Free Republic

The horrible murder of two local journalists in Roanoke, Virginia, has affected me more than I thought it would. Journalists are taught early on to compartmentalize. As a local TV reporter, I saw bodies from plane crashes and victims of mass murder. I covered natural disasters and witnessed the aftermath of cruelty to children and other inhumanities. The murders of 24-year-old Alison Parker and her 27-year-old cameraman, Adam Ward, by a deranged and disgruntled man whose shoulder chip was as big as a boulder took me back to my early days in the business. At Alison's age, I was working...

The fourth circle of Hell, as envisioned by Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy, is reserved for the avaricious and the profligate. It is where those whose lust for getting and spending knew no bounds in life are punished in the afterlife by being battered endlessly with heavy weights. Notable among the souls damned for their greed, Dante wrote, "were clergymen and popes and cardinals, within whom avarice works its excess." What disgusted the great poet in 14th-century Florence – money-grubbing hucksters masquerading as men of God – is just as disgusting in 21st-century America. Comedian John Oliver is no...

'On Point' with Gov. Sarah Palin & Donald Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oeju2SG7UMA

A website for a small cable network that will feature Sarah Palin talking with Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush crashed hours before the interviews were set to take place. Little-known One America News Network acknowledged the outage at 3:45 p.m. PT on Friday, citing widespread anticipation in the interviews. “So much interest in the interview of Donald J. Trump, Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz tonight by Sarah Palin at 10 pm EST that you crashed the oann.com website! It will be up shortly – Thank you for the interest in One America News Network,” read the post. Despite...

A network anchor calls on his colleagues to do better.Days after exchanging heated words with Donald Trump, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos has some words to share with his fellow national political reporters: Do more to make Trump answer the tough questions. “He hasn’t been challenged enough,” Ramos said of Trump. “He hates to be challenged and it is time that we start doing it.”(continued)

Bud Yorkin, director of influential 1970s TV shows including “All In The Family,” “Maude,” “The Jeffersons,” “Sanford and Sons” and “Diff’rent Strokes,” died Aug. 18 of natural causes at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 89. Yorkin played a pivotal role in developing some of the most popular series of the 1970s in partnership with Norman Lear at Tandem Productions. He was nominated for three Emmys and worked on TV series that won 25 Emmys and 10 Golden Globes. His feature film directing credits included “Love Hurts,” “Twice In A Lifetime,” “Arthur 2: On...

A funny thing happened to Donald Trump on the way to the first national debate among Republican presidential hopefuls on Fox News. He was transformed from a media-baiting court jester to a legitimate political force. In the process, he cemented his front-runner status among the crowded field of GOP candidates. This was made possible by the cultural phenomenon that is reality TV. Thanks to the rapid blurring of "real reality" with the "scripted reality" of reality TV, debate viewers had no difficulty fully embracing him as another, over-the-top character in the national reality show that is the presidential race. We...

Jon Stewart ends his hosting duties on Thursday.The Daily Show with Jon Stewart may be ending on Thursday, but the show’s iconic set will live on in Washington, D.C.’s Newseum.“We are thrilled to accept the donation of these artifacts to the Newseum collection,” Cathy Trost, senior vice president of exhibits and programs at the Newseum, said in a news release. “They are part of America’s cultural and media history, telling an important story about how political satire and news as humor made ‘The Daily Show’ a trusted news source for a generation.”

It was only a few weeks ago when media honcho and Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter and asked when Donald Trump was going to stop being an embarrassment to his friends and to the whole country. That exchange elicited a rather negative response from The Donald (who seems to have a team monitoring the entire planet for any time anyone mentions his name and is never shy about firing back) and the situation has been simmering ever since. That seems to have come to an end last week, when Murdoch reached out to the GOP frontrunner for...

Legendary TV producer Norman Lear stopped by the Televisison Critics Association’s press tour in Beverly Hills to promote an upcoming PBS documentary covering his carreer that’s set to debut next year. But what seemed to most impress reporters was the 93-year-old’s opinionated tangents, covering politics, TV, America and mindfullness. Below are seven highlights from a press conference with the creator of hits like All in the Family, The Jeffersons and One Day at a Time: — On politics: “Everybody knows me to be a progressive or a liberal or lefty or whatever. I think of myself as a bleeding heart...

Doral Vice Mayor Sandra Ruiz sponsored a resolution to condemn billionaire presidential candidate Donald J. Trump for his allegedly “racist” comments about Mexican immigrants. The city is home to one of Trump’s largest assets, the Trump National Doral Miami golf course and hotel. He previously received the city to the key, but his popularity with public officials there has waned since he made controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants on June 16 when he announced his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. The population of Doral is mostly Hispanic and foreign born. Trump said about Mexico: “They’re sending people that have...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Salon.com's Joan Walsh reacts to the Bloomberg focus group with Trump supporters in New Hampshire, saying she "feels sad" for them because "they really don't have a firm grasp on reality." "I look at those people and I feel sad," Walsh said. "That is really such a low common denominator. They're all Republicans, they're all not going to go vote for him but they all seem to see this wishful thinking." Host Chris Matthews couldn't help but laugh at Walsh as she was talking. Former chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele hit back at Walsh on Thursday's broadcast...

Conventional wisdom says that despite his lead in the polls, Donald Trump can't win the Republican Party presidential nomination. And I agree with that. At least, I agree with it six days a week. The other day, I am paying attention to Rush Limbaugh. When Trump's diss of John McCain's military service became a cudgel for people to use against him, Limbaugh called it a "teachable moment" about how "the Washington establishment and media" operate, and he predicted that Trump would survive it by refusing to back down. On Thursday, Limbaugh took a victory lap on Trump's behalf, saying "Trump...

From the whiz-bang and cheesy to the far-out and prematurely cancelled, sci-fi and TV have had a nice run. We locked ourselves in the basement with several milk crates of VHS tapes, laser discs, and back issues of Starlog to come up with the top 50 science-fiction television shows.

It's time for someone on TV to step up and take Donald Trump down — or, at least, put him in his place.. The situation has not risen to the level of Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy. But it's definitely in a league with Katie Couric and Sarah Palin. And every day that Trump gets away with driving the vast majority of political coverage on network and cable TV with his reckless, tabloid-style attacks and unsubstantiated claims is another day that the nation loses in having an informed discussion about where it wants to go in terms of...

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Meghan McCain, the political scion who has won public fame as a blogger, commentator and TV-show host, will join Fox News Channel as a contributor, Variety has learned. A spokesperson for the network confirmed the hire. McCain is expected to contribute to the network’s primetime and daytime programming. McCain, the oldest daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain, a Republican, joins as Fox News Channel, like other news outlets, heads into a frenzied pre-season for the 2016 election for U.S. president. Already, more than a dozen different candidates for the Republican nomination have thrown their hat into the ring. McCain, who...

CNBC TO AIR PORTIONS OF INTERVIEW DURING CNBC'S "CLOSING BELL" WHEN: WEDNESDAY, JULY 15TH AT 3:10PM ET In a CNBC EXCLUSIVE, CNBC Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood interviews Senator Ted Cruz live from the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference in New York City on Wednesday, July 15th. CNBC.com will live stream the full interview and portions of the interview will air on CNBC's "Closing Bell" (M-F, 3PM-5PM ET). Mandatory credit: CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference. Transcript to follow the interview. About CNBC: With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa,...

The Wednesday episode of Mr. Robot was my last...

Attention, voters: Bernie Sanders is just like you, which is to say he’s tired of paying too much for cable. The independent Vermont senator and 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful joined three fellow senators Thursday in asking the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the “ridiculous prices” charged by pay-TV and broadband services. In a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Sanders -- along with Democratic Sens. Al Franken of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts -- said American consumers are being burdened by ever-increasing monthly bills and a thicket of hidden fees. Citing lack of competition and increased...