitehouse.gov email address.

Here is video of Texas Sen. John Cornyn on Fox and Friends this morning where he talked about the stinging letter he sent to President Obama over the Obama Administration's attempt to get Americans to "snitch" on other Americans the consider to be saying things that are "fishy" about Obama's Health Care Plan. In other words, Obama is seeking to create an "enemies list" of sorts by enlisting his supporters to report things the read or hear that are against their proposals. Cornyn the move is unprecedented and raises issues of "privacy concerns." He said no one knows how the...

The White House request that members of the public report anyone who is spreading "disinformation" about the proposed national health care makeover could lead to a White House database of political opponents that will be both secret and permanent, according to Republican lawyers on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are examining the plan's possible implementation. On Monday, White House director of new media Macon Phillips posted a note on the White House web site complaining of "disinformation about health insurance reform." "These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation," Phillips wrote. "Since we...

<p>“I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests,” Sen. Cornyn wrote. “You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program. As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights.”</p>

The government watchdog President Obama canned for allegedly being "confused" and "disoriented" fired back sharply Wednesday, saying the White House explanation for removing him was "insufficient," "baseless" and "absolutely wild." Gerald Walpin, who until last week was the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, told FOXNews.com that part of Obama's explanation was a "total lie" and that he feels he's got a target on his back for political reasons. "I am now the target of the most powerful man in this country, with an army of aides whose major responsibility today seems to be to attack...

Mark down the date. Tuesday, April 21, 2009, is the moment that any chance of a new era of bipartisan respect in Washington ended. By inviting the prosecution of Bush officials for their antiterror legal advice, President Obama has injected a poison into our politics that he and the country will live to regret. Policy disputes, often bitter, are the stuff of democratic politics. Elections settle those battles, at least for a time, and Mr. Obama's victory in November has given him the right to change policies on interrogations, Guantanamo, or anything on which he can muster enough support. But...

Release Date: April 15, 2009 For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Contact: 202-282-8010 The primary mission of this department is to prevent terrorist attacks on our nation. The document on right-wing extremism sent last week by this department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis is one in an ongoing series of assessments to provide situational awareness to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies on the phenomenon and trends of violent radicalization in the United States. I was briefed on the general topic, which is one that struck a nerve as someone personally involved in the Timothy McVeigh prosecution....

Yesterday, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an unclassified DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis report titled:Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.The “report” was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real.I spent the day chasing down DHS spokespeople, who have been tied up preparing for a very important homeland security event later today: The First Lady is coming to visit their Washington office. Priorities, you know.Well, the press office got back to me and verified that the document...

“Bipartisanship,” said Rush Limbaugh to an enthusiastic conservative conclave last month, “everybody seems to go orgasmic over the concept of bipartisanship.” Lest any in his enthusiastic audience be shocked, the broadcaster added, “Don’t worry — I checked with Fox, that word’s O.K.” --snip-- LOVE THINE ENEMIES “The White House Misfires on Limbaugh” was The Wall Street Journal’s headline over a column by the former Bush “guru” Karl Rove, who is now enjoying the delights of being on the kicking rather than the receiving team. After the new press secretary, Robert Gibbs, took the opportunity to change the subject of economic...

March 17) -- Over the past few weeks, the White House has been casting right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh as the head of the Republican Party, and based on a new CBS News poll, it appears they may be onto something. According to the poll, Limbaugh’s favorable rating stands at just 19 percent, a full 43 points lower than President Obama’s.

Just seven weeks into his presidency, Barack “Corleone” Obama has gone to the mattresses. His administration has lunged ruthlessly for the jugulars of its critics. His cabinet has more tax cheats than McKellys in a Dublin phone book. Crackdown on lobbyists? Fahgettaboudit. Earmark reform? We don’t need no stinking earmark reform. “Today,” the new don pontificates, “I settle all family business” — e.g., nationalizing the energy industry, socializing the health care system, and federalizing American education. Obama has parasitically used a correctable housing bubble burst and banking crises to power-grab and commit the country to more spending than at any...

The White House says former Vice President Dick Cheney is the second most popular member of the "Republican cabal," behind only talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Monday brushed off Cheney's criticism of President Barack Obama's new administration. Cheney said Sunday that Obama's decisions are threatening the nation's safety. Obama reversed many of his predecessor's executive orders, including how the country treats suspected terrorists.

Good thing Jack Welch criticized Barack Obama on national TV and not at a toney New York party: he might never have been invited to sip Cosmos with the cocktail set again . . . Appearing on Morning Joe today, the former GE CEO lambasted Pres. Obama’s lack of focus, calling it “crazy.” But he observed that people who broach even the slightest criticism of Obama do so at peril of becoming pariahs in the New York set. Even his own “trust-fund daughters” will hear no evil when it comes to the prez. JACK WELCH: This guy is locked in...