Free Republic

The Republican-led House passed budget resolutions every year since taking control in the 2010 midterms, while Senate Democrats under Harry Reid refused to pass any at all for four years. After less than 24 hours, though, a Republican “failure” to come up with an agreement between the House and the Senate is not just “cataclysmic” already, but proof that the GOP can’t handle the “basic functions of governing.” Republicans handled it for four years while Democrats failed to perform the basic function of legislating, but somehow that didn’t get seen as “cataclysmic” for them at Politico. Maybe Politico’s analysts could...

The 50th Anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march was held in Selma, Alabama on Saturday. The New York Times cropped out the George and Laura Bush. Discrimination still exists in America. MRC reported:

How in the world did NBC News let its biggest star and face of its division run around America for more than ten years telling stolen valor lies, lie-lies, whoppers, white lies, exaggerations, and — if you want to be charitable — embellishments. Brian Williams didn’t just spew bald-faced lies from David Letterman’s couch. He lied repeatedly on the air at NBC News and its affiliates. He lied to NBC News legend Tim Russert. Stories Williams’ shared with NBC’s own Tom Brokaw both on the air and at Columbia Journalism school are now disputed. Things told to other reporters don’t...

there are a lot of Brian Williams fabrications. Like, a lot. And yesterday’s suspension of the anchor over revelations that he exaggerated stories from the Iraq War allegedly stemmed from a larger internal investigation at NBC, with enough findings to compile a full dossier and enough allegations to prompt an overview of his expense accounts. ... sources at NBC say that Williams’ history of stretching the truth was well-known, and NBC execs had tried to curb his habits for the past decade: ... NBC was also investigating his expense accounts for reasons unknown

MSNBC registered its lowest full-day rating in nearly a decade on Tuesday, a devastatingly low benchmark that shows just how severe the network's decline has become. The liberal cable news network drew an average of 55,000 viewers in the all-important 25-to-54 year-old demo on Tuesday, its lowest full-day rating since July 2005, according to Nielsen ratings provided by an industry source. CNN had nearly three times as many viewers in the demo; Fox News nearly five times as many. That low reflects a more general decline in recent years.

With its ratings at an all-time low and its journalistic ethics almost constantly under fire, left-wing CNN is once again conceding it can no longer compete as a serious news organization with the revelation Wednesday that the production of a game show is under way. Rumors surfaced in December that CNN chief Jeff Zucker might go this way. TV Newser confirmed the humiliating news today. ... 2014 might have been the worst year for CNN of any news outlet in recent memory. We’re only 21 days into the new year, but 2015 is already shaping up to be worse.

How bad was 2014 for MSNBC? So bad, the left-wing cable news network lost the 2014 ratings war to CNN. Yes, that CNN. According to Deadline, MSNBC is hemorrhaging viewers, especially in the all-important news demo (viewers aged 25-54): ... For the 13th consecutive year, Fox News annihilated its left-wing counterparts at CNN and MSNBC. In total viewers, Fox beat MSNBC and CNN combined.

Attkisson contended that while it’s beneficial to ask questions about events such as Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared earlier this year, and the missing AirAsia plane, news networks often devote a lot of coverage to such mysteries to avoid covering controversial stories. .... There are some gatekeepers occasionally who look for excuses if there are controversies that they don’t agree with or they don’t want to cover,” Attkisson

In a scandalous example of corrupt media supporting the Obama agenda, a mainstream newspaper reporter simultaneously wrote “objective news” about the First Lady’s contentious public school lunch program while secretly promoting it for a district, a Judicial Watch probe has found. It involves a small public school district in Weston Wisconsin. Last month a student at the high school, D.C. Everest High, organized a boycott of the new and despised school lunch, which is part of Michelle Obama’s $4.5 billion law (Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act) to combat childhood obesity and end childhood hunger in low-income neighborhoods. The student, a senior...

In an amazing breach of sworn neutrality, to say nothing of civility, a UN spokesperson on social media attacked the Jerusalem Post and its editor and called for a boycott of the paper. Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Arab refugees posted the following on his UNRWA Twitter account: Link to Twitter Gunness lost his cool over an op-ed written by a Palestinian Arab and published in the Jerusalem Post which blamed UNRWA for prolonging the suffering of his people in order to justify its existence and deepen its coffers. Bassem Eid, the...

The Orange County Register is now asking its reporters and other staff members to deliver papers.. Amid continued problems with newspaper deliveries, the paper is offering employees up to $150 in Visa gift cards to deliver hundreds of newspapers on Sundays and Thanksgiving, according to a sign-up form contained in an email to employees Thursday. The effort is part is the Register's "We Care" campaign, launched after a switch in carriers left thousands of papers undelivered. Previously, the Register asked staffers to make customer service calls to those affected. The unusual requests signal that problems persist since the Register switched...

Sunday on Fox News Channel's "MediaBuzz," investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson told the story of CBS executives intentionally hiding a clip from the day after the Benghazi attacks with President Barack Obama refusing to admit Benghazi was a terrorist attack. ... after the second 2012 debate, it became a big issue whether or not the president had or had not referred to Benghazi attacks as terrorist attacks.

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...

When Tina Brown was Newsweek’s editor, a magazine cover heralded the “Obama Conquest.” Now he’s just the creep in the corner office who keeps women nervous. ... There’s a word for guys who hide out in their offices; bark at underlings while barking at underlings, then, worst of all, blame everyone around them when those promises aren’t kept. The word is “weak,” and women don’t like it any more than men do.

Wednesday night, the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley made no mention of the results from the latest CBS News poll that gave President Obama and Democrats poor marks ahead of the November 4 midterm elections on issues ranging from the economy to ISIS to terrorism to who voters are most likely to vote for. Regarding the midterm elections, Republicans find themselves ahead of Democrats on both a generic ballot and specific issues. Republicans have a six point lead against Democrats overall (49 percent to 43 percent with those leaning left or right, 46 percent to 40 percent without) and...

Rather characterized the current state of journalism using the term interregnum — “the old order is gone, but the new order is not yet in place.” The major concern for the future of journalism, he said, is how it will be financed in a way that provides the audience with quality, integrity-driven content in the years to come. ... Rather also noted that the measure of journalism and those who cover it is the level and quality of service provided to the public. Commercial enterprises that report the news hold the public trust, he explained, and doing so with integrity...

Sunday on the Fox News Channel's "MediaBuzz," Sharyl Attkisson blasted the mainstream media for being President Barack Obama's lap dogs. While discussing the media's lack of coverage of the growing threat of ISIS, Attkisson said, "Here's my cynical viewpoint. It would have been on the front page had the administration wanted it to be on the front page," and "The media waits for the administration to dictate the agenda and coverage."

Local newspapers in the US don't cover education in any depth. Maybe they'll tell you superficial and trivial stuff (for example, that a superintendent was hired or fired, that there will be a meeting next month of the school board). But you won't find anything about the nuts and bolts that determine whether you child learns to read, or learns anything at all. At first glance, this non-coverage can seem to be a mystery. Everybody's interested in education, especially parents and grandparents with kids in K-12. Probably one of the most valuable things that you could tell these people is...

How many nine-year-old Antonio's need to die in Chicago before the national media will park its satellite trucks in front of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's City Hall and demand answers and action. How many black people, including black children, need to die in Chicago before the national media stops counting civilian casualties in Gaza as a political weapon against Israel and starts counting them in one of our own cities. Overnight in Chicago 10 people were shot. One night. One. How many more until the national media cares enough to look into the root causes of the violence, poverty, despair, terrible...

And why reporters won’t talk about it. The idea that one of Hamas’ main command bunkers is located beneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is one of the worst-kept secrets of the Gaza war. So why aren’t reporters in Gaza ferreting it out? The precise location of a large underground bunker equipped with sophisticated communications equipment and housing some part of the leadership of a major terrorist organization beneath a major hospital would seem to qualify as a world-class scoop—the kind that might merit a Pulitzer, or at least a Polk. So why isn’t the fact that Hamas uses Shifa...