Free Republic

Democratic political operative and former Fox News host Bob Beckel has died at age 73, his longtime friend and fellow columnist Cal Thomas confirmed Monday evening. His cause of death was not specified. Beckel famously ran Walter Mondale’s failed 1984 presidential campaign and later became a Fox News political analyst, often serving as a token Democratic voice on the network’s panels. In 2011, he became the curmudgeonly co-host of the network’s midday talk show, The Five, until he was unceremoniously kicked to the curb following his recovery from back surgery, with Fox declaring in a statement that the show would...

<p>A popular Russian newscaster has reportedly caused a stir following a live newscast in which she apparently gave President Obama the middle finger.</p> <p>The Telegraph reports that online footage of the incident, which occurred earlier this month during an afternoon broadcast on the privately-held REN TV channel, is being "avidly viewed" in both Russia and the United States.</p>

The face that launched a thousand N.Korean tirades Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:42am EST By Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim SEOUL, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The one certainty in unpredictable North Korea is that if the state detonates a nuclear device or leader Kim Jong-il visits a duck farm, Ri Chun-hee will be on TV boasting about the amazing accomplishment. Ri is the forceful grandmother speaking with the authority of the state as the main newscaster for North Korea's only TV channel. Her face is one of the few broadcast abroad and her stentorian reports thunder across airwaves from the...

Spanish language broadcaster Telemundo finds itself in a tough position as it investigates a political reporter who had an affair with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and then reported on air that he was splitting from his wife of 20 years. Mirthala Salinas, 35, who has been on leave for two weeks while the station investigates her conduct, has said station managers knew of her relationship with the mayor before she anchored the news of his break up. As a result, Telemundo is likely to be second-guessed no matter what happens to Salinas. Ethics experts have already blasted Telemundo affiliate KVEA for...

LOS ANGELES – On June 8, TV stations around the city reported that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was separating from his wife of 20 years. “The rumors were true,” is how one newscaster, 35-year-old Mirthala Salinas, broke the news to her Spanish-speaking audience on Telemundo's local affiliate, KVEA, Channel 52. What Salinas didn't tell viewers was that she had been in an extramarital affair with Villaraigosa for many months. That apparent ethical slip puzzles many observers, who say Telemundo's credibility has been damaged, even more so because the station didn't remove Salinas from the air until this week, after the mayor...

SANTA YNEZ, Calif., September 26, 2006 - Southern California broadcasting pioneer Ralph Story has died. The Emmy award winning reporter and anchor lost a long battle today with emphysema. Story started in broadcasting in Buffalo in 1948 and went on to work at KNX radio in Los Angeles in the late 1940s. He then moved to CBS's sister TV station in Los Angeles, KNXT, now KCBS-TV in the early 1960s. Story was a part of "The Big News," one of the nation's first hour long local newscasts, working as the newscast's feature reporter. The popularity of his segments led to...

(CINCINNATI)In secretly recorded conversations, WCPO television reporter Stephen Hill admits having sex with teen-age boys who were minors, law enforcement sources said Friday. Hill, who is in jail on suicide watch, pleaded not guilty Friday to eight charges of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. But the sources said Hill is captured on tape in conversations with some of his accusers and their families making "admissions" to allegations that he had sex with boys ages 14 and 15. That was part of the case scheduled to be presented Friday afternoon to a Hamilton County grand jury. By law, grand jury...

Newscaster sits down - and is paralysed Ras Adiba Radzi, who injured her spine in a car accident in 1995, hears a crack in her spine as she tries to sit downKUALA LUMPUR - Popular Malaysian television newscaster Ras Adiba Radzi became paralysed from the waist down after she hurt her spine while trying to sit down at home last week. Her spine was damaged seven years ago in a road accident and has been propped up with titanium implants. Doctors told her that she should go for surgery to repair her spine urgently to enable her to walk again....