Free Republic

Cash-strapped news outlets looking to cover President Obama's trip to Asia next month may find it difficult to do so. At a bare minimum, outlets will have to front $60,000 per person for a seat on the chartered plane that will tail Obama as he visits China, Myanmar and Australia on a 9-day trip next month. News organizations split the cost of the chartered flight evenly, so when only a few outlets sign up, the cost skyrockets. 51 journalists will be onboard when Obama departs on Nov. 9, which partially explains the eye-popping sum.

For 18 seasons, “The View” has been one of the crown jewels of ABC Daytime programming block. But in a significant restructuring that could foreshadow the management style of incoming president Ben Sherwood, ABC’s daytime executives are losing oversight of the show, Variety has learned. Starting today, “The View” will be part of the non-fiction branch of programming within ABC News, which produces the documentary series “NY Med.” The talk show will now be in the growing portfolio of ABC News president James Goldston, Sherwood’s right-hand man who helped revamp “Good Morning America.” “Moving ‘The View’ to our non-fiction programming...

It’s looking like Florida won’t pass its medical marijuana initiative in November, according to a new poll from Gravis Marketing.... “50 percent of the Florida voters stated they would vote yes on the amendment while 42 percent stated they’d vote no,” the poll’s recap reads. “With only eight days remaining until the election, a powerful eight percent of undecided voters might hold the key to whether or not this ballot initiative passes or fails to receive the mandatory 60 percent support needed to make a change to the State of Florida’s constitution.”

A jump in support from independent likely voters in the Florida governor's race leaves Democrat Charlie Crist with 43 percent, inches ahead of Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Scott with 40 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Libertarian candidate Adrian Wyllie has 8 percent, with 9 percent undecided. This compares to results of an October 22 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN- uh-pe-ack) University, showing Gov. Scott and Crist tied 42 - 42 percent, with Wyllie at 7 percent. With Wyllie out of the race, Crist gets 45 percent to Scott's 42 percent. Men and women remain divided...

....Obama administration officials have called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu "chickenshit" and other impolite words has raised eyebrows at home and abroad. President Obama — who is much too diplomatic to use those terms himself, even if he was really thinking them — has endured a day full of jabs about his loose-lipped underlings.... .....Not that Bibi will admit to those charges. "Our supreme interests, chiefly the security and unity of Jerusalem, are not the main concern of those anonymous officials who attack us and me personally, as the assault on me comes only because I defend the State of...

... At a time when the Obama administration is lurching from crisis to crisis — a new Cold War in Europe, a brutal Islamic caliphate in the Middle East and a deadly epidemic in West Africa, to name just the most obvious ones — it is not surprising that long-term strategy would take a back seat. But it raises inevitable questions about the ability of the president and his hard-pressed national security team to manage and somehow get ahead of the daily onslaught of events. Early stumbles in the government’s handling of the Ebola crisis as well as its belated...

Some Catholic blogs and news outlets are reporting this, but we’ll see about the mainstream media and the “progressive” Catholics.They certainly seemed to think the Synod on the Family was front page news, but of course Pope Francis didn’t publicly say anything during the synod and the secularists and progressive Catholics could fabricate whatever image of Pope Francis they wanted to – and we all know what that was.But now Pope Francis is talking about marriage, and newsflash – it’s definitely not what the New York Times and the National Catholic Reporter were hoping for. It will be interesting to...

CBS honchos stuck their heads in the sand Monday rather than address a former veteran reporter’s memoir that revealed how the network routinely canned stories it perceived as anti-Obama. Everyone from network CEO Les Moonves to “Evening News’’ anchor Scott Pelley to former “Evening News’’ Executive Producer Patricia Shevlin ignored repeated phone calls and e-mails from The Post seeking comment on the bombshell claim by ex-CBS investigative ace Sharyl Attkisson. A secretary for David Rhodes, president of CBS News, immediately volleyed a Post reporter’s phone call to company spokeswoman Sonya McNail. Before the reporter could even ask a question, McNair...

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...

On his Fox News show Thursday night, host Bill O'Reilly cited the Media Research Center study on the network evening newscasts censoring coverage of the 2014 midterms: "Eight years ago, the nightly network newscasts went full out to cover the campaigns, which Democrats were favored to win....But this time around, the graph is far different. At this point in time, ABC News did 36 election reports eight years ago. So far this year, zero, nothing. CBS, 58 in year 2006. 14 this year. NBC, 65 eight years ago. 11 this year. Simply stunning."

Things appear to be tightening in Maryland, where a poll leaked to The Daily Caller shows the gubernatorial race is “extremely close — only 2 points, 46 to 44, separate Democratic Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown and Republican small businessman Larry Hogan.” ....How could this be possible? I mean, what has happened in the last week? For one thing, President Obama — not welcome on the trail in red states — campaigned for Brown in Maryland, where crowds began streaming out during his speech, leaving empty bleachers behind.

Judge sentences Andrew Rolle to life in prison Monday morning. A jury found Rolle, also known as "Birdman," guilty of first-degree murder. He killed Miami police officer James Walker in January 8, 2008 during a North Miami Beach shooting. Rolle, 28, was also found guilty on two counts of attempted first-degree murder.

A new book – a gospel of responsibility-free sex – defines abortion as “right,” “good” and “moral.” It’s what’s “best for kids” and it’s all about a woman’s “unalienable right” to pursue happiness. When Katha Pollitt, an outspoken feminist and columnist for The Nation, published “Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights” on Oct. 14, the journalists used it as a launching pad for their latest abortion obsession: no-fault abortion. Pollitt’s book “reframes abortion” as “a moral right with positive social implications.” And since nobody ever went broke telling the self-obsessed what they want to hear, the book has received rapturous praise form...

An analysis was conducted by a team of reporters and data researchers to rate the success of the Affordable Care Act after being in place for more than a year now. It was found that the act has been a success at least in terms of fulfilling the main promises made by President Obama.... The reform has been able to...bring down the cost of health care.

Sharyl Attkisson used to be an investigative journalist for CBS News, but now finds herself making headlines as the whistleblower who blew the lid off CBS's blatant bias toward the president and his administration. ... Attkisson exposes outright political corruption, and the media circus surrounding the Obama Administration; the constant praise and fawning over the president, the political bent on stories, and the decision to air “softer” news versus hard-hitting investigative reports that could potentially show the Obama Administration in bad light. Attkisson cites many examples of liberal media bias in Stonewalled. When asking follow-up questions on scandals such as...

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...

Some years ago now, when the conservative media group Newsmax put in a bid to buy the limping, failing Newsweek, I wrote a post arguing that trying to reinvent one of the newsweeklies as a (moderately) right-of-center publication was as good a bet as any. Here was the nub of my argument: If [Jon Meacham, the previous editor] had wanted to play to what seems like Newsweek’s business strength — its large audience outside the Acela corridor — he would have tried to tilt the magazine toward the center-right rather than the center-left, in the hopes of becoming the go-to...

The villains were the jerks who pushed Bristol Palin and the members of the media, like Carol Costello, who wear their liberal bias as a badge of honor Since she burst on the national scene in 2008, the national media has enjoyed poking fun and mischaracterizing former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and her family. The main reason for their obsession is that Palin is an unabashed conservative who is articulate and popular with millions of Americans. From the reporting about her supposed shopping spree during the 2008 race for Vice President to the continuing rumors about her marriage, the media...

I am hopeful we may be spared more press conferences that don’t tell us anything more than what we already know How is Ebola spread? Two ways; one, by letting anyone exposed to it in West Africa into America when they fly here and, two, by assuming that medical professionals and others who have been exposed to it would quarantine themselves from contact with others once they are here. The latest case is Dr. Craig Spencer, an American to whom the travel ban would not apply, identified as potentially having Ebola after treating victims in Africa and who totally ignored...

Yo! Yo! Yo! Who says black on white or black on Asian racism isn’t alive and well in America? A bus tour guide in the liberal Mecca known as San Francisco, California, recently went on a racist rant against the Chinese people and the Chinatown district of that city. In a 2:30 minute video that was shot by one of the tourist along for the ride, the guide, who just so happens to be a black woman, is seen wielding what appears to be a bottle of booze while sharing her hate for Chinatown and its residents.