Free Republic

I wonder if it is an act--or is Alan Colmes really truly an idiot. During the course of the Hannity and Colmes program he will spend half his time sitting there with an expression that kind of reminds me of an envelope with no address on it. The half where he opens his mouth I try to visualize putting duct tape over his lips to spare him the embarrassment of speaking. Steve Emerson was a guest last night discussing the media coverage of the Gaza war. Being dumber than a rock, Colmes felt that the media coverage of the Gaza...

President-elect Barack Obama has yet to relent, but he conceded that he might be losing the battle to keep his independent lifeline to the outside world. “I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday. “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.” Of all the fights facing Mr. Obama as he prepares for the White House, one of the most maddening for him is the prospect of losing the BlackBerry that has been attached to his belt for years.

An interesting line appears in a $27 million lawsuit recently filed against the New York Times. “Liberals may live to love the New York Times, and conservatives may live to hate it, but all must admit that it has historically been among a handful of American media outlets that occupy a unique niche of authority and respect within American and world culture.” This struck me as only partly true. Conservatives rightly hate this newspaper, which we view as being a fifth column for the forces that want to drag down American society. However, can even liberals trust what they’re getting?...

Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400 million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46 million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good.

Virtually all the predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print—the moment when, amid a panoply of flashing lights, press conferences, and elegiac reminiscences, the newspaper presses stop rolling and news goes entirely digital. Most of these scenarios assume a gradual crossing-over, almost like the migration of dunes, as behaviors change, paradigms shift, and the digital future heaves fully into view. The thinking goes that the existing brands—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal—will be the ones making that transition, challenged but still dominant as...

Imagine there’s no religion, it’s easy for The New York Times to do — even in a Christmas Day editorial that somehow forgets that Christmas is about Christ’s birth. In fact, the NYT decided that this Christmas was its opportunity to wallow in worse-than-ever sentiments and to bemoan that this year’s Christmas isn’t as good as it used to be. Oh, they tried to dress it up a bit by saying it is great to have a Christmas that gets us back to basics and also by slipping in some global warming clap trap, but it is still a...

At a time when history is hardly being taught anymore, and journalists lie, it must be hard for our young people to understand who the good guys are in the conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis in what was called Palestine. In a land where both Jews and Arabs have dwelt and fought one another for ages, it was Solomon-like for the United Nations to divide the land between them in 1947 – yes, 1947, more than 60 years ago. Neither the Arabs in surrounding countries nor the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians would accept that decision, and the...

Vicki L. Iseman The NY Times "Chickens Have Come To Roost." Last February the NY Times wrote a smear piece which said in part that Lobbyist Viki Iseman's relationship with Senator John McCain was not exactly professional. The Times article was so bogus that its own public editor, Clark Hoyt wrote a piece bashing the story. The Suit charges that the Times trashed MS Iseman's reputation just to damage McCain's political aspirations. She is asking for $27 Million. Here's hoping that she gets that and much more. Full story below:

Washington lobbyist Vicki L. Iseman has filed a $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times for a February article about Iseman and her relationship with Sen. John McCain. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond on Tuesday, alleges the article falsely communicated that Iseman and McCain had an illicit “romantic” relationship in 1999 when he was chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and she was a lobbyist representing clients before Congress. The suit also names the executive editor of the Times, its Washington bureau chief and four reporters who wrote the story as defendants. William Keller,...

Does anyone know where George W. Bush is? You don’t hear much from him anymore. The last image most of us remember is of the president ducking a pair of size 10s that were hurled at him in Baghdad. We’re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is thrashing the Palestinians in Gaza. And the U.S. economy is about as vibrant as the 0-16 Detroit Lions. But hardly a peep have we heard from George, the 43rd. When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content...

BAGHDAD — Pro-Gaza demonstrations in Iraq are giving Shiite and Sunni sects a common target for their anger and adding to the rising fears of instability in the Middle East. It’s a sharp turnaround from the aftermath of the U.S. invasion when Palestinians were the focus of Shiite death squads here. Palestinians, many of whom are Sunnis, were once protected in Iraq by Saddam Hussein. Going back to 1948, Iraqis have provided shelter for Palestinians fleeing conflicts. Once Shiites came to power the Palestinian enclaves were heavily targeted. Many were killed and many more attempted to flee the country. About...

Just by reading this online story, you are part of a groundbreaking trend. According to a new study from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released last week, the Internet has passed newspapers as the most popular source for news. Only television surpassed the Net, with about 70 percent of Americans saying they get most of their national and international news from the ubiquitous box. About 40 percent say they get most of their news from the Net, an increase of 16 percent from September 2007. Newspapers are the main source for about 35 percent. This...

Which part of "illegal" does the New York Times not understand? In an editorial that appeared on Christmas Day, "Getting Immigration Right," the Times made the following ridiculous statements: It’s way too early to tell whether the United States under President-elect Barack Obama will restore realism, sanity and lawfulness to its immigration system... If you uphold workers’ rights, even for those here illegally, you uphold them for all working Americans. If you ignore and undercut the rights of illegal immigrants, you encourage the exploitation that erodes working conditions and job security everywhere. This is why it is so important to...

The NY Times, like other troubled firms in troubled industries, is selling assets to stay afloat. The Detroit auto makers which, in more prosperous times, bought stakes in other brands, is selling them off in an effort to stave off bankruptcy. Ford has sold its stake in Mazda, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover. It is trying to sell Volvo. General Motors has spun off many of its former divisions, tried to sell its light truck business to Navistar and is trying to sell Saab, the Swedish car maker. Of course we all know that the Detroit auto giants are...

Hard hit by the financial crisis and dwindling readership, the New York Times Co. is looking to unload its stake in a fabled sports franchise and its ballyard. Why, it's the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park, of course. The Times Co., according to the Wall Street Journal, is seeking a buyer for its 17.5 percent interest in New England Sports Ventures, which owns the Red Sox, Fenway Park and NESN, the dominant sports television network in New England. The company may also include the Boston Globe newspaper in the package. It's well known that the New York Times is...

WASHINGTON -- The decline of The New York Times continues, alas and egad. On Monday, the Times was duped by some scoundrel who sent the newspaper's Web site a rude e-mail about Caroline Kennedy. It supposedly was signed by Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris. Now the Times has had to admit: "We posted a letter that carries the name of Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris, sharply criticizing Caroline Kennedy. This letter was a fake. It should not have been published. Doing so violated both our standards and our procedures in publishing signed letters from our readers." Well, I,...

The New York Times published a self-aggrandizing op-ed by former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, but rejected a reply by former FBI informant Larry Grathwohl; now you can read Grathwohl’s rejected submission, thanks to Bob Owens and Pajamas Media: The Op-Ed the New York Times Wouldn’t Run.

Earlier this month, executives at the New York Times (NYT) warned investors that they had a miserable November. They weren’t kidding. The grim details are here, but I’ll save you some time: * Revenue was down 13.9%, an acceleration from October’s 9.4% drop. * Ad revenue was down 20.9%, an acceleration from October’s 16.2% drop. * The really awful news: Internet ad revenue and overall Internet revenue actually declined in November, down 3.8% and 2.6%, respectively. In the good old days of 2007, the Times could at least say that while print revenue growth was slowing to a halt, Internet...

The New York Times shows its true liberal colors only this time the White House responds with both barrels. http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2008/12/23/top_stories/doc49508269836f5100794920.txt

Heh: “Hey, remember that time Sarah Palin thought she was talking on the phone with Nicolas Sarkozy? The NYT presented that mistake as ‘one of the last straws’ that convinced McCain advisors that Palin didn’t have what it takes . . . Fake French — it’s so obvious. Except when it isn’t.” It appears that the NY Time printed a “letter to the editor” that was supposedly sent by the mayor of Paris, but was a hoax. If you get a phone call from someone with a French accent and you are the candidate for Vice President and the caller...

From 24/7 Wall St - based upon background and financials, ten major companies predicted to go away in 2009. Number 6 on the list? The New York Times. h/t An email from Pundita: 24/7 Wall St. looked at some of the largest and most well-known companies, reviewed their SEC filings if they are public, analyst reports, and media observations about their businesses and picked ten that probably won’t be around at the end of next year. 6) The New York Times (NYT) has to repay $400 million in debt in the first half of 2009. It does not have the...

NEW YORK -- The New York Times admitted Monday it published a fake letter purportedly from the mayor of Paris criticizing Caroline Kennedy's bid for a U.S. Senate seat as "appalling" and "not very democratic." In a note posted Monday on its Web site, the Times said the letter signed by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe was a fake and should not have been published because it violated the paper's standards and procedures for publishing signed letters.

Here's the background, a for months it has been reported that Ms Kennedy's marriage is on the "Outs" "Obama recently named Caroline to his vice presidential search committee - and she's been telling friends that if he's elected to the White House, she wants to move to Washington, D.C., and take a role in his Democratic administration," a friend revealed. "But the reality is that this plan is dulling the pain of her personal problems. Insiders believe that her marriage to Ed Schlossberg is pretty much over." As The ENQUIRER previously reported in July 2006, the couple is living "separate...

I’ve got a big problem with newspapers who put American lives at risk by publishing our nation’s secrets. But that’s nothing compared to what I think should be done to the people -- trusted people within our government -- who leak our secrets. If I can borrow a little from by blood brother Willie Nelson, we should send ‘em all to their Maker and he’ll settle ‘em down. Government employees entrusted with our national secrets are morally, ethically, logically and legally required to keep them secret. Those employees who intentionally leak national secrets should -- no, must -- be charged...

...week later they had dinner together, and Mr. Weinstein’s attraction grew in direct proportion to Mr. Perreault’s dining pleasure. “He looked like he was sensually enjoying what he was eating,” said Mr. Weinstein, who is also a food writer. “This was a guy I could like.”...

2008 might have been a lousy year for the business end of the NY Times, but when it comes to editorial bias and stupidity, it was a banner year. But then again I am a little prejudiced since the past year was a year when Ed Lasky and I were singled out as crazy right wing bloggers doing our best to destroy Barack Obama. Which was an absolutely false charge (neither one of us are crazy). But there was much more bogus info coming out of the Old Grey Lady, like the report that our heros coming home from Iraq...

Thomas M. Tamm was entrusted with some of the government's most important secrets. He had a Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance, a level above Top Secret. Government agents had probed Tamm's background, his friends and associates, and determined him trustworthy. It's easy to see why: he comes from a family of high-ranking FBI officials. During his childhood, he played under the desk of J. Edgar Hoover, and as an adult, he enjoyed a long and successful career as a prosecutor. Now gray-haired, 56 and fighting a paunch, Tamm prides himself on his personal rectitude. He has what his 23-year-old son,...

This column will explain why The New York Times has probably killed more people than Hitler. That might sound outlandish at first, but it is a conservative estimate based on what The Times has done. It was instrumental in covering up the millions murdered by Stalin in his enforced famine in the Ukraine and by his various purges. ThatÂ’s a well-established fact of history (See A. J. Taylor, StalinÂ’s Apologist: Walter Duranty: The New York TimesÂ’ Man in Moscow. The Times helped give power and credibility to Fidel Castro, whose dictatorship continues to kill and enslave (see Anthony Depalma, The...

If Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr, chairman and publisher of The New York Times, had paused in his Renzo Piano-designed headquarters this week, the art project commissioned for its lobby might have caught his eye. “Why are the Giants struggling?” read the message on one of the screens randomly flashing up lines from the newspaper and its website. “What is to be done?” blinked another in front of an atrium full of birch trees. The giants of US journalism are more than struggling. This week, the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy, crushed by $13bn (€9.7bn, £8.7bn) of debt from Sam Zell’s...

LOST amid the understandable clamor over the charges against Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois are questions raised by the pretrial public comments about the case by the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald.

The vultures are circling as the death spiral accelerates. I want them to put their personal fortunes into the paper trying to keep it afloat. I want to see the columnists banding together to work without pay. I want the unions to demand higher pay and benefits. I want to see shareholder suits claiming breach of fiduciary responsibility and claw backs of executive compensation. I want to see them sued for contaminating the environment with toxins in the paper and ink. I want to see articles claiming they have the problems under control because I know that's an indication of...

Unrecognized by Americans majorities - domestic and international threats will change our country forever (blame the media) - Part Two - Islam By Vincent Gioia The people in any country are only able to protect themselves and assure their freedom if they are aware of what is going on that affects them. Knowledge of current events was difficult to obtain two hundred years ago when the United States was created but nonetheless early Americans realized the importance of keeping everyone informed so they built into the Constitution a safeguard for freedom of expression which is acknowledged in the First Amendment...

Promise, or threat? John Harwood declares "the New York Times isn't going anywhere." The Times correspondent, who also toils for CNBC, made his unconditional avowal on today's Morning Joe in response to Joe Scarborough's imagining of a future in which major news organizations, including the Times, might disappear. Scarborough was concerned that the public would be deprived of the media's investigative function. JOE SCARBOROUGH: The problem is, though, that these people are all being fired. So what are we going to do without a New York Times or a Washington Post or an NBC News? The investigators that hold government...

The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits. The company has retained Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, to act as its agent to secure financing, either in the form of a mortgage or a sale-leaseback arrangement, said James M. Follo, the Times Company’s chief financial officer. The Times Company owns 58 percent of the 52-story, 1.5 million-square-foot tower on Eighth Avenue, which was designed by the architect Renzo Piano, and completed last...

The unlicensed pipe fitter known as Joe the Plumber is out with a book this month, just as the last seconds on his 15 minutes are slipping away. I have a question for Joe: Do you want me to fix your leaky toilet? I didn’t think so. (snip) With a résumé full of failure, he now thinks he can join the profession of Mark Twain, George Orwell and Joan Didion. Next up may be Sarah Palin, who is said to be worth nearly $7 million if she can place her thoughts between covers. Publishers: with all the grim news of...

In the social circles of the New York Times editorialists, it's OK to have one kid. Two is pushing the envelope. Three or more is tacky, and a threat to the survival of the planet. That being so, there's really no reason to let any car bigger than a Prius be built. Doing so just encourages the unenlightened to overbreed. And so it is that in its editorial of today, the Grey-but-barren Lady suggests that as a condition of the Detroit bailout, "Congress could consider demanding that Detroit simply phase out S.U.V.’s and vans by a certain date."

You may have heard enough about the biased mainstream media, but here is something new and important. We are at the beginning of an important, well-conceived and powerful organized effort to bring down the mainstream media. It is sponsored by the media watchdog, Accuracy in Media (AIM), an organization that has been fighting the almost total leftist bias found in the mainstream media for about 40 years. So one of my most fervent prayers has been answered. And the answer comes in a form that will finally wage an effective battle against one of America's most dangerous enemies, an enemy...

The New York Times Co.'s (NYT) board on Thursday declared a quarterly dividend of 6 cents on its Class A and Class B common stock, down from 23 cents in the third quarter. The dividend will be paid on Dec. 15 to shareholders of record on Dec. 1. "We expect that this steep cut in the dividend, coupled with our other actions, will help us decrease debt and improve the liquidity of the company, a prudent measure in this operating environment," said Chairman Arthur Sulzberger in a statement.

The Sulzberger family absolutely controls the foundering New York Times Company, and deliberates in secret on its future. Those interested in the fate of the company are reduced to a seismology-like reading of subterranean signs. Something interesting may be afoot. Oregon-based Wilamette Week reports that Arthur Griggs Sulzberger, son of Pinch Sulzberger (who inherited his job from his own father, AG's grandfather), is leaving his job as a reporter for the Portland Oregonian. A source in Multnomah County government, the beat Sulzberger has covered since he came to The O in August 2006, says Sulzberger revealed several days ago that...

Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.

Scholars and Rogues has a very interesting and in-depth look at the shape the NYT company is in. It's not particularly good. In fact, it is fairly critical. It must deliver $400 million to lenders in May of 2009. Unfortunately it is in no real shape to do that... Its credit rating has been reduced to "junk" and its once well performing stock is in the toilet. the Democrats, given how important the NYT has been to them lately, might not see the paper as "too big to fail".

The New York Times Co. has increased its estimates for how much The Boston Globe and other New England newspapers it owns have declined in value because of reductions in advertising. The Times took a $166 million accounting charge in the third quarter and said any adjustments to that estimate will come in the current quarter. In releasing preliminary third-quarter results last month, the Times estimated the charge at $100 million to $150 million. With the change and related tax adjustments, the Times had a net loss of $106 million, or 74 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared...

Shut Guantanamo on Day One, Obama urged 10 Nov 2008 20:24:05 GMT Source: Reuters By Jane Sutton MIAMI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Five human rights groups urged European governments on Monday to accept Guantanamo prisoners who cannot be sent home for fear of persecution, while a sixth group called on U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to sign an order shutting the prison camp on the day he takes office. The global efforts are aimed at pressuring Obama to make good on his campaign pledge to close the widely reviled Guantanamo detention camp and halt the special tribunals that try foreign terrorism...

The New York Times Company's 10Q (NYT) contains more details on the company's cash crunch. Specifically, the company must deliver $400 million to lenders in May of 2009, six months from now. The company has only $46 million of cash on hand, and its operations will likely begin consuming this meager balance this quarter or next. The company has been shut out of the commercial paper market, but has a $366 million short-term credit line remaining that it entered into several years ago, when the industry was strong. It has not yet drawn this cash down, and given the current...

TACKY: NY TIMES Alters Headline Over Bush Obama Meeting.... Follow the link from Drudge. The NY Times headline as listed in google cache reads "Obama Will Visit Bush, Watching Out for Tacks on Chairs in Oval Office." When you get to the NT Times sight the articles title reads "As the Handoff Begins, a Visit Both Historic and Perhaps Awkward." What kind of juveniles are running the NY Times? Do they really wonder why half the public of this country thinks this paper is bias and in the tank?

If you're thinking about retiring from your job at The New York Times Co., you should probably do it soon. Tucked inside its latest 10-Q are the Times Co.'s plans to shave tens of millions of dollars from its budget by hacking away at pension and medical benefits for non-union employees. Those who retire on or after March 1, 2009, will no longer receive medical coverage after they turn 65, when they become eligible for Medicare. The Times Co. also said it has decreased the formula for pension benefits. The changes, adopted Oct. 22, will yield estimated savings of $24...

NYT Co. cuts retirement benefits for non-union staff

The New York Times is ecstatic over the election of Barack Hussein Obama, a candidate who is largely a creation of the mainstream media, The Times included. In this euphoric state, it both misrepresents the past campaign and, like its hero, offers exactly the wrong prescription for an ailing economy. In an editorial in today’s paper, The Times claims Obama won, in part, because John McCain “forsook his principles for a campaign built on anger and fear.” The media has been feeding us this line since the nominating conventions: mean old John McCain is cruelly campaigning on Obama’s connection to...

Okay, it’s probably a small thing to quibble about, but does everybody remember the impressive county-by-county election map that the New York Times published after the 2004 election, showing the United States as a sea of Republican red, with a few Democratic blue counties clustered on the coasts and a few urban pockets? Well, today’s New York Times has a large map of the U.S. showing county-by-county election results as a sea of Democratic blue, with red areas limited to a few southern states, Arizona and Alaska. It looks like a Democratic landslide. But Barack Obama did not actually win...