Free Republic

Let’s not forget; to the media, Ferguson was NEVER about law enforcement, death, the black community, justice, injustice, inner city poverty, or whatever other code word that exemplifies what happened in that small Missouri town. To the media, it was all about ratings because they’ve had all their pieces in place for years. The decision to cover the Michael Brown shooting was not a result of its importance. It was a calculated decision by those in the media’s upper echelon to shed their white guilt and bring “attention” to what they consider long-simmering, racial injustice. When the shooting occurred, the...

Two realities are sinking into the psyche of the Democrat Party: They have no valuable ideas and the few ideas they were able to turn into law don’t work. Reasonable people would be embarrassed. They would stand up and walk away from the “table,” after reaching these conclusions; but the Democrats are not reasonable people. It is impossible to embarrass them. They have always been about getting and holding power and nothing else. Last week top Democrat New York Senator Chuck Schumer admitted that he and his Party made a mistake by passing Obamacare when they did. Of course he...

An anchor for Fox Business Network who used to work for CNBC told viewers that her superiors at the network "silenced" her reporting on Obamacare, telling her she was "disrespecting the office of the president" by pointing out that Obamacare's math didn't add up. Daily Caller: Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis said she was “silenced” by CNBC when management told her she was “disrespecting the office of the president” by reporting about Obamacare. Francis highlighted Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber’s comments about the “stupidity” of American voters and the administration intentionally misleading the public about what’s in the law and...

The GOP had a good night. But the map, the math and the reality of Washington dysfunction favor the presumptive Democratic nominee in 2016. But here’s the thing: In politics, the easy answer isn’t always the only answer, and the winner of an election isn’t always the one who benefits most. Take a closer look at demography, geography and the road ahead for the parties, and it’s clear that the long-term winner of the 2014 midterms wasn’t the GOP at all. The long-term winner, in fact, wasn’t even on the ballot this year. Her name is Hillary Clinton. Of course...

What the hell is going on at Duke University that a professor of public policy, drawing on the hard-won wisdom of a junior, could write a New York Times op-ed piece that lacks even a junior-high civics-class familiarity with the U.S. Constitution? And who’s minding the rear gate at the Grey Lady’s opinion section that the paper would publish something so shoddy? You’ll be asking yourself these and other questions after reading “Cancel the Midterms,” a passionate call to return the former (and future?) British colonies in America to a more kingly state. The piece is by Duke professor...

Sharyl Attkisson is an unreasonable woman. Important people have told her so. When the longtime CBS reporter asked for details about reinforcements sent to the Benghazi compound during the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack, White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor replied, “I give up, Sharyl . . . I’ll work with more reasonable folks that follow up, I guess.” Another White House flack, Eric Schultz, didn’t like being pressed for answers about the Fast and Furious scandal in which American agents directed guns into the arms of Mexican drug lords. “Goddammit, Sharyl!” he screamed at her. “The Washington Post...

Benjamin C. Bradlee, who presided over The Washington Post newsroom for 26 years and guided The Post’s transformation into one of the world’s leading newspapers, died Oct. 21 at his home in Washington of natural causes. He was 93. From the moment he took over The Post newsroom in 1965, Mr. Bradlee sought to create an important newspaper that would go far beyond the traditional model of a metropolitan daily. He achieved that goal by combining compelling news stories based on aggressive reporting with engaging feature pieces of a kind previously associated with the best magazines. His charm and gift...

The ax has fallen on the New Yorkers who work for storied foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour. CNN has canned Amanpour's entire New York City-based staff — four producers — as part of the troubled cable news channel's restructuring, sources said.

The tea party may have learned its lesson. As Congress finishes work on a must-pass spending bill set for votes next week, the most conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill are eager to send a message on immigration, and stand firm against a government lending bank. But a year after they forced a 16-day partial government shutdown over President Barack Obama’s health care law, few seem to have the stomach to push their demands that far again. “No question we learned that with the aid of the news media the Democrats were able to pin the blame on us” for last...

Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney will join CNN as a political commentator, the network announced Wednesday. He will start Wednesday night as President Barack Obama makes a prime-time statement about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Sam Feist, CNN's Washington bureau chief said in a statement. "Jay's unique experience as both a journalist and a White House press secretary make him an invaluable voice for the network as we cover the final two years of the Obama Administration and look ahead to the coming campaigns," Feist said. "We're fortunate to have Jay on our air tonight...

Bit by bit Last week New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan gave his okay to the St. Patrick Day Parade Committee’s decision to allow a gay group to march in the 2015 parade under their own banner. This was a remarkable shift from one of Dolan’s predecessors Cardinal John O’Connor who in 1993 declared that to allow a gay group to march in the parade would be a slander to the Apostle’s Creed. This closes a remarkable summer in which a number of high-ranking Catholic prelates have signaled that Pope Francis’s more open posture on gay issues has permeated through the...

Charlotte Observer has announced it will no longer be printing the name “Redskins” in local articles, citing controversy surrounding the name. The newspaper announced on Saturday that it will start the ban Sunday. The paper said it will still cover the team, but will not refer to them by that term. ...

In an interview with ABC News, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, predicted his party would reclaim the Democratic-controlled Senate in November, but he declined to endorse current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as the party leader should there be a transfer of power in the upper chamber of Congress.. . . . .But when asked if he would endorse McConnell — currently embroiled in a tight race for his Kentucky Senate seat — as Senate majority leader, the Texas Republican said that is a decision that would be made “when the time is right.”“Well, that will be a decision for...

As the President continues to struggle with a strategy regarding what we should do about ISIS, one of the key questions being batted around is how to define the precise level of threat which ISIS poses to the United States. It’s a valid question, actually, so it was with interest that I followed a link on this subject to an opinion piece by CNN’s national security analyst, Peter Bergen. The title gives a fairly solid summary of the contents. ISIS threat to U.S. mostly hype. ISIS has Americans worried. Two-thirds of those surveyed in a recent Pew Research poll said...

Poll to Freep... anyone but Brown -D Carpet bagger from mAss. Middle of page... Smith is my choice. Thank you

PIERS MORGAN took to his Twitter page earlier on today to confirm that he has declined CNN's offer to renew his contract. He also revealed to his 4 million followers he was offered a 'new 2-year deal' by Cable News Network boss Jeff Zucker to host 40 big interview 'special' but declined the offer.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Lamont Jones and Keith Stephens stood 60 feet from each other, separated by four lanes of pavement and a thousand miles of perception. Stephens was wearing a T-shirt printed with a police shield bearing the phrase "OFFICER DARREN WILSON I STAND BY YOU," as part of a rally supporting the white policeman who killed the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. Jones was across the street, holding up a sign that said, in blood-red letters: "Darren Wilson is a Murderer." There was no overlap in the facts as seen by Jones and Stephens at the demonstrations staged...

The Big Three networks steered clear of labeling the Islamist group ISIS "terrorists" on their evening newscasts on Friday. Instead, ABC's World News and CBS Evening News labeled the genocidal radicals "militants." NBC Nightly News used the more benign "rebels" in their coverage of the group's latest attacks on the Kurdish part of Iraq. The closest that a journalist at ABC, CBS, or NBC got to using the "terrorist" label was Scott Pelley's teaser at the very top of CBS Evening News: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump] (video at link) SCOTT PELLEY (teaser): Tonight, back in battle:...

Well, it looks like the Progressive lapdog media has been colluding again. Media Trackers, a site that tracks media stories and works for transparency in government, uncovered a group with over 1,000 members that is literally a who’s who of the Progressive Left in media. And I would wager, it is only the tip of the iceberg out there — I am sure that the collaboration is widespread and well-organized.  The group is called Gamechanger Salon and boasts members that include a CNN commentator, the top two political reporters for The Huffington Post, a Reuters reporter, the editor of The Nation magazine,...

A prominent CNN commentator, the top two political reporters for The Huffington Post, a Reuters reporter, the editor of The Nation magazine, a producer for Al Jazeera America television, a U.S. News & World Report columnist, and approximately two dozen Huffington Post contributors are among the more than 1,000 members of Gamechanger Salon. Founded by leftwing activist Billy Wimsatt, the group is a secretive digital gathering of writers, opinion leaders, activists and political hands who share information, ideas and strategy via a closed Google group.