Free Republic

The major health insurance provider Aetna announced that it would be pulling out of the last two states where it still participated in ObamaCare. Yet, the morning news shows of ABC and NBC completely ignored this important news story, while CBS This Morning gave it a mere 25 seconds. This continues a longstanding network news tradition of defending the Affordable Care Act and ignoring its failures. In a study released on October 28, 2016, the MRC’s Bias by the Minute project detailed how the evening news shows on these three networks routinely ignored or barely covered ObamaCare’s failures during that...

President Donald Trump on Thursday called James Comey, the FBI chief he fired, a "showboat" and "grandstander" and said in a NBC-TV interview he would have dismissed him even if officials at the Justice Department had not recommended it. "He's a showboat. He's a grandstander. The FBI has been in turmoil," Trump told NBC. "I was going to fire Comey. My decision," Trump said. "I was going to fire regardless of recommendation."

It has been 36 hours since the White House announced that President Trump had fired James B. Comey as FBI director. And its rationale and explanations for that move continue to fall apart. Below, we recap three claims that have been called into serious doubt and even directly contradicted by the White House itself. 1. That Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein initiated Comey's firing. 2. That it was because of the Clinton email investigation, not Russia. 3. That Trump lost confidence in Comey on Election Day. Either Trump lost confidence in Comey months ago, or he still had it...

In the opening days of the Trump administration, Democrats are far more interested than Republicans in seeing the news media assume the traditional role of watchdogs to people in power, a survey released on Wednesday found. The Pew Research Center poll found that 89 percent of Democrats judged media criticism worth it because it keeps political leaders from doing things they shouldn’t, while only 42 percent of Republicans felt that way. With Democrats out of power, “they see the media as the last line of defense,” said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center. At...

President Trump's meeting Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was always going to be a bit awkward, image-wise. With tensions high after the United States launched a missile strike in Syria, a Russian ally, last month, Trump knew he would have to appear friendly — but not too friendly, since the FBI is investigating whether Trump's campaign might have colluded with Russia to meddle in last year's election. When Trump abruptly fired FBI director James B. Comey on Tuesday, he made the optics of his meeting with Lavrov even more delicate. But he didn't stop there. Ever a glutton...

Former FBI Director James Comey had requested additional funding and personnel for the agency's probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election just days before he was fired, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. ... The New York Times said, citing three unnamed officials

When I learned that the most recent version of the American Health Care Act allows insurers to classify rape as a preexisting condition (and thus puts survivors at risk for increased costs and denial of coverage), my initial inclination was to pull out a calculator. I started typing in numbers. After an older student chose to rape me during my second week in college, the bills had quickly started piling up. I paid for doctors' visits, weekly therapy appointments and medication to treat my PTSD, anxiety and depression. I had medical insurance at the time, but that only covered part...

In voting to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, House Republicans finally delivered on a key Trump administration goal and on a campaign promise that they have made for the better part of a decade — but at a potentially steep price. But by leaning on members to vote for a bill that many fear will take too much health care from too many people, Mr. Ryan has exposed moderate Republicans to withering political attacks. This is especially true in the roughly two dozen districts where Hillary Clinton prevailed, but it is also the case in places where...

Will President Trump reinstate the Smith-Mundt Act? If so, this would seem to fly right in the face of claims that Trump is the biggest threat to journalism and democracy itself. At the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey said a number of curious things, but one comment in particular stood out. When asked about Russian influence in the U.S. election and the ability to combat a foreign actor’s misinformation campaign, the Director said, “We need to arm ourselves with good troll armies pushing back.” Say what? Under President Obama, the law was changed It struck...

The president of the Clinton News Network is worried about the future of journalism. Gosh almighty, what will we do? Apparently, CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, is worried about the future of (his) press. New York Times reporter Liam Stack posted a tweet this week that claimed that Zucker said that “Journalism is threatened by senior officials in our own government” at the Overseas Press Club of America awards gala Thursday night. "CNN president Jeff Zucker at @opcofamerica awards gala: "journalism is threatened by senior officials in our own government" pic.twitter.com/l9gWAmKCzy" — Liam Stack (@liamstack) April 28, 2017 The jab, seemingly...

Comedian Hasan Minhaj slammed President Donald Trump and members of his administration Saturday night during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner (WHCA) in Washington, D.C. The Daily Show correspondent called Trump the “liar-in-chief,” ripped the president’s immigration policy, and fired off several personal insults at Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “Welcome to the series finale of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” Minhaj’s politically-charged monologue began. “The leader of our country is not here. And that’s because he lives in Moscow,” Minhaj said to applause from the crowd of celebrities, politicians, and journalists, many of them from...

Fox News is facing renewed legal claims that it mistreated non-white employees, including a television anchor who said he was depicted as "the racist caricature of a black entertainer." Eleven current and former Fox employees, including anchor Kelly Wright, filed an amended lawsuit in New York state court on Tuesday claiming they were demeaned, humiliated, paid less than white coworkers, and passed over for promotions. The lawsuit was originally filed last month by two Fox News payroll employees. Tuesday's complaint added class action racial discrimination claims to the case.

As President Donald Trump looks to curb the government's enforcement of climate regulations, experts are concerned about how the action might impact public health. "The current federal political climate in the United States bodes ill for the future of the world's climate and by extension for the health of people around the world, Americans included," said Dr. Mona Soofaty, director of the program on climate and health at George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication. Soofaty helped prepare a report, released last month by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, that mapped how climate change threatens the...

Click on the link to read this year's list of winners (exactly what you'd expect).

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.