Free Republic

I wrote an August 1973 cover story for Time magazine that praised Minnesota as “the state that works.” The cover photograph showed Gov. Wendell Anderson, dressed in a plaid flannel shirt, grinning and holding up a northern pike that he had just caught in one of Minnesota’s 12,000 lakes. The story began with this archaic rhapsody: “It is a state where a residual American secret still seems to operate. Some of the nation’s more agreeable qualities are evident there: courtesy and fairness, honesty, a capacity for innovation, hard work, intellectual adventure and responsibility. . . . Minnesotans are remarkably civil;...

TUCSON, Ariz. - A disturbing discovery near an abandoned plant off I-19. A documentary crew is shown an underground bunker believed to be used for human trafficking of children. Tucson Police tells us that they are not ruling out the possibility that it was used for human trafficking, but they say they believe the bunker is most likely being used as a homeless camp. Former Navy Seal Craig Sawyer is currently filming "Contraland" to expose the dark side of child sex slavery. Sawyer tells KGUN 9 a homeless advocacy group called his crew after they discovered the underground bunker --...

ABC News made it official this morning: Diane Sawyer will interview Bruce Jenner about his transition on April 24. “Bruce Jenner’s far-ranging, exclusive interview with ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer airs Friday, April 24, on a special edition of 20/20. The two-hour special, Bruce Jenner – The Interview, airs on the ABC Television Network at 9 PM ET,” the network announced. The May sweep begins this year on April 23. The interview with Sawyer will be the first discussion of Jenner’s transition by a major news outfit.

Sheila Weller’s forthcoming tell-all ‘The News Sorority’ claims to offer up details on the scandalous and sometimes catty escapades of noteworthy newswomen, including how some apparently hold strong disdain for each other. Katie Couric cultivated an “American Girl identity” but she was also a bully with a “chip on her shoulder.” Diane Sawyer strived to be “America’s Aunt” but she rode her staff hard and used “staged humility” to disarm critics. Christiane Amanpour was fearless in the field and would remind her bosses, “Do you know that I’m the world’s best-known foreign correspondent?” And, when feeling threatened, these pioneering, primetime...

Monrovia - Documents in possession of FrontPageAfrica suggest that the government of Liberia and a senior official at the Ministry of Finance ignored a major red flag by ArcelorMIttal which had warned its employees about the likelihood that Patrick Sawyer, a Ministry of Finance consultant, who also doubled as a consultant at the company, was infected with the deadly Ebola Virus prior to his travel to Lagos, Nigeria, where the deadly virus has now claimed the lives of 2 health care workers who came in contact with Sawyer with more than 40 others quarantined. Sawyer’s infection has now been attributed...

It has been revealed that the Liberian, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, who travelled to Lagos from Monrovia and became Nigeria’s index case for the Ebola virus was actually under surveillance by the Liberian health authorities, even though he still managed to board a flight to travel. (...) Speaking with journalists at the end of the briefing, Mcintosh said: “Because he had contact with somebody who died from Ebola, he was quarantined in his own country but he evaded the quarantine and came to Nigeria.” (...) Video Shows Sawyer was Very Ill It has also emerged that Sawyer looked “terribly ill” and...

A top official at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos, has said that one of the people who helped the 40-year-old Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, on the Monrovia-Lome and Lome-Lagos flight may have been infected with the virus. The reliable source, who is also on the team of experts monitoring the testing and surveillance of persons who have had contact with the late Liberian victim in Lagos, told our correspondent on Wednesday, that although they had yet to confirm, the person was showing feverish symptoms similar to that of Ebola virus.

At six minutes and 30 seconds…

“Fidel Castro could have been Cuba’s Elvis!” (Dan Rather.) “Fidel Castro is one hell of a guy! “You people would like him!” (Ted Turner to a capacity crowd at Harvard Law School during a speech in 1997.) “Fidel Castro is old-fashioned, courtly—even paternal, a thoroughly fascinating figure!” (Andrea Mitchell.) “Castro has brought very high literacy and great health-care to his country. His personal magnetism is powerful, his presence is commanding.” (Barbara Walters.) “Viva Fidel! Viva Che!” (Jesse Jackson while arm in arm with Fidel Castro himself in 1984.) "Fidel Castro is very shy and sensitive, I frankly like him and...

Watch the video from this nitwit. Yep, Diane, the protests have spread to more than 1,000 countries. That means that more than 800 of those protests are on other planets. She has just proven we are not alone.

A source on the Hill tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that ABC's Diane Sawyer is trying to line up freshmen Republican congressmen for a segment the night before the new Congress begins its new session. This is the email from ABC producers to the freshmen Republicans: "On Tuesday, January 4th, Diane would like to assemble a group of Freshmen Tea Party Members on the eve of the new congress to them about their hopes, their vision for the next two years and why they came to Washington. It would be a town hall style chat and would last about 45 minutes....

Here is video from an interview yesterday where President Obama laughed at being questioned about the possibility of him being a one-term President, and then said he would rather be a "really good" one-term President than a "mediocre" two-term President. Obama followed that with a convoluted answer about poll numbers and generally seemed very smug in the face of that question. He did not mention another possibility: Being a "really bad" one-term President. (VIDEO)

ABC is admitting that "Good Morning America" is going to change to accommodate the wonky Washington insider George Stephanopoulos -- and not the other way around. Stephanopoulos starts today as co-host of the morning TV show replacing Diane Sawyer and his arrival is going to mean that "GMA" will buck the last 20 years of happy-talk, wake-up TV and become a more serious program, officials now say. "We have been talking for months about how light and kooky morning news has become at a time when people are struggling with a million different things, from the economy to two wars...

Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, “Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror.” ACORN was not the only target of those videos; so were Katie, Brian, Charlie and every other mainstream media pooh-bah. They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What’s more, it ain’t over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet.Stay tuned. When filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe came...

Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer popped up on Sunday's Reliable Sources and swore that ABC's much-scrutinized health care special with President Obama "won't be an infomercial." She also seriously touted the objectivity of the network, cheering, "I know that our network has worked very, very hard to be completely-completely responsible and fair and serious about big issues."

Another pseudo-brilliant idea floating around these days is the concept of a gas tax, and Thomas flat-earth Friedman is just the guy to spread it. And Diane Sawyer is just the person to lap it up. Right-wingers can't be expected to be this brilliant, and people like Sawyer and Friedman have to explain it to us... But sometimes even left wingers resist the idea of a gas tax, as is evidenced by Sawyer's conversation with Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change. Sawyer asked six different times in various ways whether the administration will implement a...

How do you hit the broad side of a barn in a news report when you can't see the core issues? How did we know the report would be misleading and terribly lacking? As you know, I write for non-gun owners. I furnish analysis and facts more on the issue of liberty and citizen authority than guns themselves. Guns, liberty, and our sovereign authority over officials in this country are inextricable, and I have shown why over the years. The armed citizen is not an opinion concept, it is and always has been a safeguard of our way of life....

BELOIT, Wis. - Police years ago pulled over a young woman who rushed through an amber traffic light. "I'm about to arrest this person right now," the irritated officer radioed to a dispatcher. "She's telling me her name is Marijuana Pepsi Jackson." It's the truth. Marijuana and Pepsi are her legal first and middle names, and the Beloit woman embraces them as a symbol of her struggle to succeed and to help other children overcome obstacles. No Mary or Mary Jane or Mary Wanda for her. It's Marijuana, thank you, she's told bosses, co-workers and friends over the years, and...

Yes, we hate the media. With a passion. And this story demonstrates why. Television’s talk triplets — Oprah Winfrey, ABC’s Diane Sawyer, and CBS’ Katie Couric — are reportedly involved in fierce negotiations for the first interview with Nadya Suleman. Her price tag is reportedly $2 million. Of course, Suleman’s the wacky 33-year old California woman who recently gave birth to octuplets and is now the mother of 14 children under the age of 8. No further comment necessary.

An empty bottle of HopieChangie: Someone call Diane Sawyer a cab While none of us can be faulting for overindulging this week, for one reputed journalist--one flask of HopieChangie just wasn't enough. Courtesy of Gawker.com, Diane Sawyer has been awarded the Oscar for "Drunkest Former Nixon Staffer." Check out the attached video...which brings new meaning to a "media hangover."