Free Republic

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said Thursday that his comments to a local newspaper that it is “not my job” to bring employment to a struggling Kentucky county were taken out of context. For a story in the Beattyville Enterprise, McConnell was asked what he would do to bring jobs to Lee County, where the unemployment rate is 12.8 percent. “That is not my job. It is the primary responsibility of the state Commerce Cabinet,” the paper quoted McConnell in its story Thursday, which ran on the paper’s front page. McConnell said in a statement Thursday that his comments were taken...

As the 2014 midterm elections ramp up, liberal media have are pinning the death of a Florida woman on Republicans.Literally."Democrats Need to Start Blaming the GOP for the Death of Charlene Dill" is the title of a recent piece by Brian Beutler at the New Republic, and others are agreeing with him.

Over the weekend former CBS Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson appeared on Fox News' Media Buzz to talk in detail about why she left the news network. Now there have always been tensions, there have always been calls from the White House under any administration I assume, when they don’t like a particular story. But it is particularly aggressive under the Obama administration and I think it’s a campaign that’s very well organized, that’s designed to have sort of a chilling effect and to some degree has been somewhat successful in getting broadcast producers who don’t really want to deal with...

The choice of comedian Stephen Colbert as the replacement for David Letterman ignited a battle of words online Thursday: While little doubt exists that Mr. Colbert is as funny, clever, charming, and goofy as Mr. Letterman, some media voices loudly complained that the decision by CBS now means that network late-night television will largely remain the domain of white male hosts. When Letterman announced last week that he will step down from the “Late Show” in 2015, television critics immediately started pooling names of possible replacements: comedians W. Kamau Bell, Ellen DeGeneres, Tina Fey, Chelsea Handler, Tig Notaro, Amy Poehler,...

This afternoon, in an unbylined item headlined "US BUSINESS HIRING FINALLY TOPS RECESSION LOSSES," the Associated Press showed that it deserves the nickname "Administration's Press." The story embarrassingly described the job market's return to its previous January 2008 employment peak as a "pivotal moment." Get real. Given over six additional years of growth in the adult population, that's hardly the case. To his credit, the AP's Christopher Rugaber, in a separate later submission, tamped down the enthusiasm, noting that "the economy is still millions of jobs short of where it should be by now." That's for sure. But whoever wrote...

Having assiduously ignored one of the gonzo corruption stories of the last decade, CNN this week offered a peculiar defense of its silence. Rankled by a curious Twitter user, who asked why “the Leland Yee story appears nowhere on CNN’s website,” the outlet explained that the decision was “in line with us covering state senators & state secretary of state races just about never.” “You see another conspiracy?” the account asked its inquisitor, snippily. There is a lot of space between bias and conspiracy, and one does not have to believe that CNN’s editorial staff is sitting around stroking white...

Ronan Farrow’s MSNBC talk show is facing cancellation amid poor ratings, sources exclusively tell Confidenti@l. Farrow, 28 — the opinionated, blue-eyed son of actress Mia Farrow and either Woody Allen or Frank Sinatra (even Farrow’s not sure which) — has been a disaster for MSNBC. The channel took the frequent cable-show guest and handed him his own program, “Ronan Farrow Daily,” which premiered in late February.

This is the story of MSNBC in a nutshell: It rose to prominence on its criticism of George W. Bush, peaked during Barack Obama's historic 2008 campaign, and, by criticizing Republicans and championing liberal causes, sustained its viewership in the years that followed. Until now. MSNBC suffered harder loses in 2013 -- in terms of both viewership and revenue -- than either of its competitors at Fox News and CNN, according to Nielsen data featured in a new Pew Research report. Prime-time viewership declined by a staggering 24 percent (nearly twice the loss sustained by CNN and four-times that sustained...

Billionaire Oprah Winfrey is planning a tour to help you with your life. The Oprah Winfrey experience is coming to an arena near you. Starting in September, Winfrey will set out on an eight-city Oprah's The Life You Want Weekend tour. The plan: pack 18,000-seat arenas for a two-day experience featuring a keynote by Winfrey, who will share her personal story and advice on Friday night, and group activities and speakers picked by her on Saturday. Among those signed to participate: Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, pastor Rob Bell, OWN star Iyanla Vanzant and, in certain cities, guru Deepak...

CampusReform.org editor-in-chief Caleb Bonham asked students at George Mason University to rank the scandals of the Obama administration in a March Madness-style parody bracket. […] Bonham said the scandals that really resonated with college students were NSA collection of data, IRS targeting of conservatives, and the president’s failed promise that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” …

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...