Free Republic

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...

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."

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...

On Thursday, with PJ Media's J. Christian Adams as her guest, Fox News's Megyn Kelly recited a list of assertions (under oath, she reminded us) made by Internal Revenue Service officials which have later been shown to be lies or cause for agency flip-flops after "new" facts have been revealed. It's a significant list. By implication, it's an indictment of the vast majority of the establishment press, which has refused to give the IRS scandal the attention it deserves. Video and a transcript follow the jump. ... The establishment press has been almost completely uninterested in telling their readers, listeners,...

Both ABC World News with Diane Sawyer and NBC Nightly News failed to mention a new, troubling report from the Census Bureau on Thursday night that sales of new homes decreased by 8.1% in June and that May’s originally reported double-digit increase was revised lower, from almost 19% to only 8%. The CBS Evening News did cover this story, but it only was in the form of a 12-second news brief from anchor Scott Pelley. Pelley grimly reported that: “Today's report on the housing market is raising concerns about the economic recovery. Sales of new homes dropped sharply last month,...

In what appears to be an act of leftist self-defense, an unbylined story at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, describes certain Colorado Democratic politicians' crticisms of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg over recent "off-base remarks about two of its cities," but noted no reactions from Republicans — who are genuinely outraged, as opposed to arguably trying to cover their political tracks. ... Bloomberg told Simon Vozick-Levinson that in recent recall elections in the Centennial State, "The NRA went after two or three state Senators in a part of Colorado where I don't think there's roads. It's...

Various statements and events defy the claim of a ‘universal consensus’ on ‘harmful’ climate change. “Have you noticed that the nature of the crisis du jour may change, but the solutions always involve higher taxes and more power for the political class?” ... There’s a reason some global warming enthusiasts demand that the media refuse to print or broadcast skeptical views. Polls show Americans continually rank “climate change” near the bottom of lists of important issues. Apparently, “global warming is harmful because shut up” is the only argument many activists have left. And there’s a reason the Environmental Protection Agency...

mainstream media reporter Glenn Thrush revealed that a former editor of his at Newsday in 2008 delayed and buried his story on Hillary Clinton's defense of a child rapist because "it might have an impact." When Thrush wrote the story on February 24, 2008, Clinton was battling Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. The more things change, the more they stay the same. ... Newsweek had killed the story to protect its ally Clinton in the White House. ... Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has pioneered the use of social media to further level the playing field, said,...

Public confidence in television news is at an all-time low, according to a survey released today by Gallup. ... only 10 percent said they had “a great deal” of confidence in T.V. news, and 8 percent said they had “quite a lot” of confidence.

Starting August 1, the left-wing Ohio newspaper, The Toledo Blade, intends to lay off about 130 of its unionized employees due to a permanent shutdown of its Toledo production center that handles printing and inserting. ... In 2013, The Blade lost $8.5 million and has been losing millions for years. As of now there are no plans that will affect the advertising and news-gathering departments. In 2012, The Toledo Blade urged it readers to re-elect President Obama, arguing in part that "He has dealt effectively with economic recession at home

According to the AP, a CIA agent’s name was leaked by the White House . The AP calls it an “embarrassing flub” even though it was a crime when an aide in the Bush administration leaked the name of part-time agent Valerie Plame. What’s given little attention in the story is the fact that the Washington Post reporter who wrote the story sent his copy to the White House to be checked for “accuracy.” ... First of all, any reporter worth his salt would not depend on the subject he’s reporting on to verify accuracy. That’s just crazy. He’d make...