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A supporter of a bill to protect reporters and the news media from having to reveal confidential sources said Friday the measure has the backing of the Obama administration and the support of enough senators to move ahead this year. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, spoke optimistically about prospects for the measure, identifying five Republicans who would join with Democrats and independents on a bill that he said would address a constitutional oversight. While the first amendment protects freedom of the press, “there is no first amendment right for gathering information,” Schumer...

The White House won’t be shedding any tears. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, known for her critical reporting on the Obama administration, resigned on Monday, bringing an end to months of hard-fought negotiations stemming from her dissatisfaction with the network, sources familiar with her departure told POLITICO. Attkisson, who had been with CBS News for more than two decades, had grown frustrated with what she saw as the network’s liberal bias, an outsize influence by the network’s corporate partners, and a lack of dedication to investigative reporting, several sources said. She increasingly felt that her work was no longer...

Billionaire Warren Buffet’s iconic company Berkshire Hathaway will trade 1.6 million shares of Graham Holdings stock in exchange for WPLG, according to a report from Deadline It’s been known for a while that Buffett wants to exit Graham Holdings, formerly known as the Washington Post Co., who are left with only their TV stations and a business in the education sector. Buffett will allegedly get WPLG plus an unspecified amount of cash. The Washington Post company bought WPLG in 1969 and changed its call letters to WPLG in memory of Phillip L. Graham, the husband of Washington Post publisher Katherine...

The New York Times covered the latest annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with its usual mix of suspicion, overloaded labeling bias, and anti-GOP doomsaying. The paper's skeptical coverage of the three-day conservative confab, held this year at National Harbor on the Potomac, opened with two stories in Friday's edition, one on the organizers's attempts to put "a less strident face on the convention and the party."

In a shocking display of cruelty, MSNBC’s Zachary Roth attacked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in an article under the headline: "No One Pushes Greg Abbott Around." Abbott, who is in a wheelchair, is the Republican gubernatorial candidate running against Wendy Davis. MSNBC’s Roth goes on to write, “Put simpler: It’s hard to turn a guy in a wheelchair into a villain—no matter his record.” This incident is not the first time left-of-center advocates for Wendy Davis have crossed lines in using Abbott's disability. The pro-Wendy Davis group Battleground Texas made headlines when a leader from the group was caught...

Facebook may announce company policy changes for gun-related pages in the coming weeks, VentureBeat has learned. The social network has been under pressure from the powerful Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Moms Demand Action civic group to ban gun-themed fan pages on the site. “Talks are progressing. The discussions are ongoing; there have been positive developments,” sources close to the conversations told VentureBeat. An extensive VentureBeat investigation last week revealed that adults and children were making arrangements to buy, sell, and trade guns through the many Facebook fan pages devoted to guns and the people who use them, sometimes...

Former Washington Post managing editor Robert Kaiser is retiring at age 70, and he’s very cranky about how conservatives have destroyed government and Washington collegiality. This tells you a lot about what kind of liberal edits and massages the Post every day. Kaiser is moving to New York, and on the front of the Sunday Outlook he described how “Republicans lost their minds” and “Democrats lost their souls.” In essence, both sides are now too conservative for Bob, starting with a debt-limit vote: On Oct. 16, 162 members of Congress, 144 in the House and 18 in the Senate, voted...

This week, CNN's Piers Morgan announced that "Piers Morgan Live" would be coming to an ignominious end sometime in March. His replacement has not yet been chosen. But his television demise came not a moment too soon for millions of Americans who had tired of his sneering nastiness. The New York Times chose not to see it that way. Instead, the Times insisted, Morgan's problem sprang from his British accent and heritage: "Old hands in the television news business suggest that there are two things a presenter cannot have: an accent or a beard ... Mr. Morgan is clean shaven...

If there’s one thing more annoying than an American liberal elitist lecturing Americans on appropriate conduct and conversation, its a British liberal elitist lecturing Americans on appropriate conduct and conversation. Piers Morgan is out at CNN. Cheerio! The New York Times reported: There have been times when the CNN host Piers Morgan didn’t seem to like America very much — and American audiences have been more than willing to return the favor. Three years after taking over for Larry King, Mr. Morgan has seen the ratings for “Piers Morgan Live” hit some new lows, drawing a fraction of viewers compared...

There have been times when the CNN host Piers Morgan didn’t seem to like America very much — and American audiences have been more than willing to return the favor. Three years after taking over for Larry King, Mr. Morgan has seen the ratings for “Piers Morgan Live” hit some new lows, drawing a fraction of viewers compared with competitors at Fox News and MSNBC. It’s been an unhappy collision between a British television personality who refuses to assimilate — the only football he cares about is round and his lectures on guns were rife with contempt — and a...

By now, the Republican Party’s view of the Affordable Care Act should be pretty familiar, as in this ad from David Jolly:“I’m fighting to repeal Obamacare, right away. It’s bad for our families, and our economy.”But not all Republicans agree; one is Irene Jacusis of New Port Richey, who was uninsured until now. “I did not vote for Obama," she said. “But I am so in love with this plan, with this health care plan, what can I do?” […] Another Republican who wants to keep the Affordable Care Act is Mary Fallon of St. Petersburg. She was a teacher...

Ex-Olympic skater and current NBC commentator for the Sochi games Johnny Weir is not shy about protesting Russia's homosexual laws live on air, if his wardrobe has anything to say about it. Weir has appeared with full makeup -- blush, lipstick, etc. -- as well as silk blouses and gaudy jewelry. Hairstyles have ranged from piled on top to a braided tiara (seen below). This was his plan from the beginning...

Last week I attended a discussion with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javed Zarif and witnessed his ability to mesmerise his listeners. The event took place at the German Council of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. Mr. Zarif succeeded in dazzling his audience – about 250 foreign policy experts — with commonplace sentences such as: “global security is indivisible”, “dialogue is necessary” or “war is not a good option.” He came across as an Iranian Gorbachev, a good-hearted reformer defying the powers of darkness. Yet a few days earlier he had bowed his head before the grave of a particularly sinister figure...

The New York Times changed the lede of its explosive story about former New York Port Authority official David Wildstein on Friday. Whereas the original story stated that Wildstein has the evidence to prove Gov. Chris Christie knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closings when they were happening, the new version has Wildstein saying “evidence exists.” […] This seemingly minor change carries a big difference in meaning. The original lede reads as though Wildstein is saying he specifically has evidence that links Christie to knowing about the bridge lane closures. The second lede suggests only that “evidence exists,” not...

SAN FRANCISCO, January 24, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Walk for Life West Coast is demanding to be seen and heard and in the mainstream media. This year, Walk for Life organizers are asking participants to take to the "twittersphere" to “end the media blackout.” Saturday will be the tenth year pro-lifers have taken to the streets of San Francisco and, year after year, Walk organizers have noticed a reliable lack of media coverage, especially in the local media. However, they have also noticed the increasing youthfulness of the crowd, and their social media accounts. So this year, when 50,000 smart-phone-toting...

ABC News reporter Elizabeth Vargas has publicly acknowledged that she’s an alcoholic, and said it took her years to admit it. In an interview aired Friday on “Good Morning America,” Vargas said hiding her problem from others was exhausting. “Even to admit it to myself was admitting, I thought, that I was a failure,” said Vargas, who noted that she had reported several “20/20” specials on drinking yet couldn’t acknowledge her own alcohol dependency. …

Israel will regret it if it attacks Iran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned on Thursday. Speaking to CNN on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Rouhani dismissed the possibility that Israel would attempt a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “Israel knows very well what the response would be. Israel knows well our regional capability. When it comes to practice, the Israelis cannot do that. If they do such a crazy thing, our response will make them rue the day,” he threatened. Rouhani said that in the interview that sanctions against Iran are illegal and are undermining...

ORLANDO — The gunman accused of chasing and killing a 21-year-old man at an Orlando apartment complex Thursday told police he was pursuing a suspected burglar and acted in self-defense after he was attacked.

Robert Reece has found that ignoring the Man Code has improved his life enormously. Not only does traditional masculinity oppress women but it also severely restricts the agency of men (a topic, I’ve written about in the past in the context of straight man love and hip-hop), often in simple, taken-for-granted ways. Straight men go to extreme lengths to perform masculinity. They avoid a wide variety of activities that they arbitrarily deem feminine or “gay” without analyzing the detrimental effects of this type of gender policing. Often mundane, seemingly inconsequential activities are heavily policed, inhibiting men’s ability to live freely...

Junk Science: Senate Democrats want TV networks to promote climate-change hysteria and follow the lead of Britain's state broadcasting company, which sent its top executives to a green propaganda training seminar. The mainstream media, long a house organ for Democrats, are about to come under pressure by Senate Democrats led by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who are gathering signatures from colleagues on a letter to the networks telling them they're ignoring global warming, according to a report in the National Journal. They are seeking to impose sort of a climate change "fairness doctrine" designed to ignore...