Free Republic

Trib Total Media will stop publishing the print edition of its Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper after Nov. 30 and will lay off about 20 percent of its workforce as it downsizes its print operations and beefs up its digital presence. The changes and cuts announced Wednesday — including the planned layoffs of 106 employees — are the latest moves in a dramatic restructuring of Trib Total Media that began last year and has included employee buyouts, layoffs, closing some papers, selling others and cutting back delivery in Allegheny County.

Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire publisher and banking heir who financed conservative causes that included attempts to discredit Bill Clinton while he was president, has died. He was 82. Scaife's death on Friday followed his disclosure less than two months ago that he had terminal cancer, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, one of his newspapers. He was heir to the banking, oil and aluminum fortunes of the Mellon family and used his estimated $1.4 billion wealth to underwrite conservative crusades and groups that included the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute.

Richard Mellon Scaife, the Pittsburgh philanthropist and reclusive heir to the Mellon banking fortune, whose support for right-wing causes laid the foundations for America’s modern conservative movement and fueled the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton, died on Friday. He was 82. Mr. Scaife’s death was reported by the The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a newspaper he owned. He had announced recently that he had cancer. Decades before David and Charles Koch bankrolled right-wing causes, Mr. Scaife and Joseph Coors, the beer magnate, were the leading financiers of the conservative crusade of the 1970s and ’80s, seeking to reverse the liberal traditions...

"An Open Letter to Fellow Conservatives" The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives--urged on by conservatives opposed to abortion--has voted to defund Planned Parenthood. On this issue, Republicans and conservatives are dead wrong. My grandmother was a friend and supporter of Margaret Sanger, one of America's earliest, most effective advocates of birth control. I met Sanger several times before her death in 1966 and was impressed b y her intellect and her commitment to many issues, not the least of which was enabling every woman to be "the absolute mistress of her own body" as she put it. I didn't agree...

Remember the vast rightwing conspiracy? It’s ba-a-a-ck, turning its considerable resources to ruining health care reform and wrecking legislation aimed at curbing climate change. Despite the insistence of Republican leaders that the tea-party crowd and the town-hall protestors are merely concerned individuals who have spontaneously made the decision to shout and yell threats at public meetings, the protests are, in fact, prodded by networks of conservative activists. Richard Mellon Scaife, a Pittsburg billionaire who is the financial lifeblood of ultra-conservative activism, is a contributor, according to The Washington Post. That’s not to deny the individual anger or anxiety on display...

"John McCain is fiercely independent. And he makes no apologies for the principles he holds dear, even if they be at odds with the traditional party base. But he has never wavered in his core belief of what Republicanism (with a capital 'R') and republicanism (with a lower-case 'r') are all about: Small government. Fiscal discipline. Low taxes. A strong defense. And a judiciary that does not legislate from the bench. Compared with Barack Obama's long and dangerous statist laundry list of the ever more expansive role government should play in our lives, John McCain sums it up quite succinctly,...

WASHINGTON – Richard Mellon Scaife, formerly No. 1 on Bill Clinton's enemies list as the so-called "marionette" of the "vast right-wing conspiracy," has chosen to endorse Pennsylvania Democrat Congressman John Murtha, who infamously declared U.S. Marines in Haditha, Iraq, were cold-blooded killers and just in recent days called his constituents "racist." Scaife, who personally funded many of the investigations of the Clinton administration that led to the president's impeachment, used his Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper to express support for Murtha. "Mr. Murtha, seeking his 18th House term, has become a lot of people's favorite whipping boy. Just this month, he was...

WASHINGTON – Billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, formerly No. 1 on Bill Clinton's enemies list as the so-called "marionette" of the "vast right-wing conspiracy," met with the former president for two hours this week, offering to help him with his global initiative. Scaife, who personally funded many of the investigations of the Clinton administration that led to the president's impeachment, last April formerly endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a daily newspaper he owns. That endorsement came just before the Pennsylvania primary, which Hillary Clinton won, and just after Scaife met with her. Scaife's...

Bill Clinton met Wednesday for more than an hour with Richard Mellon Scaife — the principal financier of conservative research and articles about Clinton scandals — at the former president’s Harlem Global Initiative offices, according sources familiar with the meeting. Scaife requested the meeting to discuss Clinton’s global initiative work and possible ways the two might work together on charitable and humanitarian projects. Still, the meeting came as a shock to Clinton loyalists there to witness Scaife’s arrival. “I must say, it was amazing to be in the office and see the vast right wing conspiracy walk right past you...

Sunday, April 20, 2008 ELECTION 2008 WorldNetDaily Shocker! Scaife endorses Hillary 'Right-wing conspiracy' leader now pushes Clinton for prez WASHINGTON – Richard Mellon Scaife, formerly No. 1 on Bill Clinton's enemies list as the so-called "marionette" of the "vast right-wing conspiracy," today formally endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for president – proving, once again, politics makes strange bedfellows. Scaife, who personally funded many of the investigations of the Clinton administration that led to the president's impeachment, used his Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper to express support for Clinton. Clinton faces a do-or-die primary in Pennsylvania Tuesday. Most state newspapers have endorsed her opponent,...

"Vast right-wing conspiracy" leader's paper backs Clinton Apr 20 11:54 AM US/Eastern By BETH FOUHY Associated Press Writer PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Could it be the "vast right wing conspiracy" is having second thoughts? Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton was endorsed Sunday by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, whose owner and publisher, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, personally funded many of the investigations that led to President Clinton's impeachment in 1998. It was one of a handful of endorsements the New York senator has received from Pennsylvania newspapers before the state's primary Tuesday. Most of the state's major papers have endorsed Barack Obama. In its...

LEBANON, Pa., April 20 (Reuters) - With two days to go before a crucial U.S. presidential vote, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigned through Pennsylvania on Sunday as the former first lady got the support of one of her fiercest critics. Tuesday's primary to help pick the Democratic candidate against Republican John McCain in November's presidential election is the first contest in six weeks and has become a major test in the race to the party's nomination. Clinton, a New York senator, leads in state polls but Obama, an Illinois senator, has cut into her one-time double-digit lead in...

Last week, Pittsburgh got a visit from a politician with the rare ability to transcend partisan divisions, and to remind us that -- no matter what our political differences -- Americans share a vision of a Shining City on the Hill. I'm talking, of course, about Hillary Clinton. While Barack Obama visited Oakland's Soldiers & Sailors Hall on March 28, Clinton was bewitching Pittsburgh Tribune-Review publisher Richard Mellon Scaife. Yes, that's right: The architect and arch-fiend behind what Clinton herself called a "vast right-wing conspiracy" is apparently quite taken with his onetime adversary. And the proof is a March 30...

Rush Limbaugh isn't the only surprise supporter in Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. Only thing is, this guy is for real. Continuing the transition from No. 1 Clinton media enemy to political ally, Richard Mellon Scaife, publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and a principal owner of NewsMax.com, met with Hillary Clinton and pronounced he now has a favorable view of the presidential candidate and may even endorse her in the Pennsylvania primary. Noting that his paper had criticized some of Clinton's policies the very day she visited the editorial board last week, Scaife praised her courage for walking into what...

Hillary, reassessed By Richard M. Scaife TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, March 30, 2008 Hillary Clinton walked into a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review conference room last Tuesday to meet with some of the newspaper's editors and reporters and declared, "It was so counterintuitive, I just thought it would be fun to do." The room erupted in laughter. Her remark defused what could have been a confrontational meeting.

Richard Mellon Scaife, the reclusive right-wing billionaire who financed a “family values” crusade that almost bought down President Bill Clinton, has offered surprising praise for the politician he once despised - and admitted they both share an interest in philandering. The heir to the Mellon banking fortune was once scorned by Democrats as the shadowy figure behind what Hillary Clinton dubbed “the vast right-wing conspiracy”. Mr Scaife backed the so-called Arkansas Project that produced a series of stories in the American Spectator magazine into Mr Clinton’s sex life, including the notorious “Troopergate” piece that spurred Paula Jones’ sexual harrassment suit...

Bill Clinton is never at a loss for company. When he's not globe-trotting or charming audiences for as much as $400,000 a speech, he's often schmoozing visitors in his suite of offices in Harlem. Last July, the former president sat down with a billionaire impressed with the William J. Clinton Foundation's campaign against AIDS in Africa. The two men chatted amiably over lunch for more than two hours, and the visitor pledged to write Clinton's foundation a generous check. But there was something unusual, if not plain weird, about the meeting. NEWSWEEK has learned that the billionaire so eager to...

WASHINGTON – When first lady Hillary Clinton famously lashed out at foes as a "vast, right-wing conspiracy," there was no question in the minds of Democrats as to who was directing it, funding it and pulling the strings. It was Richard Mellon Scaife, an heir to fortunes made in banking, oil and aluminum who subsidized the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and underwrote countless conservative and Republican causes – including "the Arkansas Project," specifically designed to expose Clinton scandals. But that was then. This is now.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The "vast, right-wing conspiracy" is back, presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is warning, using a phrase she once coined to describe partisan plotting. Once derided for her use of the phrase, Clinton is now trying to turn the imagery to her advantage.Speaking Tuesday to Democratic municipal officials, the New York senator used the term to hammer Republicans on election irregularities.She also used the phrase similarly during a campaign appearance over the weekend in New Hampshire.Clinton was first lady when she famously charged allegations of an affair between her then-president husband Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica...

A management shake-up at the Tribune-Review of Greensburg, flagship newspaper in a chain of dailies overseen by conservative philanthropist Richard Mellon Scaife, has staff members both in Westmoreland County and at the company's Pittsburgh edition uncertain about their futures. Last week, after top management repaired to a midweek strategic planning session at Seven Springs Mountain Resort, the circulation director for the Greensburg edition, Lou Ottey, was dismissed. Yesterday, staff in Greensburg learned that Tom Stewart, longtime editor and one of the paper's mainstays for 30 years, was leaving the paper as well.... (Greensburg Trib editor leaving) ~~~SNIP~~~ In recent weeks,...