Free Republic

Can we trust the judgement of think-tanks who have labeled Twitter users as part of a ‘Russian influence campaign’ as sound when those same entities provide little evidence, and their high-level members include former Clinton supporters?At the beginning of 2017, an initiative was launched by a non-partisan think-tank called the German Marshall Fund US (GMFUS) under the name “The Alliance For Securing Democracy” (ASD).During the Summer, ASD started working on a project they called the “Hamilton 68 Dashboard“, an effort that was presented to the public as a means of monitoring Russian disinformation efforts on Twitter, apparently boosted by...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is clamping down on a technique that government officials have long used to join in public discussions of well-known but technically still-secret information: citing news reports based on unauthorized disclosures. A new pre-publication review policy for the Office of Director of National Intelligence says the agency’s current and former employees and contractors may not cite news reports based on leaks in their speeches, opinion articles, books, term papers or other unofficial writings. Such officials “must not use sourcing that comes from known leaks, or unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information,” it says. “The use of such...

Obama Issues Executive Order for the government to use individual's behavioral data.

Obama assembling de facto propaganda ministryThe U.S. State Department is planning to “buy” media broadcasts, as the Obama administration assembles a de facto propaganda machine, according to documents that reveal the president’s plans moving closer to the 2012 election. According to information WND located via routine database research, State’s Bureau of Public Affairs is soliciting the help of “global news coverage service providers” to create and disseminate department “news.” The selected contractor will provide “full-time, 24/7 service,” the Statement of Work for the plan said. Continued at WND.com

Immediately after President Obama took office, his Hollywood benefactors clamored for the creation of a "Secretary of Culture." Tinseltown was disappointed with the administration's crony arts czar choice (Chicago lawyer Kareem Dale), but left-wing artists and entertainers have now been mollified. Instead of one government-supported arts czar, the White House has designated an entire herd of them. On Tuesday, as part of Obama's "Winning the Future" initiative, the president designated members of the liberal activist group Creative Coalition as official "America's Champions of Change for the Arts." This is the latest in a series of "public engagement" efforts overseen by...

Welcome to the latest use of taxpayer dollars to shove Obama propaganda down your throat, on your dime. The White House has moved a staffer from the White House New Media Department into a position of "rapid media response," with a goal of squashing, or cleaning up negative stories about President Obama on the internet. The Obama administration has created and staffed a new position tucked inside their communications shop for helping coordinate rapid response to unfavorable stories and fostering and improving relations with the progressive online community. "This week, Jesse Lee will move from the new media department into...

The White House said it is ending its long-running practice of having presidents re-enact televised speeches for news photographers following major addresses to the country, a little-known arrangement that fed suggestions of fakery when Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden. After Obama's live, late-evening address from the East Room of the White House on May 1, five photographers were ushered in to shoot pictures as the president stood at the podium and re-read a few lines of his speech — a practice that news organizations have protested for years. Even though The Associated Press and other news...

*NEA conference call full audio and transcript here** Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally? That is the question that I set out to discuss a little over three weeks ago when I wrote an article on Big Hollywood entitled The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?” The question still requires debate but the facts do not. The NEA and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable. But some have claimed that...

Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood is out today with new details on the National Endowment for the Arts scandal, including a full transcript and audio recording, as well as a CliffsNotes summary by John Nolte, of the notorious Aug. 10 conference call in which administration officials urged artists to help promote President Obama's legislative agenda. Formally, the call was led by Michael Skolnik, who is not a government employee. But Skolnik declares at the start of the call that he is acting on behalf of the administration:I have been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA about...

Propaganda, Health Care and ACORN: Full Context of NEA Conference Call Reveals Disturbing Pattern by John Nolte At first glance, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) conference call of August 10th, 2009 sounds innocent enough because it’s supposedly been organized by Michael Skolnik, political director for Russell Simmons and someone not officially associated with any government agency. Skolnik appears to be acting independently as a concerned citizen and to have taken it upon himself to gather together a group of artists and art organizations hoping to move them towards “national service.” And how nice of the White House, the...

With the federal treasury facing insolvency what industry do we help next? Well lets see, how about the public relations arm of the Democratic party, the newspaper industry. That way when our Taxes go even higher they can tell us that it is a great idea. Today the President said that he would be happy to look at the Senate proposal allowing papers to restructure as non-profit organizations. Non-Profit may describe a newspaper's balance sheet, but it should not describe its tax status, unless of course, if Senator Benjamin Cardin( D-Md.) gets his way. The Senator introduced a bill on...

On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”: On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how...

This is it; the story we were speculating about today. Well, this is the "pre-story" and the rest breaks tomorrow at noon (don't know EST or PST) But, there is even a larger issue that hasn’t yet received much attention in the press. Among the Obama Administration officials on the call were Buffy Wicks, Office of Public Engagement and the lead White House official on the President’s Serve.Gov initiative to promote national service. Also on the call was Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for Serve.Gov. One of their mail goals on the call, it seems, was to encourage artists to...

The Paycheck Reduction Club01/13/2003 The liberal chant against President Bush's proposed tax cuts began before the details were even announced. Here are the comments on the story by the three broadcast networks. Monday Evening, 01/06/2003: It's Just Bad, Bad, Bad! [Key words & phrases: criticism, skepticism, epic battle, controversial, heavily weighted, wealthiest, wartime, blame, class warfare, throwing a bone to the rich, spend money to make money, real drag, difficult year, spending, more expensive, defensive, skewed to benefit the rich.] Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News: "Good evening. What's the best way to help the American economy? When Congress reconvenes tomorrow...

Daschle blasts Bush on war President denies political motive in comment on security 09/26/2002 By G. ROBERT HILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, exposing the simmering partisan tensions around the debate over a war with Iraq, accused President Bush on Wednesday of playing politics with the issue and demanded an apology. "This has got to end," the South Dakota Democrat thundered on the Senate floor, calling the president "wrong." His voice cracking with anger, Mr. Daschle said it was "outrageous" that the president had asserted Monday in New Jersey that the Senate, controlled...