Free Republic

Jimmy Fallon says the wide field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates offers "a breath of fresh air" for late-night TV hosts looking for new material. I want my show at the end of a long day to be a wind-down,” the host of “The Tonight Show” says in an interview with Variety published Monday. “We talk about everything that’s in the news. Right now, all it is is Trump — that’s just the way it is,” says Fallon in a conversation with Hasan Minhaj, host of Netflix's “Patriot Act.” “Now we’re getting into the [2020 Democratic presidential field] and it’s...

The gruesome murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi shredded the idea that Saudi Arabian royalty should be praised for reforming itself. Princes who chop political opponents into little pieces are not nice people. That said, puh-leeze stop it with the adoration of a man who deserves none of it. Politico ran a gushing headline that read, "Jamal Khashoggi: The Free Thinker Whose Murder Shook the World." Time magazine named him one of "the Guardians," the journalistic muckrakers who became its 2018 Person of the Year. Time's Karl Vick laid on the praise, and thick, writing: "Khashoggi put his faith...

Netflix rarely finds itself thrust into political debates like other internet giants, but it won't enjoy that luxury in 2019. The streaming service has pulled the second episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj in Saudi Arabia after the country alleged that it violated a cybercrime law barring content that threatens "public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy." The episode is critical of the Saudi government's apparent murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as well as the war in Yemen, and suggests that both tech companies and the US as a whole should "reassess" their connection to the kingdom.

Netflix has taken down an episode of a satirical comedy show critical of Saudi Arabia in the country after officials from the kingdom complained, sparking criticism from Human Rights Watch, which said the act undermined the streaming service’s “claim to support artistic freedom”. Hasan Minhaj was critical of the Saudi heir in an episode of the standup show Patriot Act, delivering a wide-ranging monologue mocking the Saudis’ evolving account of what happened inside the country’s consulate in Istanbul in October, when the journalist was killed. … Human Rights Watch said artists whose work is broadcast on Netflix should be outraged,...

Hasan Minhaj delivered a brutal and biting monologue about President Trump at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, in an appearance that was as much a statement as it was a bit of satire.