Free Republic

Hopes for an effective law that would protect the public’s access to essential news from inside government have been dealt a severe setback by the Obama administration. As a senator, President Obama co-sponsored a robust proposal to protect journalists and their sources who rely on confidentiality to reveal abuses, scandals and other inner workings of government agencies. But, White House officials are now proposing deep revisions to a Senate Judiciary Committee bill that weaken protections against forcing reporters to reveal their sources. At the heart of the disagreement is the balance between national security and the public’s right to know.

The New York Times Trashes Single-Payer Health Reformby Dave Lindorff 21 September 2009 In an article in the Sunday New York Times, headlined “Medicare for All? ‘Crazy,’ ‘Socialized’ and Unlikely,”reporter Katherine Q. Seelye did her best to damn the idea of government insurance for all with faint praise. To begin her article, Seelye quoted from a 2005 episode of the NBC drama “West Wing,” in which two presidential candidates, a Democrat played by Jimmy Smits and a Republican played by the always loveable Alan Alda, are discussing health care reform. The Smits character says his “ideal plan” would be Medicare...

Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today. One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century...

The controversial article that started it all.. Teddy, the KGB and the top secret file. By Tim Sebastian, printed in the London Sunday Times. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19401082/Teddy-the-KGB-and-the-Top-Secret-File-Tim-Sabastian-the-Sunday-Times-Feb-2-1992

REMEMBER “peak oil”? It’s the theory that geological scarcity will at some point make it impossible for global petroleum production to avoid falling, heralding the end of the oil age and, potentially, economic catastrophe. Well, just when we thought that the collapse in oil prices since last summer had put an end to such talk, along comes Fatih Birol, the top economist at the International Energy Agency, to insist that we’ll reach the peak moment in 10 years, a decade sooner than most previous predictions (although a few ardent pessimists believe the moment of no return has already come and...

Here is video from last night where Katie Couris of CBS News slammed the New York Times for an article it did on Walter Cronkite that she said contained "not one, not two, but seven errors." She reeled off several of the errors and then concluded with saying that as journalists, we need to be careful that when we say "that's the way it is, it really is." Cronkite died one week ago at the age of 92. Amen to that. . . . . . (Watch Video)

Lou Dobbs had David from Freeport, N.Y., on the line, the caller musing darkly about President Obama "rushing all these programs through by whatever means," knowing he will soon be exposed as a fake, a fraud, a . . . Kenyan. At that point, a scrupulous radio host had three options: (A) hit the kill button (B) laugh and hit the kill button or (C) offer some push-back against the fantastical notion that Barack Obama was born on foreign soil and thus serves -- illegally -- as the Oval Office's first resident alien.

Wait times improved slightly in five priority areas last year, but the time it takes patients to actually receive care remains shrouded in mystery, a coalition of medical experts said Thursday. The fourth annual report card by the Wait Time Alliance, titled Unfinished Business, found only "spotty progress" has been made in reducing wait times in the five areas that the federal government and the provinces and territories agreed to under a $5.5 billion deal in 2004 — hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, radiation oncology, cardiovascular surgery and diagnostic imaging like MRIs. 'In many parts of Canada patients still...

Baby Globe lashes back at Big Mama New York Times.

But there is the irony that the progressivie New York Times is union busting, says one analyst.

The New York Times: First to be Nationalized or sold for Scrap? The Wall Street Journal just featured a column speculating that control of the troubled New York Times may be acquired within the next couple of years. That’s it! Abuse your shareholders by running those assets into the ground then sell off what’s left for scrap. Like most of the major media companies, they ran the company not to increase shareholder equity but rather to increase DNC equity. The New York Times is more of a 527 organization than a news organization. The scoundrels running the NY Times should...

Acknowledging what the blogosphere has known for weeks, the New York Times finally went on record to admit that just before last Election Day it killed a politically sensitive news story involving corruption allegations that might have made the Obama campaign look bad. But the admission on Sunday, which came seven months after NYT staff reporter Stephanie Strom's reporting about possibly illegal coordination between the Obama campaign and ACORN last year, took the form of a snarky column from Clark Hoyt, the Old Gray Lady's "public editor." Hoyt used the word "nonsense" to describe the allegations of impropriety leveled against...

Hannity discusses with Bernie Goldberg.

Gail Collins writes an opinion column for the NY Times, which tells you something right away. With the unique gift that Times writers are known for, she manages to do a reverse Rumpelstilskin, turning gold into straw. Having been given political and comedy gold by the over-the-top fear mongering of Vice President Biden over the swine flu, she manages to write a column that is at once fawning, protective, snippy and dull. I’m fairly sure it’s in their contract that all NY Times writers are required to attribute omnipotence to Barack Obama. In this case, she attributes whatever happens to...

Like the 90% myth regarding American guns seized from the Cartel, the MSM took the story about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being "waterboarded 183 times" and ran with it - poisoning the American public with a falsehood before the facts could be realized. The MSM will stop at nothing to push their liberal agenda...

Taliban militants made their deepest incursion into Pakistan this week, seizing control of areas that are a short drive from the capital city. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/24/nuclear.pakistan/?iref=mpstoryview

Personally, I'd rather save Darfur.

The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban newspapers, says it has filed for Bankruptcy, making it the fifth newspaper publisher in recent months to seek protection from creditors. The company said it filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Delaware court Tuesday. It will continue to operate its newspapers and online properties.

Community members, newspaper employees, bloggers and academicians had a lively exchange Thursday evening at City Hall, where roughly 150 people gathered to discuss "Seattle As A No-Newspaper Town."

Check out this Ad praising Zero in my AOL mail view!

WASHINGTON - Alcalde & Fay partner Vicki Iseman has settled her $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and several of its reporters. Iseman, a Washington lobbyist, sued the Times over a story published last February during the presidential campaign season that she claimed inaccurately depicted her as having an affair with Republican candidate Sen. John McCain. Iseman says, "I am pleased that The New York Times on behalf of its reporters, editors and company has issued a retraction and clarification." Iseman’s statement continues, "The New York Times, its reporters and editors, should and must be held accountable...

She drops her $27 million suit against The New York TImes, gets op-ed in return.

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9gNZsTVYRo Robert delivers a description of his very vivid and intense dream about the TIMES OF THE GENTILES BEING ENDED.

An invitation from Cooper City Church of God. South Florida Israel Awakening Weekend.

Connecticut is considering a bailout for local papers. But government assistance always comes with a catch. In the case of government aid of newspapers, it will destroy the ability of those papers to function as watchdogs. As journalism professor Paul Janensch told Reuters, “You can’t expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it.” That’s why the news out of Connecticut is very disturbing. Two small-town papers have been in danger of being shut down because of decreasing revenue and poor management decisions. Journal Register Corp. recently had to sell the two papers, The Bristol Press and The (New...

When the New York Times goes financially bankrupt, it won’t be because that paper has been intellectually bankrupt for years. No, indeed; somehow, the blame will fall squarely on the shoulders of George W. Bush.

We who live along Montana's Yellowstone River are downstream from a simmering caldera, a geologic hot spot that has become especially active recently. Indeed, Yellowstone National Park contains the floor of a gigantic volcanic cauldron, one that rises and sinks with the forces that lie beneath — hence the picturesque geysers and steam holes. But a wave of recent earthquake activity is raising fears that have their origins 642,000 years ago, when a Yellowstone "supervolcano" exploded so violently that it created the caldera itself. Today, such an explosion — 1,000 times more powerful than the explosion of Mount St. Helens...

Computer users in China found themselves unable to log onto the New York Times web site this week. The site has been blocked by the Chinese Communist government for “politically unacceptable content.” “While we are hesitant to take such action against a publication that has been of inestimable assistance to the Chinese People’s Republic, we are ashamed to say that the editorial content has become dangerous,” said Dung Chiao Mein, Minister of Electronic Communications for the Chinese government. The “dangerous content” is purported to be the paper’s “rabid animus against commerce.” “The Times has become depressingly and appallingly ‘left wing’...

When the 111th Congress convenes on Jan. 6, Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus will be underrepresented in its membership. No shocker there perhaps. But a new analysis of incoming members' religious affiliations by the Pew Forum indicates there's no small measure of change in Congress' religious ties: It's much more diverse than just half a century ago.

If you're thinking about retiring from your job at The New York Times Co., you should probably do it soon. Tucked inside its latest 10-Q are the Times Co.'s plans to shave tens of millions of dollars from its budget by hacking away at pension and medical benefits for non-union employees. Those who retire on or after March 1, 2009, will no longer receive medical coverage after they turn 65, when they become eligible for Medicare. The Times Co. also said it has decreased the formula for pension benefits. The changes, adopted Oct. 22, will yield estimated savings of $24...

We're getting nowhere demanding the LA Times release the Obama tape, and we won't get anywhere, because they have a perfect excuse for not releasing it: journalistic integrity. They claim they promised the source they wouldn't release the tape, and to do so now would compromise their ethics. But there is a way they can "release the tape" without violating their ethics. They can release a full transcript. No, it wouldn't have the same impact as releasing the actual tape, but they also have no excuse (to hide behind) for not releasing a full transcript immediatly. They have already reported...

Too bad Obama wasn't wearing a pair of expensive Neiman Marcus pumps at the Khalidi dinner; then the tape would be all over the main stream media right?

The New York Times Co. reported a steep drop in third-quarter profits on Thursday, the latest gloomy earnings report in an industry battered by online competition and falling print advertising revenue. The New York Times Co. said net profit fell by 51.4 percent in the third quarter to 6.5 million dollars, or five cents per share, from 13.4 million dollars, or nine cents per share, in the same period a year ago. The company, which owns About.com, The Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune and 16 other daily newspapers besides the flagship The New York Times, said overall advertising revenue fell...

Shortly before John McCain suspended his campaign to help with the Wall Street bailout, his generals declared war on The New York Times. In a conference call this week, McCain senior aide Steven Schmidt bellowed: “Whatever The New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization. It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day impugns the McCain campaign, attacks Sen. McCain, attacks Gov. (Sarah) Palin. ... Everything that is read in The New York Times that attacks this campaign should be evaluated by the American people from that perspective.” Strong stuff. And, to...

Yesterday the McCain camp hit back hard on this front-page NYT story by Elisabeth Bumiller reporting that Sarah Palin had been a member of the Alaska Independence Party in the 1990s. Today, the paper ( New York Times ) writes: " The chairwoman of an Alaskan political party that advocates a vote on the state’s secession from the union said Tuesday that she had been mistaken when she said Gov. Sarah Palin was a member of the group. A front-page story in The New York Times on Tuesday ... The information in the Times article was based on a statement...

As we reported earlier this week, Jerome Corsi's, The Obama Nation marked it's debut this morning on the top of the New York Times Nonfiction Best Seller List. Although the list represented the extent of the Times acknowledgement of the book. The New York times in it's trademark fashion celebrated the arrival of The Obama Nation by reviewing an array of books that represent their patented radicalized-left and anti-American views. Among their featured book reviews for the American Public to enjoy were...

You don’t know whether to laugh, cry or cheer. Me, I'm cheering because it's another great example of why the MSM is dying with such speed. The story is not John Edwards any more. In fact shortly after the National Inquirer broke the story is stopped being about John Edwards and morphed into a Sherlock Holmes story: “Silver Blaze.” There is a famous dialog between Gregory (the Scotland Yard detective)and Sherlock Homes: Gregory: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." Gregory: "The...

I don't know which troubles me more: the liberal media's fawning over Barack Obama or the great number of people who are buying into his mystique so uncritically. But what bothers me more than either of these is the arrogance of the liberal press, which sadly is typical of so many liberals. The media's deification of Obama is largely responsible for the perception that Obama is superhuman. Their coverage of his European tour -- the most breathtakingly presumptuous junket we've witnessed in American politics in ages -- is but the latest example. How anyone can fall for the media's Obama...

No one I know is surprised that the New York Times neglected to publish McCain’s editorial on Iraq, even though it published a piece written by Obama on the same topic just one week ago. Not even the McCain campaign, which will no doubt raise funds from conservative stalwarts in retribution, are troubled by the editorial board decision. By email, the Times notified the McCain campaign that they would re-consider publishing his article, if McCain writes a piece that “mirrors” the Obama one. There is no need at this point because McCain’s editorial is front page news for two reasons:...

It has not been easy being a Republican in Los Angeles - or California - for quite some time. Even with the election of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - a nominal Republican, at best - the GOP has had hard times for nearly 20 years in the state. And now it looks even more bleak. "This is the worst time for Republicans than at any other point than Watergate," said Allen Hoffenblum, a GOP consultant who publishes the Target Book, a compendium of how political races stack up throughout the state. "We always go through cycles where one party is up...

(IsraelNN.com) The Sunday Times of London reports that Israel's intelligence information on Iran's nuclear capabilities appears to belie the official United States stance on the issue. The US National Intelligence Estimate of last December concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons development program in 2003. However, the Times reports, Israel has made a breakthrough in intelligence-gathering within Iran, and now fears that Iran has in fact made significant advances towards attaining nuclear power. A source quoted by the Times said the new information was "on a par with intelligence that led Israel to discover and then destroy a partly...

Faith O’Donnell is a full-time video artist and a part-time prostitute who sees herself as little different from the legions of ambitious New Yorkers who harness the Internet to hawk their corporeal assets, in her case for $500 an hour. Ava Xi’an sells real estate on Long Island, and turned to selling herself when her father, who lacks health insurance, needed heart surgery. She started with how-to books from Amazon.com, raised her rate upon realizing it might make men treat her better, and is currently on a $45,000 weeklong “date.”

When John Adams begins acting like a pompous windbag, his wife, Abigail, reproaches him with a single word. John Adams on hbo.com “Ambition,” Abigail warns, when Adams tells her that he will get a lot of attention if he defends British soldiers in the Boston Massacre trial. “Vanity” is what she says to steer her husband away from what she calls “ostentatious erudition.” “Casting,” she might have told the producers of this new seven-part HBO mini-series, which begins on Sunday evening with a double episode. John Adams is the weakest part of “John Adams.” Based on David McCullough’s biography of...

Last year, The New York Times Company fended off a major investor who complained of poor decision-making and was bent on shaking up the company. This year, management is facing another challenge from dissident investors with similar criticisms. But this one may not be so easy to rebuff. Since late December, two hedge funds working together, Harbinger Capital Partners and Firebrand Partners, have amassed just over 19 percent of the common shares, giving them much more leverage than the leading dissident investor last year, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, which had 7.2 percent. Unlike Morgan Stanley, Harbinger and Firebrand do not...

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2008 – No one was injured and only minor structural damage was reported after a bomb went off outside the Armed Forces Recruiting Station in New York City’s Times Square early this morning. The bomb went off at about 3:45 a.m., cracking the glass door, bending the door frame and shattering the large glass window in front of the station, said Army Capt. Charlie Jacquillard, the commander for the six Army recruiting stations in Manhattan. The station, jointly manned by Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps recruiters, is possibly the most well-known recruiting station in the...

I have come under some criticism for my criticism of the New York Times for its criticism of Sen. John McCain. Many readers of last week's New York Times article about McCain, including me, read that article as suggesting that Sen. McCain may have had an affair with a lobbyist eight years ago. The Times, however, has made clear that its story was not about an affair with a lobbyist. Its story was about the possibility that eight years ago, aides to McCain had held meetings with McCain to warn him about the appearance that he might be having an...

WASHINGTON — In late 1998, Senator John McCain sent an unusually blunt letter to the head of the Federal Communications Commission, warning that he would try to overhaul the agency if it closed a broadcast ownership loophole. letter, and two later ones signed by Mr. McCain, then chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, urged the commission to abandon plans to close a loophole vitally important to Glencairn Ltd., a client of Vicki Iseman, a lobbyist. The provision enabled one of the nation’s largest broadcasting companies, Sinclair, to use a marketing agreement with Glencairn, a far smaller broadcaster, to get around...

The New York Times must really like John McCain. Twice in the span of one month the paper has printed endorsements of the senator. The first of these came in January, courtesy of the Times’ editorial board, which magnanimously pronounced the senator the least contemptible of the Republican candidates. The second, and ultimately the more helpful to McCain, came yesterday, when the Times published a thinly sourced page-one hit piece alleging ethical improprieties and a possible affair by the senator.

Commentary: Insufficient sourcing weakens paper's argument NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - The New York Times' front-page story on John McCain on Thursday was an example of shoddy journalism. The piece raised the possibility that McCain had had a fling with a lobbyist 31 years his junior. It offered no legitimate basis, other than the whispers of unnamed sources - the most questionable form of reporting in a democratic society. McCain said in a televised press conference Thursday morning from Ohio that the story was "not true" and added that he was "very disappointed" in the Times. McCain was no doubt worried...