Free Republic

Many of us remember the “Fake but Accurate” assertion made by Dan Rather in response to the millions of Americans who questioned the CBS claim that George Bush had run away from his duty to serve in Vietnam. In this October Surprise of 2004, it didn’t matter to Rather that the documents he put forward to accuse the president of cowardice were proven to be fraudulent. For according to the CBS talking head, it was simply a fact that George Bush had shirked his responsibility to serve, evidence to the contrary be damned. The claim, Rather argued, was accurate, even...

<p>CNN has tapped the daughter of President Obama’s closest adviser to cover the Department of Justice, The Post has learned.</p> <p>Laura Jarrett quietly joined the network in September as a reporter in its Washington bureau.</p> <p>She came to CNN with no experience in journalism. But the Harvard-educated lawyer defended companies and individuals against the Justice Department as a private litigator in Chicago.</p>

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) appeared on Fox's First 100 Days Thursday evening after a closed door briefing earlier in the day by FBI director James Comey concerning the agency's investigation into claims of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The interview begins with host Martha MacCallum mentioning that Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), who attended the same meeting, was "rattled" over the lack of information Comey gave concerning Russian involvement in the election. Gowdy, on the other hand, seemed shocked at Schiff's apparent lack of enlightenment: {..snip..}

A disgraced former reporter was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Friday for several bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers, Jewish schools and Jewish museums around the country. Juan Thompson, 31, was arrested in St. Louis by the FBI for making at least eight bomb threats and the cyberstalking of an ex-girlfriend. Thompson was a former reporter for The Intercept, and was fired after it was discovered that he made up sources and stories, including one about Charleston shooter Dylann Roof. The criminal complaint states that threats made to the Jewish establishments across the country by Thompson were under...

According to President Trump, every new story and development involving his team's contacts with Russia is nothing more than a "total witch hunt." "The Democrats are overplaying their hand," he said in a statement last night reacting to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal from investigations involving the 2016 presidential campaign. "They lost the election and now they have lost their grip on reality." But who has the firmer grasp on reality — the Trump White House or those who are waving their arms that something here doesn't seem right? Consider: •Trump's national security adviser resigns after not being upfront about...

CNN's President Jeff Zucker has dictated questions that are unfavorable of President Donald Trump to his anchors while they are live on set, according to reports. There have been several instances in which Zucker took the reins, according to the Hollywood Reporter and the Daily Caller. During a 25 minute long debate between CNN anchor Jake Tapper and White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway on Feb. 7, Zucker called the control room to tell them to ignore commercial breaks. "He was telling my executive producer, ‘Keep going!'" Tapper said. Tapper and CNN's Wolf Blitzer were recapping Trump's Feb. 16 conference when...

The entire Republican party appears to have met with the Russian ambassador but the news is being dribbled out a few names at a time. The latest revelation from USA Today indicates J.D. Gordon and Carter Page met with Ambassador Kislyak in July [emphasis added]: .. Eventually, the Times does explain why this is supposed to matter [again, emphasis added]: "It is common and not improper for transition officials to meet with foreign officials..." .. {..snip..}

CNN’s brand continues to go in a downward spiral, according to a poll. A YouGov poll shows that CNN falls behind MSNBC and Fox News in brand perception, the Daily Caller reports. The poll asked respondents, “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” Of the three cable networks, Fox News was the only network to score a neutral brand perception. CNN and MSNBC both scored negative on brand perception. “CNN’s negative acceleration point happened in mid-October 2016, around the time Anderson Cooper interviewed...

Russian official Maria Zakharova just gave CNN some advice on the global stage that will definitely hurt them down the road. Watch in this video below where Zakharova is hounded by this CNN reporter and she delivers a surreal message for a failing news organization. Aren’t you tired of this fake news crap?

RUSH: I do want to share with you something I just got. Philip Bump is a national correspondent for the Washington Post, and he just tweeted three things. He’s looked at this and he thinks there’s nothing here, or very little. He said: “Put together a timeline on what Sessions did and said, and am now thinking that Dems are overplaying their hand.” Next tweet. “I talked to two former federal prosecutors. Sessions will not face perjury charges based on the evidence at hand.” Next tweet: “I’m starting to think a lot of perceptions of the facts in the Russia-Trump...

RUSH: So, my friends, until this is beaten back, and until the Democrats and media learn that it isn’t gonna work, this is what it’s gonna be every day. We’re gonna be bombarded with fake news of one degree or another. Made up, some of it coming from Obama’s house, some of it part of the effort, the ongoing effort to sabotage and undermine the Trump presidency, Trump administration. Some of it’s gonna appear legit. Most of it’s gonna appear bogus, but it’s gonna be repeated over and over and over and over by the Drive-Bys. This every day, every...

Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on Thursday that he has met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. because senators try to meet with all ambassadors to forge relationships with them. Camerota asked Manchin if he has met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. "Have you met with the Russian ambassador in your capacity?" she asked. Manchin said that he not only met with the ambassador, but did so with a group of senators. "I have," Manchin said. "I have met with the Russian ambassador with a group in my capacity, with a group of other senators." {..snip..}

There was no press honeymoon for President Trump during his first month in office. A meticulous new study by the Media Research Center finds that 88 percent of the broadcast news coverage of Mr. Trump and his team was “hostile” during the first 30 days of office. The coverage was intense and plentiful. The study, which analyzed both tone and content for evening newscasts on ABC, NBC and CBS, found that the “Big Three” networks produced 16 hours of coverage on the new president and his staff. That is over half — 54 percent — of their total coverage for...

It was an altogether fitting, albeit pathetic, picture. Shortly before Donald Trump delivered the greatest speech of his life, a speech some pundits called historic in its own right, Rosie O'Donnell “addressed a rain-soaked crowd outside the White House . . . during the ‘Resistance Address,’ an event countering President Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress later that evening. She criticized Trump on his foreign policy, stance towards race, and women's rights, while urging the 100 or so gathered to resist Trump (and the weather) through the night” (my emphasis).And so, as Trump spoke to tens of...

CNN reported Wednesday on a senior administration official admitting that the White House intentionally misled reporters ahead of President Donald Trump‘s congressional address in order to get generate positive press coverage as part of a “misdirection play.” Multiple reports Tuesday indicated that Trump would embrace a more moderate tone on immigration and would announce that he was willing to negotiate granting millions of illegal immigrants legal status. Most of those reports, cited to a “senior administration official,” came immediately after anchors lunched with Trump. Some of those outlets then just attributed the claim to the president himself. But when it...

An internal White House strategy review on North Korean options includes the possibility of both military force and regime change to counter the country’s nuclear-weapons threat, the WSJ reports, a prospect that has some U.S. allies in the region on edge. The review comes amid recent events have strained regional stability including last month's launch by North Korea of a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, and the assassination of the estranged half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia. The WSJ adds that U.S. officials have underscored the possible military dimensions of their emerging strategy...

President Donald Trump continues to shock the media -- this time in incredibly positive ways. Tuesday night his speech to a joint session of Congress caused many in the media to sing his praises describing it as “extraordinary” and “presidential.” The most amazing moment of the night came when Trump honored Carryn Owens, the widow of slain Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens. Her reaction will be the lasting image of the speech as she put her hands together and looked to heaven, crying. It’s a picture that should be on every newspaper front page Wednesday. The bipartisan applause went on...

“We strongly protest the exclusion of the New York Times and the other news organizations,” Times editor Dean Baquet said in a statement last Friday after his publication was excluded from a White House briefing. “Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.” While innocent liberals everywhere were rallying to the Times' defense, many of those who have dealt with the Times up close could only snicker at phrases like “free media access” and “transparent government.” One skeptic is investigative reporter James Sanders. Twenty years ago he and his wife Elizabeth were arrested by the...

The motor of fake news is not inaccuracy. It's malice. I had an insight into this important truth a couple weeks back when I was at a swank New York club for an evening event. The establishment in question is overwhelmingly conventional, i.e., leftish in that smug "We're-all-beautiful-people-who-are-you?" sort of way that publications like The New Yorker and the New York Times, along with such media outlets as CNN and MSNBC, exude like the cloying aroma of paperwhites. I ran into an acquaintance, a female journalist I hadn't seen in years. I knew that her politics were echt conventional in...

RUSH: The left is waiting for and the media, too… Don’t doubt me on this. The media is waiting for the first signs that Trump is ready to surrender for peace. They’re looking for the first signs that Trump’s maybe gonna start waving a little white handkerchief — not a flag, a little white hanky. Because they’re used to being able to affect things with the kind of things they’re dealing with with Trump. Nonstop televising of riots and protests and creating pictures that the whole country’s opposed to Trump. I think they’re used to this kind of thing weakening...