Free Republic

While mainstream media organizations continue to worry about foreign meddling in our last election and the next one, we should take a look at how they themselves are meddling. Without letting any of the media off the hook, the ViacomCBS behemoth deserves special consideration. The threat from its meddling in the upcoming presidential election is a case study of a multi-headed media organization's direct practice of attempting to defeat one candidate and help boost and cover for the other. Anything Russia did in the last election, or any of the last 20 elections, pales in comparison. These days, the company...

Appearing as guests on Thursday's CNN Tonight, former CBS anchor Dan Rather and former ABC anchor Sam Donaldson declared that President Donald Trump is "out-Nixoning Nixon" on the Ukraine issue, with Donaldson claiming that there is a "smoking transcript" and Rather suggesting that it is already time to "roll the credits on a mob movie" based on President Trump and Rudy Giuliani's activities. At 10:46 p.m. Eastern, host Don Lemon introduced the segment: "The coverup, the tapes, and a President under a cloud of impeachment. Is President Trump out-Nixoning Nixon? Who better to ask than two legends?" (VIDEO-AT-LINK)As Rather began...

We the media have “fact-checked” President Trump like we have fact-checked no other human being on the planet—and he’s certainly given us plenty to write about. That’s probably why it’s so easy to find lists enumerating and examining his mistakes, missteps and “lies.”   But as self-appointed arbiters of truth, we’ve largely excused our own unprecedented string of fact-challenged reporting. The truth is, formerly well-respected, top news organizations are making repeat, unforced errors in numbers that were unheard of just a couple of years ago.Our repeat mistakes involve declaring that Trump’s claims are “lies” when they are matters of opinion,...

John Podesta, whose emails were hacked by Russia when he was chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, told "CBS This Morning" that he accepts the conclusions made by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. "I think he's a great professional and he did a through investigation of this, he also found that there were 100 incidents where agents of the Russian government talked to members of the Trump campaign and there were 28 meetings, he concluded ultimately that there was not beyond a reasonable doubt evidence of a conspiracy and I accept that conclusion," said Podesta. But he added, he'd like...

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather argued Friday that Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) missed an opportunity to be a "hero" by announcing that she would vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. In a Facebook post after Collins announced her plans to vote for Kavanaguh during a lengthy speech on the Senate floor, the veteran anchor called the nomination battle a "devastating loss" for "most women" and some men. "So Collins misses her moment to be a hero, and the old bulls win again," Rather wrote in the post. "For most women and many men it’s a...

Despite no evidence to back up the allegations of attempted sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the liberal media were eager to make them stick. Comparisons to Justice Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill were wildly thrown around along with suggestions those accusations were true. They were also hopeful for a better result this time. Disgraced journalist Dan Rather admitted as much during a Monday appearance on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time. Disguised under the illusion of seeking “truth”, Rather admitted that the character assassination of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in the 1980’s was what happened to Justice...

Dan Rather warned Wednesday night that if you think Tuesday was a shock with the Cohen guilty plea and Manafort's conviction, then "stay tuned." The former news anchor said other things Mueller is working on will "make yesterday pale by comparison." "Always keeping in mind that Mueller knows so much more than he has shown," Rather said in an interview with CNN's Don Lemon. "If you think [Cohen guilty plea, Manafort conviction] was a shock to our democratic system, just stay tuned. Because the other things Mueller is working on, and sooner or later we'll find out what they are,...

Americans see more political bias in news than ever, and nearly seven-in-10 blame media owners for influencing the ways stories are reported, according to the latest failing report card on the nation’s news business. According to “American Views: Trust, Media and Democracy,” a new report from Gallup and the Knight Foundation, the percentage of Americans who see a great deal of political bias in stories has nearly doubled since 1989. Currently, 45 percent see “a great deal” of political bias, said the report, according to an analysis by the Nieman Lab. Maybe worse, said Nieman: “Less than half of Americans...

"In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act".George Clooney was honored with the prestigious César d’Honneur Award for his services to film (?) last night in France. “Let me take this opportunity to bash you with this blunt instrument I’ve just been awarded.”Like all good little actors these days he used the opportunity to bash the new American President, telling the adoring fans that “love trumps hate; courage trumps fear.” Clever, and spoken like the true college dropout intellectual and Hollywood elitist he is; a man untouched by the crippling costs of Obamacare and oblivious...

Raising eyebrows among some critics, former CBS anchor Dan Rather is now teaching an online course focused on ethics in journalism. Called “Journalism & Finding the Truth in the News” and offered through Udemy, the class is aimed at both media career aspirants and the general public.

President-elect Donald Trump exploded at media bigs in an off-the-record Trump Tower powow on Monday, sources told The Post. “It was like a f—ing firing squad,” said one source. “Trump started with Jeff Zucker and said I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed…. “The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down,” the source added. A second source confirmed the encounter. “The meeting took place...

It was, perhaps, the day the media died. Next week marks the fifth anniversary of the bitter night-January 21, 2011-when progressive Americans, and indeed Americans of all political persuasions who value honor, truth, respect, intelligence and decency, were shocked to learn that MSNBC had decided to end Countdown with Keith Olbermann, perhaps the single best news program ever to air on cable television in the United States. The abrupt cancellation of Countdown was a victory for the dishonest political forces Olbermann had forcefully condemned during his nearly eight-year run-and a demoralizing defeat for democracy. Things just haven't been the same...

We live in a weary age of fable. The latest Hollywood mythology is entitled "Truth." But the film is actually a fictionalized story about how CBS News super-anchor Dan Rather and his "60 Minutes" producer supposedly were railroaded by corporate and right-wing interests into resigning. In reality, an internal investigation by CBS found that Rather and his "60 Minutes" team -- just weeks before the 2004 election -- had failed to properly vet documents of dubious authenticity asserting that a young George W. Bush had shirked his duty as a Texas Air National Guard pilot. The fabulist movie comes on...

I am sorry to have to do this, but as a representative of the mainstream media, I hereby declare war on GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz. In the media's defense, Cruz started it. Literally. -- snip -- Strap on your boots, Teddy boy. We're comin' for ya now. And we've got the weapon you fear the most: the truth.

Cal Thomas's column in the March 29, 2015, Quad-City Times is intriguing. He starts by quoting Goldwater’s famous presidential slogan, “In your heart you know he’s right,” and then advises us not to believe the labels people are applying to Ted Cruz as being “extreme, far right, out of the mainstream.” He goes on to warn Republicans not to be fooled into “nominating a mushy moderate from the party’s moderate wing”, someone like Sen. John McCain or Mitt Romney. He doesn’t warn them against nominating someone from the "extreme, far right, out of the mainstream," like Sen. Barry Goldwater, a...

Talk about bad timing. Echo Lake Entertainment is set to release its independent film, Truth, the story of former CBS anchor Dan Rather’s self-destruction. It’s based on the 2006 book Truth and Duty: The Press, The President, and the Privilege of Power by Mary Mapes, the discredited CBS producer. Mapes documents and defends Rather’s 2004 attempts to use the forged “Killian documents” to portray former President George W. Bush as someone who shirked duty in Vietnam.

Brian Williams said on Saturday that he was stepping aside from the daily broadcast of NBC’s “Nightly News” for the next several days, after admitting that he had misled the public about being on a helicopter that was forced down in Iraq. In a memo to the NBC News staff, Mr. Williams said that Lester Holt, the anchor for “Dateline,” would step in as the network dealt with the issue. “In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due...

James Vanderbilt's Truth, the high-profile movie chronicling the scandal that derailed Dan Rather's career, has gotten the greenlight to begin shooting this fall. Brett Ratner's RatPac Entertainment and Echo Lake Entertainment will finance the movie, starring Robert Redford as the iconic news anchor and Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, Rather's producer. At the same time, FilmNation has come aboard to represent international rights and will pre-sell the project to foreign buyers at the Toronto Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday night (based on the cast, it's sure to whet appetites). Mythology Entertainment is the driving force behind Truth, which was...

There is a new form of cyberbullying out there and it is scary, because it could derail the professional career of any conservative - even those working in apolitical jobs. Slimy folks like “Busta Troll” are hijacking Facebook pages of conservatives, replacing the content with goats and anti-conservative messages. Some believe a goat is used because it is a Satanic symbol; many of the conservatives are targeted because of their Christian or Jewish views. The conservative Citizens’ Post page on Facebook was hijacked by the “Goatz Alliance,” which also goes by the name “Busta Troll,” by pretending to be from...

On Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” fill-in moderator Martha Raddatz asked how journalism has evolved since the time of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s role in the Watergate scandal that resulted in the downfall of then-President Richard Nixon. Sharyl Attkisson, formerly an investigative reporter with CBS News, where she resigned after becoming disenfranchised with the editorial direction of CBS, suggested that had the Watergate scandal happened today, Nixon might have skated if he employed the tactics President Barack Obama’s is using in handling his controversies. “I think we have gone backwards since that time where we...