Free Republic

Editor's Note: What's it like to raise a family in Hollywood? To be a Christian in Hollywood? Wes Vernon put those questions to longtime pop recording and box office star Pat Boone. In the interview that follows, we learn that yes, there is a Hollywood blacklist, but not the one of Hollywood demonology--as well as the reasons Hollywood is so fanatically leftist; the movie roles Pat Boone did not get and why; the roles he turned down and why; thoughts on why Hollywood propaganda should be counted as an in-kind campaign contribution to the Democratic Party; Boone's review of the...

One characteristic of a good executive is that he keeps his door and mind open to new ideas. Occasionally, I test that thesis by dropping a line to a bigwig to see first whether my missive gets through the several layers of filters that all executives have. If so, then the test is not whether the accept/respect my particular idea, but whether they demonstrate an openness to new ideas. I ran this test with Jonathan Klein, President of CNN/US. He and it failed both tests. Here's the test letter, which received not even a pro forma "thank you for your...

I recently launched a Web site that I hope will be of interest to you and many other conservatives: www.CultureWarBriefing.com, a "weekday news guide for Christian conservatives and others in the pro-life, pro-family movement." This roundup of timely headline links from pro-family and many other news sources will help readers to keep current on the different fronts of the ongoing culture war. I do hope you will find Culture War Briefing to be a useful site, worthy to recommend to others. Please let me know your thoughts. Editor, CultureWarBriefing.com

"Compare this to the visits of Bush and Cheney, who came on the scene well after the disaster struck, clean and unrumpled, and walked around the area amid a throng of reporters and photographers, but very few actual victims."

NRA loved just about everything Panel on last day takes parting shot at major media The National Rifle Association may have fond feelings for Houston, but that affection apparently does not extend to the mainstream news media. "We love Houston. It's a great facility. Great hotel. Great people in Texas. It was a very successful annual meeting," said NRA spokesman Jorge Amselle as the organization's three-day conference at the Brown Convention Center came to a close Sunday. Official figures were not available Sunday, but NRA officials had estimated that at least 50,000 people would attend. The event was expected to...

This was the year those highly paid bogeymen in the national news media told us many bad things threatened the U.S. economy, our democracy and our quality of life. Of course, things didn't turn out the way these gloom-and-doom merchants said, but don't expect the age-old practice of journalism-through-fear to end. Remember all those overheated news stories about voters being denied the right to register and vote, raising fears of vote fraud and ballot box debacles that would paralyze our electoral process, a la Florida 2000? Legions of battle-ready lawyers were said to be on standby in key battleground states...

Sinclair Broadcasting program will focus on John Kerry's protest of government's Vietnam-era policies. For the first time in our history, a major television company is openly trying to tip a presidential election. No, not CBS. Sure, that "60 Minutes" segment on President Bush and his National Guard record was sloppy and partisan reporting. But Dan Rather and CBS News President Andy Heyward at least pay lip service to some basic standards of journalism. They eventually admitted their mistake. Not so with David Deniston Smith, CEO of Sinclair Broadcasting, or Mark Hyman, the company's vice president for corporate relations. Sinclair owns...

.....On Friday, August 6, the Sun published on page A-6 a story from the Los Angeles Times by Matea Gold called "McCain condemns ad criticizing Kerry war service," with a subhead reading "Spot by veterans group runs in crucial states, says he lied about wounds." Considering that this headline and story spanned six columns, it's amazing what's not reported. The gist of it is that an attack ad campaign is running in the "toss-up" states that has some other Swift boat Vietnam-era military men claiming John Kerry was not injured in Vietnam. The story isn't about whether or not the...

The role of Pravda in the Soviet Union was to manipulate and mislead the citizenry with news as dictated by the ruling Soviet Party. The Old American Media - printed press, network news, and affiliates – have corrupted themselves into becoming an American Pravda through political activism and collusion with the Democratic Party. The role of the editorial function of the press has always been a pretext to mask the political bias of the Old Media. The truth is that there is little differentiation between the editorial and the front pages of the printed press. Likewise, there is very little...

All-News station KNX in Los Angeles has hired left-wing talk host Michael Jackson to do "interviews." Today's guest is Democratic activist Donna Brazile. KNX' decision to stray from straight news and slide into an NPR-style of programming is bad news. If you are from the LA-area please contact KNX and left them know your views. Go To: www.KNX1070.com THANKS!!

     When President Bush addressed the Nation a few week ago "to get the message out" about Iraq, I wasn't surprised that none of the networks carried it. After all, they could reduce it to a few sound bites and minimize its importance.      I watched the address on Fox News but in the spirit of being "fair and balanced," I quickly switched when it was over to see how CNN would report the event. I believe Bush's speech lasted about twenty minutes.      CNN spent the next THREE HOURS criticizing it!     With the help of political experts such as Madeline Albright, Ann Richards,...

Some of you will recall there was a strange leftist headline on Google News on June 9, 2004. I began exchanging feedback with Google and got some interesting responses from them which were not to my satisfaction. So I have now just written the following letter to Google's CEO, Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, to make him aware of this. I include it below as FYI and in case anyone else wishes to write and complain. Dr. Eric E. Schmidt CEO – Google Inc 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CA 94043 Dear Dr. Schmidt I was shocked to see the following...

All frustrated Democrats here can do is press their noses against the glass. There's an exciting race going on for the Democratic Party nomination for president. Last week Howard Dean, who seemed to have all but a lock on the nomination before the run of primaries began, exited the race. That leaves John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator, and John Edwards, the senator from South Carolina, in a two-man race with a showdown most likely coming on March 2 when 10 states, including big-prize California, hold primaries. Where's Texas in all this drama? Nowhere. When Texas Democrats go to the polls...

WASHINGTON -- A White House reeling from questions about President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service was hit this week by explosive new charges: A retired Guard officer claimed he witnessed a 1997 effort to purge Bush's files of damaging material. By Thursday night, Bill Burkett of Abilene was a cable news phenomenon, telling his account of Bush aides and Texas guard officers conspiring in a cover-up. But lost in those accounts were details of a long and bitter feud -- which could provide a motive for this story -- between Burkett and a cadre of friends and the Texas...

WASHINGTON -- Seeking to stop the political battering over his 1970s Air National Guard duty, President Bush released hundreds of pages of records Friday that filled in some of the blanks about his service and left others open. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president decided to release the documents, shortly after they were supplied by the Defense Department, to counter "ridiculous suggestions" that "were leaving the wrong impression with the public." The records failed to directly confirm Bush did any service in Alabama, where, according to some critics, he shirked his Guard duty in the United States during...

John Kerry, making campaign rounds Friday in Madison, Wis., denied having had an extramarital affair. Asked about the report by Internet Web site operator Matt Drudge, Kerry told reporters on his campaign: "I just deny it categorically. It's rumor. It's untrue. Period." After denying the report, Kerry added: "And that's the last time I intend to." Drudge, who broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal involving President Clinton, on Thursday said Kerry had had a two-year relationship, beginning in early 2001, with an unidentified young woman who had since left the country. Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential front-runner gained more ground Friday with...

<p>The year 2002 ended, if you go by the tone of the evening news, with the U.S. economy dragging through a prolonged slump. Except that it's not true. Growth in at least the first three quarters of last year was 3%, and nothing about the last quarter suggests a dramatic fall-off.</p>

CBS) In his latest Against the Grain commentary, CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer draws a bead on the Second Amendment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” Most Americans think that the Second Amendment of the Constitution provides individual citizens the right to have guns. (Which is not to say that most Americans believe that there should be a right to keep arms.) Very, very few judges, prosecutors or government lawyers over the past 60 years (at least)have officially taken the...

Howell Raines, the executive editor of The New York Times, is accused of running an anti-President Bush PR campaign in an op-ed page article in The New York Sun's July 19 edition. The piece was written by Andrew Sullivan, a senior editor at the New Republic, who was recently barred from further contributions to The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Sullivan accuses Raines of using the "newspaper's resources to the pursuit of a single ideological theme, e.g., that President Bush is a corrupt businessman, who supports thieves who have employed accounting fraud to steal shareholders' money." "Usually, this is done...

Television news executives and observers say they are troubled by CNN's new policy of not broadcasting comments by suicide bombers or their families. But Eason Jordan, who heads CNN's news-gathering, said the policy is meant only to be a "safeguard" and was not in response to criticism in Israel of CNN's Mideast coverage.Jordan has instructed staff not to air or report suicide-bombers' statements "unless there seemingly is an extraordinarily compelling reason to do so."The edict was made after CNN faced press criticism in Israel for airing an interview late last month with the mother of a Palestinian suicide bomber several...