Free Republic

What kind of correspondents do they have at 60 Minutes? The kind who can't tell that the biggest tax increase in history is a tax increase at all. The kind who complain that even if it is a tax increase, Americans should be willing to pay it because ObamaCare is "really important." Exhibit A: Lesley Stahl. On Morning Joe today, Stahl--her 40 years or so as a reporter notwithstanding--said she "can't tell" if ObamaCare raises taxes and that her "head is hurting" from trying to figure it out. But so what if it does? Stahl had a sudden bout of...

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081207/peggy-noonan-lesley-stahl-and-friends-raise-more-money-wThe purse strings haven’t completely closed for start-ups looking to raise money–even niche Web sites that hope to stay afloat by selling advertising. Wowowow.com, a site launched earlier this year, which targets women over 40, has raised a $1.5 million round led by Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group and the Rhime Group. No word on valuation, but I’d guesstimate Wowowow.com’s investors peg its value in the high 9-figure range. The company has now raised $3.1 million in less than a year. The five founders–former publisher Joni Evans, “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl; New York Post gossip columnist Liz Smith; ad exec...

Sunday night on “60 Minutes,” Lesley Stahl interviewed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Half of the interview was excellent, reviewing his history from his childhood in New York City. The other half of the interview, on his judicial philosophy, was dreadful. Several times, Stahl attacked Scalia for his judicial theory of “originalism,” while leaving parts of his comments on the cutting room floor. She displayed a lack of knowledge about the Constitution. She referred to Scalia’s theory as fixing the meaning of the Constitution as the intentions of “people who ratified it over 200 years ago.” That echoed the comments...

(CBS) When Nicolas Sarkozy, France's new president, visits the White House next week it'll symbolize how much French-American relations have improved since the war in Iraq. Like most of the French, Sarkozy opposes the war, but he's a fan of almost everything else American: from Hollywood movies to the American work ethic. On issue after issue -- from Iran to Israel to the war on terror -- he sides with U.S. policy. He is so pro-U.S., the French call him "Sarko the American." The son of an immigrant from Hungary, Sarkozy is a real departure from past French presidents: he's...

Will Tom Brokaw, the Today show, Chris Matthews and CBS's Early Show offer a correction? As Brit Hume noted Thursday night, the Washington Post corrected a Wednesday article which reported, that on Hardball Tuesday night, Pat Buchanan had called Mark Felt a "traitor." The correction explained: "Buchanan said that Felt had no personal loyalty to President Richard M. Nixon, 'so I don't consider him a traitor in that sense.'" In fact, it was Matthews who first falsely claimed that Buchanan had tagged Felt a "traitor." On Wednesday's Today, Brokaw was appalled by Buchanan's supposed characterization: "I think Pat said yesterday...

CBS News has learned that the FBI has a full-fledged espionage investigation under way and is about to -- in FBI terminology -- "roll up" someone agents believe has been spying not for an enemy, but for Israel from within the office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. 60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports the FBI believes it has "solid" evidence that the suspected mole supplied Israel with classified materials that include secret White House policy deliberations on Iran. At the heart of the investigation are two people who work at The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),...

VIRGINIA BEACH - Lesley Stahl has had her share of journalistic triumphs in the 14 years she has traveled the world interviewing newsmakers for "60 Minutes ." But Wednesday night, the CBS news correspondent and "60 Minutes" co-editor also talked about work she's less proud of: two pre-Iraq war reports casting doubt on Saddam Hussein's claim to have rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. "I look on those two stories as mistakes, journalistic mistakes," Stahl told a crowd of about 1,000 gathered in the Princess Anne High School auditorium. "I made them, and I regret it." Stahl described...

Lesley Stahl regrets doubting the honesty of Saddam Hussein and his minions on weapons of mass destruction, but not on having no ties to al-Qaeda, she asserted in a Wednesday night address she gave in Virginia Beach. Citing two 60 Minutes stories which cast doubt on Iraq's claim to have gotten rid of weapons of mass destruction, she described the pieces as "journalistic mistakes," according to a story in Thursday's Virginian-Pilot highlighted by Romenesko (http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45). "Reporter regrets Iraq stories," read the headline over the April 22 story by reporter Kate Wiltrout about Stahl's comments to the Virginia Beach Forum, co-sponsored...

<p>Radio personality Don Imus called CBS' Lesley Stahl a "gutless, lying weasel" yesterday for abruptly canceling an interview during which Mr. Imus planned to hammer her about a conflict of interest, the New York Post reports.</p> <p>"I realize it's a little late in your life, honey, to start gettin' honest, but just say, 'I don't want to appear on the program ... because I heard what he said earlier this morning,' " Mr. Imus railed on his nationally syndicated radio program, which is also broadcast on cable-TV network MSNBC.</p>

<p>Full disclosure is not what it’s cracked up to be.  A pickpocket who tells you that he is a pickpocket is still a threat to pick your pocket.</p> <p>Then again, if a pickpocket does confess his pickpocketing, the odds are that you will protect yourself against his digital dexterity by shifting your money and credit cards to a more secure position. It is for this reason that pickpockets so seldom announce their occupation to potential victims.</p>

<p>March 24, 2004 -- DON Imus called CBS's Lesley Stahl a "gutless, lying weasel" yesterday for abruptly canceling an interview during which Imus planned to hammer her about conflict-of-interest allegations. "I realize it's a little late in your life, honey, to start gettin' honest, but just say 'I don't want to appear on the program . . . because I heard what he said earlier this morning,' " Imus railed.</p>

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talks to 60 Minutes in his first interview since Saddam's capture.  (CBS) President Bush got the first word that U.S. Forces believed they had Saddam in custody from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Secretary Rumsfeld talks to Lesley Stahl about what the capture of Saddam Hussein means for the future of American presence in Iraq and what it also means for the Iraqi people. Lesley Stahl: Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for joining us this evening. I guess the big question today is, does the capture of Saddam Hussein now mean, Mission Accomplished? Secretary Rumsfeld:Well, certainly...

OK, kids. Let's all sit down for a status report on the American press... The Second Iraq War, and 9/11 before it, were high press moments. The decision to "embed" reporters in American and British units at long last sensitized the press to the military and probably set the standard for how future conflicts will be covered. Call the Iraq coverage whatever you like - judgmental, cynical, cheerleady, jingoistic - it and 9/11 briefly raised readership and viewership in realms where a disappearing audience is the fundamental concern. Since 1994, adult readership of daily newspapers has declined from 49 percent...

EXCLUSIVE: One-On-One With Powell (CBS) As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the first Gulf War, Secretary of State Colin Powell was the architect of the campaign to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait. He has been at the heart of the decision-making process that led up to the current military conflict with Iraq. On Tuesday night, Powell sat down with 48 Hour's Lesley Stahl for an exclusive one-on-one interview. Stahl: The secretary of defense said that there are intelligence reports that the chain of command in Iraq has been told to use chemical weapons against our soldiers, once...