Free Republic

Media analysts wonder just how far the news media will go in their efforts to undermine President Trump. Well, they will go pretty far. National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre recently noted that “organized hatred” is unprecedented against the new administration — “amplified by a national media that has thrown out the rules of journalism and has become a part of the mob.” Strong words. But there are strong words in journalism as well. This week, the Los Angeles Times offers a four-part, unsigned editorial series titled “Our Dishonest President.” The first installment ran Sunday, proclaiming this: “It was no...

President Donald Trump on Thursday shook up his senior West Wing staff, days after his administration faced its first major legislative setback in failing to pass a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Katie Walsh, the White House's deputy chief of staff, will join a nonprofit group supporting the President's agenda, the President's top aides said Thursday. The move marks the second departure of a senior White House official in the first months of the administration, following national security adviser Michael Flynn's forced resignation last month. It also represents a major change in the makeup of the White House's top...

That didn’t take long. Only 10 weeks into his presidency, and at great risk to future generations, Donald Trump has ordered the demolition of most of President Barack Obama’s policies to combat climate change by reducing emissions from fossil fuels. The assault began with Mr. Trump’s pledge in Detroit to roll back fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, continued with a stingy budget plan that would end funding for climate-related scientific programs and reached an unhappy apex Tuesday with an executive order that, among things, would rescind the centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s clean power strategy, a rule that would...

A series of moves by the Trump administration has environmental journalists scrambling for new strategies, with many fearing their jobs will be more difficult in the era of President Trump. Companies like mongabay.com, an online news outlet with a focus on environmental issues, rely on media access to federal workers for information. The appointment of a known climate change denier, Myron Ebell, as director of President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team and a recent media blackout for EPA workers has led to doubts that this relationship will survive. On Thursday, three panelists from mongabay.com visited the UMass journalism department...

Legislation can be crafted bottom up or top down. In bottom up you ask, What problems do voters have and how can they be addressed. In top down, you ask, What problems do elite politicians have and how can they be addressed? The House Republican health care bill is a pure top-down document. It was not molded to the actual health care needs of regular voters. It does not have support from actual American voters or much interest in those voters. It was written by elites to serve the needs of elites. Donald Trump vowed to drain the swamp, but...

The disclosure came in a report Wednesday night, citing unnamed U.S. officials. FBI suggests that President Donald Trump may have worked alongside Russian officials to release information aimed at Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. The FBI has information indicating that associates of President Donald Trump were in communication with suspected Russian agents and that they may have coordinated on releasing hacked emails and other information to undercut Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, CNN reported Wednesday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

...Lemon was criticizing the White House press secretary for the way he answered a question on the president and wiretapping during the daily press briefing.... Now, remember back in 2014 when Don Lemon asked if a black hole was responsible for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370? We do:

If you’re a poor person in America, President Trump’s budget proposal is not for you. Trump has unveiled a budget that would slash or abolish programs that have provided low-income Americans with help on virtually all fronts, including affordable housing, banking, weatherizing homes, job training, paying home heating oil bills, and obtaining legal counsel in civil matters. Gone would be $35 million in funding for well-known programs such as Habitat for Humanity and YouthBuild USA, fair housing planning, and homeless assistance, among other housing help for needy Americans. Other targets include funding for neighborhood development and a home-buying program through...

Acid rain devouring New England forests. Homes built on toxic sites. Unswimmable rivers and cities cloaked in smog. The United States looked very different before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrived, but a recent Congressional bill calls for the agency’s abolition. So Americans may wonder: What would life be like without the EPA? -SNIP- Without the EPA’s abilities to quickly assess environmental hazards, future environmental disasters would be worsened, The Washington Post reported. A proposed 42-percent budget cut to the EPA’s research division already makes that a danger, the Post reported. -SNIP- In the end, the EPA is unlikely to...

It's a dream many city-dwellers long for: moving to a spacious house surrounded by greenery in the countryside, where they plan to raise their family. In 1996, Heather Shepherd, now 50, and her family did just that. But two years later, not long after work was completed on their rural home, they got a sign of what it really meant to live in their new village: It was prone to flooding. With floods -- as well as storms, heat waves and droughts -- expected to increase in frequency thanks to climate change, the impact such trauma may have on the...

New York (CNN)A former reporter who was fired for fabricating sources was arrested Friday and accused of making some of the bomb threats against Jewish institutions that have so rattled Jews recently.... ...Juan Thompson, 31, was charged with one count of cyber-stalking for making at least eight threats as part of an attempt to intimidate a particular person after their romantic relationship ended, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleges Thompson had emailed and phoned in threats to the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish institutions. Some of those threats mentioned a...

Georgetown University's course catalog for its Masters in Journalism program reads like an advert for a farm team of liberal, agenda-driven rookies, destined for placement in the Capitol Hill bubble of see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. According to the university, journalism students can look forward to, “mastering the art of compelling storytelling through firsthand experience in the vibrant political and cultural landscape of the nations’ capitol.” Shouldn’t there be some mention of the gathering of facts? Apparently not. For one half of the school's elective offerings feature a storytelling theme that runs counter to the...

The comment was revealed by model/actress Emily Ratajkowski The New York Times reprimanded a reporter Monday following an allegation the reporter publicly referred to unfounded rumors about first lady Melania Trump. The allegations were made public by model/actress Emily Ratajkowski, who said the unnamed reporter repeated unsubstantiated claims about Trump's past in her vicinity at an event Sunday night. (TWEETS-AT-LINK) Ratajkowski added the "gender specific attacks" were "disgusting" and "sexist." In a statement released to NBC, a Times spokesperson did not identify the reporter, but confirmed an incident occurred. "At a party last night, a Times reporter who does not...

Attacks on the press for being 'fake news' have become a staple of President Trump‘s rhetoric, with CNN - hosts/reporters included - often being called out by name. "The only thing that's bothersome about it, is that I see being called 'fake news' as the equivalent of the n-word for journalists, the equivalent of calling an Italian any of the ugly words that people have for that ethnicity.That's what fake news is to a journalist.," CNN's Chris Cuomo told Michael Smerconish on SiriusXM POTUS (Ch. 124) Thursday. "It is an ugly insult and you better be right if you're going...

"Communism...has infiltrated...into journalism, the press...It seeks through covert manipulation...to pervert the truth, impair respect for moral values."-General Douglas MacArthur "Our threat is from the insidious forces working from within which have already so drastically altered the character of our free institutions"-General Douglas MacArthur, Lansing, Michigan, May 15, 1952. Douglas MacArthur was born JANUARY 26, 1880. He commanded in France during World War I. He was superintendent of West Point, 1919-20. In 1930, at age 50, Douglas MacArthur became the youngest Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. A four-star general, he retired in 1939, but returned in 1941 to defend...

There's a lot of talk about "fake news" these days, but lost in the 'here we are' is the 'how did we get here'. Some websites have proclaimed Dan Rather the founder of fake news, others have crowned Brian Williams as such. Understanding fake news is impossible without a full-scale structural analysis of "objective journalism" itself, because "objective journalism" was designed to facilitate fake news. The name to know is Walter Lippmann. Walter Lippmann is generally regarded as the father of modern journalism, and as most of us know, modern journalism is what it is today because of the concept...

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT ELECT: In these final days before your inauguration, we thought it might be helpful to clarify how we see the relationship between your administration and the American press corps. It will come as no surprise to you that we see the relationship as strained. Reports over the last few days that your press secretary is considering pulling news media offices out of the White House are the latest in a pattern of behavior that has persisted throughout the campaign: You’ve banned news organizations from covering you. You’ve taken to Twitter to taunt and threaten individual reporters and...

Gabriel Sherman writes in New York Magazine that President-elect Donald Trump's got the upper hand against the media on Wednesday by turning his first post-election press conference "into a debate over journalistic practices." But observed as spectacle, Trump came away with a resounding victory. That's because Trump won even before he stepped before the microphone, by making the media the story. Last night, BuzzFeed published a salacious 35-page oppo-research dossier on Trump that alleged Russia possessed sexual and financial dirt on Trump that could be used to blackmail him. BuzzFeed justified reporting the unverified oppo-research document - which had been...

NEW YORK (AP) — A shouting match with a reporter. A long unexplained prop. An unexpected interlude from a lawyer.Donald Trump's raucous first news conference as president-elect bore little resemblance to the usually staid and choreographed sessions with the occupant of the Oval Office. It was a 58-minute display of how some of the old rules of journalism will be tested in the Trump era.

I tell you, Lippmann's book Public Opinion is the gift that keeps on giving. This little narrative from his book is incredible, it explains so much in regard to the symbiosis that exists between progressive journalists and their masters at city hall. On page 338, Lippmann describes an important aspect of how journalists "collect news": Newspapers do not try to keep an eye on all mankind. They have watchers stationed at certain places, like Police Headquarters, the Coroner's Office, the County Clerk's Office, City Hall, the White House, the Senate, House of Representatives, and so forth. They watch, or rather...