Free Republic

MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell said Friday on her show “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that she believed the testimony of Hunter Biden’s former business associate Devon Archer to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability “exonerated” President Joe Biden. Mitchell said, “It was originally reported by the Republican readout that Archer had suggested something that insinuated improper behavior by the president and his son, and then when Archer came out and the transcript came out, it was very clear that he had exonerated the president.

For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government’s mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts. So what just happened?

There’s a movement brewing to shut down conservative websites that offer views and information contradicting left-wing orthodoxy. Investigative reporter Gabe Kaminsky did an excellent job of uncovering how activist organizations, some partnered with the State Department, work to blacklist and defund conservative media. His ongoing series at the Washington Examiner is worth reading and explains how this is part of a larger effort to effectively shut down conservative media publications. It’s predictable—yet nevertheless disturbing—stuff. “Major ad companies are increasingly seeking guidance from purportedly ‘nonpartisan’ groups claiming to be detecting and fighting online ‘disinformation.’” Kaminsky wrote. “These same ‘disinformation’ monitors are...

After seeing promising results in Eastern Europe, Google will initiate a new campaign in Germany that aims to make people more resilient to the corrosive effects of online misinformation. The tech giant plans to release a series of short videos highlighting the techniques common to many misleading claims. The videos will appear as advertisements on platforms like Facebook, YouTube or TikTok in Germany. A similar campaign in India is also in the works. It’s an approach called pre-bunking, which involves teaching people how to spot false claims before they encounter them. The strategy is gaining support among researchers and tech...

We previously discussed the movement in journalism schools to get rid of principles of objectivity in journalism. Advocacy journalism is the new touchstone in the media even as polls show that trust in the media is plummeting. Now, former executive editor for The Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr. and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward have released the results of their interviews with over 75 media leaders and concluded that objectivity is now considered reactionary and even harmful. Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle said it plainly: “Objectivity has got to go.” Notably, while Bob Woodword and others...

President Biden’s approval rating rose to 44 percent in a new Emerson College survey released on Tuesday. The 5-point improvement in Biden’s approval rating — up from 39 percent in Emerson College’s November poll — comes as the president is reportedly preparing to launch his reelection campaign in the coming weeks. ADMINISTRATION Biden approval rating ticks up to 44 percent in new survey BY JULIA SHAPERO - 01/24/23 10:08 AM ET SHARE TWEET AP-Carolyn Kaster President Joe Biden meets with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023. (AP...

Trauma from environmental and climate disasters can cause long-term changes in cognitive functioning, according to research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS Climate. Researchers from the University of California San Diego and California State University used existing data from survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history. In the 2023 study, researchers found that among a subset of people directly exposed to the fire, electroencephalography (EEG) scans showed noticeable differences in brain activity and cognitive function. ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT Study: Trauma from climate disaster can change brain function BY ZACK BUDRYK - 01/20/23 1:53 PM ET...

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald J. Trump responded on Friday to a promised subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault with a lengthy, rambling letter that attacked the panel’s work, reiterated false claims of widespread voting fraud and presaged a potentially bruising battle over whether he would be compelled to testify about his role in the riot and his efforts to subvert the 2020 election. In a 14-page missive that did not address whether he would comply with the subpoena, Mr. Trump perpetuated the same lies that had fueled the attack and boasted about the size of...

CNN anchor Chris Wallace said on this week’s edition of “The Axe Files” that Donald Trump’s “weird” rally last weekend in Ohio shows the former president is “going in a darker and more extreme direction.”

Former Disinformation Governance Board leader Nina Jankowicz is worried Americans face a bleak future after the Department of Homeland Security reportedly “paused” their effort. “The problem is there are very real national security issues here, and not being able to talk about this in a mature way is a real disservice to the country,” Jankowicz told the New York Times in an interview published Wednesday. Jankowicz criticized Republicans and conservative activists after resigning three weeks after she announced her new position as the head of a Disinformation Governance Board on social media.

(I changed the picture, the original was a Getty which we can't post)Gigi Sohn, the Biden Administration’s nomination for FCC commissioner, has attended a partisan event touting an FCC-led breakup of Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s “right wing propaganda machine,” adding to mounting evidence that the nominee is hopelessly partisan. The appointee would break the current 2-2 FCC tie in favor of the Democrats While FCC commissioners have a party affiliation, with two Democrat commissioners, two Republican commissioners, and one chair position typically held by whichever party holds the White House, commissioners are expected to remain relatively non-partisan in their outlook on...

CNN anchor Brian Stelter on Thursday denied that CNN purveyed multiple hoaxes and dismissed Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” as “Russia disinformation.” Speaking at the “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy” forum, Stelter was asked by college freshman Christopher Phillips about CNN’s record of inaccurate reporting and suppression of news.

The surgeon general of the United States believes Joe Rogan's top-rated podcast should be censored because of its interviews with prominent health scientists who come to conclusions based on assessments of data and studies that contradict some of the evolving stances of the Biden administration. A day after vintage rocker Neil Young told Spotify to choose between his music and Joe Rogan's podcast, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy lamented Tuesday that social media platforms are not doing enough to "stop the spread" of misinformation." Prefacing her question for Murthy, MSNBC'S Mika Brzezinski said Rogan's podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," has "promoted...

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released explosive video on Tuesday that showed CNN Technical Director Charlie Chester admitting that the network worked to get President Donald Trump out of office and that the network creates “propaganda” on issues they know little about. While explosive, the footage likely will not come as a surprise are many; polling has shown that CNN is the least trusted cable news network and is the most divisive media brand in the country. On CNN and its employees working to oust Trump from office, Chester made the following remarks throughout various encounters that he had with an...

NBC News anchor Lester Holt received praise from liberal media figures after saying reporters don’t need to hear both sides of a story before determining the "truth." "I think it’s become clear that fairness is overrated ... the idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in," Holt said on Tuesday night while accepting an award at the 45th Murrow Symposium. Lester Holt feels "the idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in." Lester Holt...

The U.S. government is acknowledging for the first time that right-wing extremists were responsible for the majority of fatal domestic terrorist attacks last year, according to an internal report circulated by the Department of Homeland Security last week and obtained by Yahoo News. A review of last year’s domestic terrorist incidents by a DHS fusion center — which shares threat-related information between federal, state and local partners — found that although civil unrest and antigovernment violence were associated with “non-affiliated, right-wing and left-wing actors, right-wing [domestic violent extremists] were responsible for the majority of fatal attacks in the Homeland in...

The original article is in German, an English summary is given here: https://blogestrenos.com/german-ministry-hired-scientists-to-induce-corona-fear/ At the beginning of last year, the German Ministry of the Interno worked with several scientists on a strategy to increase fear of corona in order to foster understanding for drastic corona measures. The newspaper Die Welt reports this on the basis of a leaked email exchange. Minister of the Interno Seehofer and the scientists involved have so far not responded. Opposition parties demand clarification. The emails date from March and April 2020, when Germany was in the first lockdown. Seehofer was concerned about easing too quickly...

During the WH press briefing a reporter for ABC suggested that the mere presence of Trump having a legal defense could incite violence.

Glenn Kessler, a fact-checker from the Washington Post, has stated that he will not count false claims made by President Biden during his presidency similar to how they were counted during the Trump presidency On an interview with CNN, Kessler stated that “in the case of the Biden-Harris transition team, we identified five factual statements he made and we wanted to know what was the basis for this. Within fifteen minutes we received citations to those factual statements and they all checked out.” WashPost 'fact checker' Glenn Kessler won't count false Biden claims like Trump's: "I assume the Biden presidency...

Do a good job and report the truth, and you're probably going to catch hell. The challenge is being willing to do it anyway. — Dan Rather The Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts honor the process of journalism as much as the end product. They will be awarded to professional and collegiate journalists who go the extra yard — overcoming obstacles like stonewalling and harassment — to get the story that tells truth to power. The Medals are named for Dan Rather, the legendary reporter and anchor who went far afield from his Texan roots but never forgot...