Free Republic

A profile in The Times of Tony Hovater, a white nationalist and Nazi sympathizer in Ohio, elicited a huge amount of feedback this weekend, most of it sharply critical. Here’s how the piece came about, why we wrote it and why we think it was important to do so. The genesis of the story was the aftermath of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August, the terrifying Ku Klux Klan-like images of young white men carrying tiki torches and shouting “Jews will not replace us,” and the subsequent violence that included the killing of a woman, Heather D....

New York Times columnist Charles Blow took to Twitter Friday afternoon with a message of unity, no doubt inspired by Divine Providence after rejoicing in the Thanksgiving holiday. Just kidding. The author of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” told his followers point blank that Trump fans need not apply for friendship. If u support Trump, we don't have anything to talk abt & we can't be friends. This isn't abt parties or ideology; This is abt right & wrong— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) November 24, 2017 He followed up his Tweet saying that Trump’s lying was the cornerstone of his...

The Manson murders — the seven killings committed by Charles Manson’s followers in two days in Los Angeles in August 1969 — are often thought to mark the end of the 1960s, as if those brutal slayings were the inevitable outgrowth of the counterculture, the dark consequence of long hair, free love, casual drug use and a general breakdown of authority and social norms. This sentiment was most famously expressed by Joan Didion in her book “The White Album.” She wrote that “in a sense” it was true that “the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969, ended at the...

Sexual harassment claims against yet another powerful man in media inspired New York Times White House correspondent Glenn Thrush to post an impassioned note on his Facebook page in October, calling on his fellow journalists to stand by women entering the field. In the post, which linked to an article about the latest accusations against political journalist Mark Halperin, Thrush wrote, “Young people who come into a newsroom deserve to be taught our trade, given our support and enlisted in our calling — not betrayed by little men who believe they are bigger than the mission.” It was a noble...

Several women told Vox about their experiences with the star reporter, and the Times has suspended him pending an investigation.

New York Times reports: One idea now being discussed under this scenario, brought up by two different White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, would be for Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama to immediately appoint Attorney General Jeff Sessions to what had been his seat when it becomes vacant again. Mr. Sessions remains highly popular among Alabama Republicans, but his relationship with President Trump has waned since he recused himself from the investigation of the role that Russia played in last year’s campaign.

<p>WASHINGTON — One is a rail-thin liberal idealist who spent his career in government, on campaigns and at think tanks. The other is an overweight pragmatist who made a fortune lobbying for all manner of liberal boogeymen.</p> <p>And now, in a twist with Shakespearean undertones, the two influential Washington brothers have found themselves on opposite sides of the scandals over Russian interference in the 2016 election.</p>

Rarely is the question asked: Is New York ready for a white male political leader? But with a white man widely expected to be re-elected as mayor (Bill de Blasio), a white man as governor (Andrew M. Cuomo), a white man as attorney general (Eric T. Schneiderman), and white men as city and state comptroller (Scott M. Stringer and Thomas P. DiNapoli), race has emerged as a flash point in the elbows-out battle to lead the City Council for the next four years. The speakership contest, for arguably the second most powerful elected post in city government, has raged behind...

Link only.

A friend likens The New York Times to a 1960s adolescent who refuses to grow up.  In a perpetual state of outrage, it is a newspaper of college snowflakes who embrace all forms of diversity except thought. It sees its liberal politics not as a point of view, but as received wisdom that cannot be legitimately disputed. The fixation on conformity reached a new low last week when the paper rolled out a coordinated attack on those of us who believe special counsel Robert Mueller ought to resign. I say coordinated because the newsroom and the opinion page produced similar...

The New York Times "conservative" columnist David Brooks has become as unhinged as Keith Olbermann. Yes, Brooks has joined "The Resistance" and now urges a scorched earth policy when it comes to President Donald Trump. Even if a policy would help the country, it must be resisted, according to Brooks' new twisted logic, if it also helps Trump. Even those who oppose Trump but support some of his policies,  such as the upcoming tax bill, would be considered lousy collaborators by Brooks who is now channeling his inner Olbermann.  Should you think your humble correspondent is exaggerating about just how unhinged Brooks...

Leon Wieseltier, a prominent editor at The New Republic for three decades who was preparing to unveil a new magazine next week, apologized on Tuesday for “offenses against some of my colleagues in the past” after several women accused him of sexual harassment and inappropriate advances. As those allegations came to light, Laurene Powell Jobs, a leading philanthropist whose for-profit organization, Emerson Collective, was backing Mr. Wieseltier’s endeavor, decided to pull the plug on it. “Upon receiving information related to past inappropriate workplace conduct, Emerson Collective ended its business relationship with Leon Wieseltier, including a journal planned for publication under...

When taking aim, try not to hit your foot. You may need that foot, if only to put it in your mouth. Our bizarre age of ideological bickering continues as if we’ve not been sated yet. At least, the editors of The New York Times think its readers still demand a full barrage of invective and “argument” against “the right.” The Gray Lady has graced its pages with the writings of one Jane Coaston, who in mid-October took on conservatives in yet another farrago: “The Hollow Bravery of Ben Shapiro.” Ms. Coaston accuses Shapiro — the brilliant intellectual pugilist widely...

A new undercover video from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas in a series targeting establishment-media bias features a longtime New York Times employee confessing his coworkers hate Trump “like the plague, dude.” It’s the fourth video on the Times in Project Veritas’ American Pravda series. The third showed London-based editor Desiree Shoe blasting Trump as an “oblivious idiot” and attacking Vice President Pence as “horrible” because of his religion. Shoe confessed that her colleagues hoped their reporting would influence people not to vote for Trump. Earlier videos revealed a video editor for the paper admitting he had friends at YouTube who...

The Oct. 16, 2017 New York Times devotes most of a full page to an editorial promoting “5 Climate Truths Mr. Trump Doesn’t Get.” They even have graphs to supposedly illustrate their five truths. As someone who has studied climate change and renewable energy I immediately understood that their editorial was very simplistic and does not engage with economic or engineering realities. The Times’ view is that it is important to reduce CO2 emissions and that wind and solar energy are the way to do that. They also imagine that batteries storing power are the solution for the erratic nature...

Here's the link to the new email I got this morning with the Video embedded

We’re coming to the end of a slew of Jewish holidays, today being Shemini Atzeret. Ben Shapiro, being a devout Jew, is unable to use technology, with holidays treated as the Sabbath. Ergo he cannot reply to criticisms leveled against him. A perfect time for The New York Times to conveniently drop an OpEd titled “The Hollow Bravery of Ben Shapiro.” Pro-tip: if you’re going to accuse someone of “hollow bravery,” post your hit piece when the subject can respond. Lest anyone call you, or your organization, cowards. Blatant, obvious cowards. A note before we continue: I beg for your...

The New York Times made it crystal clear in last year’s presidential race that it would no longer hide its disdain of Donald Trump. But now it’s suddenly troubled that readers might get the idea its reporters are biased. In a memo Friday, the paper laid out new social-media guidelines for employees. Journalists are no longer allowed to “express partisan opinions, promote political views, endorse candidates, make offensive comments or do anything else that undercuts The Times’s journalistic reputation.” They’ll have to be more careful about clicking “like,” and they’re dissuaded from joining secret or private groups on Facebook. The...

New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet issued new social media guidelines to his newsroom on Friday and advised staffers to “read them closely, and take them to heart” so that the paper’s journalists are not perceived as biased. “Many of our journalists are influential voices on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. The voices of our readers, listeners and viewers inform and improve our reporting,” Baquet wrote. “But we also need to make sure that we are engaging responsibly on social media, in line with the values of our newsroom.” Baquet discussed Twitter at a forum at George Washington...

The New York Times posted a notice on Friday urging newspaper staff to keep opinions off of their Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. The new guidelines encourage reporters to keep using social media as a way to engage with readers and improve reporting. But the guidelines warn that posting opinions or partisan content can jeopardize credibility. "It's important to remember that tweets about President Trump by our reporters and editors are taken as a statement from The New York Times as an institution, even if posted by those who do not cover him," Times reporter Peter Baker, who helped fine-tune...