Free Republic

KING, Wis. — At the old union hall here on a recent afternoon, Terry Magnant sat at the head of a table surrounded by 18 empty chairs. A members meeting had been scheduled to start a half-hour earlier, but the small house, with its cracked walls and loose roof shingles, was lonely and desolate. “There used to be a lot more people coming,” said Magnant, a 51-year-old nursing assistant, sighing. The anti-union law passed here four years ago, which made Gov. Scott Walker a national Republican star and a possible presidential candidate, has turned out to be even more transformative...

Disgraced NBC News anchor Brian Williams has resigned from the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation’s board of directors. In a statement announcing the resignation Thursday, foundation president Ron Rand did not elaborate on Williams’ reason for the decision. Williams, 55, has been on the foundation’s board since 2006. The organization supports the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, which presents the country’s highest military award for acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.NBC brass suspended Williams last week for six months without pay after he was caught lying about being on a military helicopter that was hit by...

David Carr the New York Times media critic has died. He was found in the Times office at 9 PM Thursday night. Those who knew him say he looked ghastly in his last several days. Published accounts of his life tell us Carr was a drug addict who was not to be trusted to tell the truth. Drug addicts in Carr’s close circle suspect he returned to his voracious appetite for cocaine. One who was identified by the site Gotnews.com made this comment about his friend David, “If he was going to casinos [with….] and watching hundreds of thousands of...

We all knew this was coming: liberal attacks on Gov. Scott Walker for not having a college degree. In 1990, Walker decided to drop out of Marquette University during the spring semester of his senior year - a decision that’s mystified the political left. But then there’s former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who–as Dan wrote–basically questioned Walker’s intelligence: "This is a particular problem for Scott Walker which has not been an issue yet, but it will. Scott Walker, were he to become president, would be the first president in many generations who did not have a college degree. So the...

Here is a bit of free advice for liberals: Speak the truth in front of a camera or prepare to be outed. The truth can be smothered for just so long and that period is shrinking. The Brian Williams case is a serious and threatening matter for liberals. The fact that Williams has gone down is far from the most menacing aspect of this matter for liberal Democrats. The sobering aspect of Lyin’ Brian’s tumble is not just what has come out (and who knows how much more will immerge?); rather it is where the information that nailed him came...

Why bother hanging out with celebrities when I can spend time with the people who made me one?” Obama asked the crowd of black tie journalists and media personalities gathered at the Washington Convention Center. “I know where my bread is buttered.”

Preliminary Nielsen ratings show “NBC Nightly News” dropped -36% on Friday from last week’s Monday-Thursday average among A25-54 viewers. NBC’s competitors were down too, but not as much: ABC was down -16% while CBS was down -17% on Friday.

He lied? Yes he lied. Wait a minute. Maybe Brian Williams simply embellished. Guys do that all the time. We all want to be heroes. We enhance the truth particularly as we behaved in war. That’s where Brian Williams met his disgrace. “That’s the way it is,” Walter Cronkite used to say. Well, no. Not quite, these days. There too, in Israel, some are catching on to the deceptions from “news you can trust.” Leading journalist Kalman Liebeskind on Arutz Sheva upbraids (leftist) Big Media for their volley of lies and half-truths especially as they go gunning for Benjamin Netanyahu...

Americans’ views of President Barack Obama have improved slightly in the past two months, and opinions are more positive about the direction of the country and the health of the economy, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds. A slim majority now approves of the way Obama is handling unemployment, according to the poll, conducted before Friday’s release of a surprisingly strong jobs report. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed approve of how Obama is doing his job, compared with 41 percent in December, and 51 percent approve of his handling of unemployment, compared with 44 percent before. Nearly half say the economy...

Embattled NBC News anchor Brian Williams is backing out of scheduled appearance on David Letterman’s “Late Show” on Thursday. That news from NBC came Sunday, a day after Williams said he was stepping away from NBC’s “Nightly News” as the network looks into the anchor’s admission that he had told a false story about being on helicopter hit by a grenade while reporting on the Iraq war. Williams had spread the story of his helicopter being under attack during a previous “Late Show” interview with Letterman. He apologized for the statements on Wednesday, and NBC News launched an internal investigation...

What has happened at NBC News? Answer? Nothing that hasn’t been happening in slow motion for years. Back there in the mists of January -- last month -- I wrote a story in this space about a group called the Conservative War Chest launching a major effort to call attention to what the group called the“corruption of American journalism” - with a specific and detailed focus on NBC and its Comcast owners. Released weeks before these latest stories about anchor Williams hit the fan the 65-page report provided chapter and verse about the culture of NBC and its cable sibling...

Brian Williams is stepping away from NBC Nightly News for several days. The anchor sent a note to the show's staff, announcing that Lester Holt is replacing him this week. The news comes as the anchor is embroiled in a scandal surrounding his story about being a passenger in a helicopter that took fire in the Iraq War. Williams' message can be seen, below. "In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions. "As Managing Editor...

Update, 11 p.m.: Brian Williams apologized on-air tonight for claiming that he was in a helicopter hit by an RPG in Iraq, but the version of events he gives in his apology is vague in a way that avoids addressing the main accusation of the soldiers quoted in Stars and Stripes questioning his accounts of events. Those soldiers, in Stars and Stripes' telling, say that not only was Williams not in a helicopter that was hit by an RPG, but that he was nowhere near the helicopters that were actually fired upon. Said Williams tonight: "I made a mistake in...

Full title: TV News Priorities: 68 Minutes for Under-Inflated Footballs, Mere Seconds for Obama's Release of Terrorists The three major networks have, so far, devoted a staggering 67 minutes and 49 seconds to obsessing over every aspect of whether the New England Patriots cheated in their AFC championship win on Sunday. Yet, only ABC allowed a scant 34 seconds to the Obama administration's release of five terrorists out of Guantanamo Bay and back to areas connected with extremist violence. The contrast is 120-to-1. NBC was, by far, the most lopsided in terms of journalistic priorities. From Monday through early Thursday,...

CORONADO, Calif. (AP) — Republican presidential prospect Ben Carson on Thursday compared the Islamic State group to American patriots willing to die for freedom.In a speech to the Republican National Committee's winter meeting outside San Diego, the former neurosurgeon and conservative favorite praised American patriots for their willingness to give their lives for their beliefs. Then he mentioned the Islamic State group.

A rescued yellow Labrador retriever mix was popularly named Reagan by Rick Scott Facebook fans as the now Florida governor campaigned in the 2010 close election against Democrat Alex Sink. Unfortunately, Reagan's photos disappeared shortly after Scott was sworn in on January 2011, reports the Tampa Bay Times. So what happened to Reagan the rescue pooch? Introduced as the newest addition to the Scott family back then, all sorts of dog friendly and Rick Scott photos were plastered everywhere. Of course, animal advocates love that kind of compassion; statistics reveal that 39% of Americans have at least one dog in...

The President will head to Detroit, Phoenix and Tennessee next week, touting economic growth under his administration Two weeks before he is set to deliver the State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama will embark on a tour to highlight the nation’s economic progress and preview his agenda for the coming year. The White House said Obama will trumpet the recovery of the nation’s automotive sector in a speech in the Detroit area on Wednesday, just one day after the new Republican-controlled Congress holds its first meetings of 2015.

Yesterday, New York Times readers were treated to a beautifully nuanced and balanced and richly detailed feature about a topic very much in the mix. Its author, Ariel Kaminer, came by her story and its scoop—the first interview with the accused (possibly falsely) rapist of the woman at Columbia who is carrying a mattress around campus to make a statement about campus sexual violence—by developing deep roots in a narrow beat, higher education. And now, Ms. Kaminer will join a hundred or so of her colleagues on the unemployment line as the Times once again cuts costs by cutting journalists....

Job cuts at the New York Times will exceed the stated goal of 100 newsroom positions eliminated, the Newspaper Guild of New York said yesterday in a memo to union members. According to the guild, the Times said yesterday it will lay off 21 union-represented employees starting as early as today, after 57 guild members and roughly 30 non-guild members accepted buyout applications. That amounts to more than the 100 newsroom positions the newspaper said it needed to eliminate as a cost-cutting measure on Oct. 1.

Liberals aren't going to let mere facts get in the way of a good story. A Politico magazine article on the UVA rape accusation debacle, in which the accuser's allegations have unraveled, quotes a student newspaper editor thusly: "to let fact checking define the narrative would be a huge mistake."