Free Republic

The Treasury Department oversees the Internal Revenue Service. But if the Secretary of the Treasury - or any other political appointee being considered for the Treasury Department - didn't pay his income payroll taxes, it doesn't matter. That's the message from House Banking Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and he blamed the fourth estate for acting like it does matter. On MSNBC's March 11 broadcast of "Andrea Mitchell Reports," host Andrea Mitchell asked Frank to respond to criticism in a March 11 piece from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman that too many appointees were being held up for...

Senator: Demise of newspapers helps GOP @ 3:12 pm by Hill Staff Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said on Friday that the demise of daily newspapers is helping the Republican Party. Coburn, responding to a question from an attendee about media bias at the Conservative Political Action Conference, said, “The daily newspaper will die.” Coburn added that advances in technology, such as the Internet, Twitter, text messaging, and YouTube, are helping Republicans get their message out because policymakers don’t need to rely on daily newspapers as much as they used to. The conservative senator, who agreed with the assertion that the...

During the Monday 12PM EST hour of MSNBC news coverage, anchor Norah O’Donnell interviewed conservative film maker John Ziegler, creator of ‘Media Malpractice,’ a documentary on media bias against Sarah Palin, and denied any such bias: "Well, let me ask you, you called the treatment of Sarah Palin and her family a, quote, 'media assassination, one of the greatest public injustices of our time.' Is that a little strong? Are you and her a little thin-skinned?" Ziegler responded by pointing out O’Donnell’s own anti-Palin bias: "The evidence is overwhelming. It's continuing today. I mean, just a few weeks ago, Norah,...

Palin: Media sought to seek, destroy By: Andy Barr February 23, 2009 11:12 AM EST Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) believes that the media deliberately tried to bring her down during her vice presidential run. As part of an interview with conservative filmmaker John Ziegler for his new film out this week, Palin said she believes the media made a decision that “we’re going to seek and we’re going to destroy this candidacy of Sarah Palin’s because of what it is that she represents.” “Obviously something big took place in the media,” she added. It is “very frightening, I think, what...

In her new book, Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America — ironically, currently #2 on The New York Times Best Sellers List — Ann Coulter excoriates America’s newspaper of wretched. Here are a few of her disclosures: * “On October 15, 2008, the Obama campaign’s internal pre-debate talking points were inadvertently released to the media.” On the same day, The New York Times ran a story in its politics blog, “The Caucus,” that bore striking similarities to the Obama memo. For instance, both predicted that McCain would bring up Obama’s ties to ex-terrorist William Ayers. The Times essentially...

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Four US soldiers were killed on Monday when two helicopters crashed in northern Iraq, American and Iraqi military officials said. "Four coalition forces members were killed when two aircraft went down in northern Iraq at approximately 2:15 am (2315 GMT)," a US army spokesman said in a statement.

I've been referring to the post-coital afterglow emanating from Washington, DC this past week, as the media and the nation settle in and wait to find out just who the heck we elected president a few months ago. Bernard Goldberg, Emmy-award-winning journalist and author of Bias, a previous examination of the media's slant to the left, is blowing up the spot with his new book, A Slobbering Love Affair, detailing the media's compulsion to set aside their journalistic endeavors for this election season, in lieu of just wanting to snuggle with the new president-elect.

Looks like ABC News is starting out 2009 with a partisan bang. On its main page, ABC News is hosting a slide show featuring what it is calling the "All Time Dumb Quotes." Now, these are not all strictly political dumb quotes, to be sure. They also have the empty headed Christina Aguilera, that sharp as a tack Jessica Simpson and other denizens of the Hollywood Mensa club among the 16 featured quotes -- and some of them are doozies, too. But, there are six political quotes five by Republicans and one by Tina Fey making fun of a Republican...

The Top 10 quotes of 2008, as compiled by the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations: 1. "I can see Russia from my house!" — Comedian Tina Fey, while impersonating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on the TV comedy show "Saturday Night Live," broadcast Sept. 13. 2. "All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years." — Palin, responding to a request by CBS anchor Katie Couric to name the newspapers or magazines she reads, broadcast Oct. 1.

It was supposed to be a joke. As an endless parade of corporate beggars marches to Washington in search of handouts for their beleaguered industries, some of us in the news business snarked that journalists would be next in line. I launched a Newspaper Bailout Countdown Clock on my blog after The New York Times Company's bonds plunged into junk territory in October. A few weeks later, columnist Jon Fine published a tongue-in-cheek memo in BusinessWeek outlining a federal newspaper rescue proposal. The jibes were meant to be facetious critiques of for-profit enterprises demanding massive taxpayer expenditures under the guise...

Barack, The Amazing ObamaBy Mark S. McGrew Barack Obama is truly an amazing man, with many amazing friends. He has succeeded where countless others have failed. And he has also succeeded where many before him have succeeded with the same time honored methods.He has managed to create an illusion of a Public Office that does not exist, The Office of the President Elect.Barry Sotero, AKA Barack Obama, along with the Democratic National Committee and the Federal Election Commission have successfully ignored a Federal Lawsuit asking him to produce a valid Birth Certificate. When the time to respond to that lawsuit...

Wonder why the media have been looking at Republican presidential contenders for three years, 11 months from now, and paying quite a bit of attention to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal? The push on to make him the frontrunner way in advance has more to do with the left’s agenda than covering a good horse race. Ever since Jindal succumbed to the electoral politics bug, liberals have recognized the danger he presents to their agenda. Jindal does not apologize for his conservatism but neither does he come off as much of an ideologue; he articulates it well both at a philosophical...

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford was arrested this morning on federal charges and is being held at the federal courthouse, the FBI and other federal officials confirm. A special grand jury for several months has been investigating county bond deals and Langford's financial dealings. Langford was Jefferson County Commission president 2002-06. Al LaPierre, a close friend of Langford's who also was part of the federal investigation, will be surrendering today, said his attorney, Tommy Spina. David McKnight, Montgomery banker Bill Blount's attorney, said Blount is on his way to Birmingham from Montgomery to surrender. U.S. Attorney Alice Martin will hold a...

The media coverage of the race for president has not so much cast Barack Obama in a favorable light as it has portrayed John McCain in a substantially negative one, according to a new study of the media since the two national political conventions ended. Press treatment of Obama has been somewhat more positive than negative, but not markedly so. But coverage of McCain has been heavily unfavorable—and has become more so over time. In the six weeks following the conventions through the final debate, unfavorable stories about McCain outweighed favorable ones by a factor of more than three to...

I have a BA in journalism, and over time have kept in touch with a number of people who are still working in that profession. So when one of them emailed me the following about the atmosphere in today's newsrooms, I wasn't surprised at all. This person does offer some hints at the end on how to push for more fairness in your local coverage: .... It's unbelievable here. I've been through a few election cycles and have gotten pretty used to the open sneering every time a Republican candidate appears on the television, but this year is unlike anything...

John McCain’s campaign and a supporter at a McCain rally separately accused the press of favoring Barack Obama on Monday, with McCain’s top strategist calling The New York Times a “pro-Obama advocacy organization.” “Let’s be clear and be honest with each other about something fundamental to this race, which is this: Whatever the New York Times once was, it is today not — by any standard — a journalistic organization,” strategist Steve Schmidt told reporters on a conference call. “It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day attacks the McCain campaign, attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor [Sarah] Palin and...

Seven out of 10 voters (69%) remain convinced that reporters try to help the candidate they want to win, and this year by a nearly five-to-one margin voters believe they are trying to help Barack Obama. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of voters think most reporters are trying to help Obama win versus 11% who believe they are trying to help his Republican opponent John McCain. Twenty-six percent (26%) say reporters offer unbiased coverage (demographic crosstabs available for Premium Members). Just last week a Rasmussen Reports survey found that 51% of voters believed reporters...

HOWDY FREEPERS;You know folks, Shawn Hannity is right. Journalism as we once knew it is dead.I don't think it could have been anymore evident than the disgusting treatment that Sarah Palin and her family have been getting at the hands of the establishment media.When you contrast all that to the gussing favorable treatment that Michelle Obama has been receiving, it's understandable why more and more people are throwing bricks at their TV sets and hanging picutres of TV news anchors on dart boards and throwing darts at those pictures and so on.I think it's quite obvious why all this is...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has no need any longer for her "I'm Ruth, Not Sandra" T-shirt. She could, however, use Sandra Day O'Connor's vote. O'Connor retired from the Supreme Court last year, replaced by a man. Her departure almost certainly cost Ginsburg's side a victory in an abortion case, decided 5-4 in April, and might have been a factor in a wage discrimination lawsuit the court last week decided, also by a 5-4 vote, against a woman and in favor of her employer. Ginsburg and O'Connor, the only women among the 110 justices in U.S. history, were not always on the...

Shepard Smith just said Kerry Campaign due on FOX BUT they "missed" their spot.Bush campaign showed up! Kerry campaign afraid of AMMOGATE questions?LOL