Free Republic

Advocates and advocacy groups do themselves and others a serious disservice when they deliberately mislead the people. When the press, with the power to mold public opinion stop becoming umpires of the truth, but players on a team, they deserve to lose our respect. The fact that they press is now such an obvious player in the game of politics on the side of the Left is part of the reason that the old media is dying. Alternatives to the old media are now so easily reached that lies of commission as well as lies of omission can easily be...

Dear Maurice, Interesting letters selection in Sunday’s Virginian Pilot. Three letters criticizing religion and one defending faith … out of seven total. One of the correspondents mentioned that 78% of Americans were self professed Christians. Let’s think about that and how it applies to your paper’s editorial judgment. I don’t know how many letters you get each day, but let’s use a nice round number of 100. You tell me if it’s more or less. If it’s 100 then Donny Luzzatto chose to publish 7. Of that 7 he chose four which discussed religion. And of those, three can be...

My local paper, the Virginian Pilot is in high dudgeon about the labels being thrown around regarding Barack Obama. They begin with a red herring: the fact that George Bush was called a fascist during his time in office. But that's a little disingenuous, as Jonah Goldberg explains, it doesn't take Guantanamo or a new entitlement to get you labelled a Fascist: I suspect - but can't prove - that the Pilot's editors are a little upset over the success of the "Tea Parties" and are ready to explain to the people who participated: "SHUT UP." ... So let's take...

Like all good members of the Liberal MSM the Virginian Pilot is outraged, OUTRAGED by the financial shenanigans of those greedy Wall Street bankers who got poor, unsuspecting home buyers to get in way over their heads. How dare they! Off with their heads – or perhaps strangulation with piano wire. It seems that those greedy Wall Street types were aided and abetted by the good folks at the Virginian Pilot. “How?” you say? Well, how did those poor innocents find out about those 100% financing, no-doc, no-money down mortgages with the low, low teaser rates that were never designed...

Beginning with the American Idol cover and leading to comparisons to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The Virginian Pilot has always been an interesting microcosm of the Liberal South, self-congratulatory and racist in a way that only Liberals can exhibit racism. To the Southern Liberal it’s all about race. It’s all about helping black people up, about giving them a hand, about making reparations, about telling them how bad their parents and grandparents had it and how bad they have it because those evil people (the ones that are not Liberals) hold hate in their heart and do bad things....

The Mainstream Media, it be troubled. As in, there are photographers like this Twitter guy who did on-the-spot citizen journalism (Was his picture less newsworthy because he wasn’t a reporter by trade? At this writing over 56,000 people have viewed it.) and there are commentators like me, who report and interpret real-time events like the debates or President Bush’s last speech to the nation. I can read the transcript and watch the President speak tonight and then comment on it (the President has aged and looks weary despite his optimistic talk). How is that different than the paid commentators? ......

The Virginian Pilot has a … shall we say “interesting” view of ethics. Let us first get rid of the canard that journalism has ethical standards to which it scrupulously adheres. That’s a punch line for a joke, not a serious point for discussion. In this editorial it demands that people who are opposed to abortion be required – by law – to violate their own ethical standards in order to keep a job. The editorial begins with the obligatory Bush bashing. …as Bush prepares to exit the White House, he's tossing a prize to anti-abortion activists and leaving the...

The headline in the Virginian Pilot (dead tree edition) was an editorial. It read: Hamas rockets prompt fierce reply. "Fierce?" Beware of adjectives; they reflect the writer’s attitude. ... “The Waves of Israeli airstrikes rained more than 100 tons of bombs on security installations in Hamas-ruled Gaza on Saturday in a crushing response to the group’s rocket fire. The attack killed at least 230 – the highest one-day toll in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades.” "Rained" "100 tons" "crushing" "highest one-day toll" are all editorial comments that are intended to elicit the appropriate response. We are supposed to consider the...

The National Rifle Association hopes to deliver anti-Barack Obama advertising blasts to thousands of doorsteps on Election Day. The Fairfax-based gun lobby has contacted newspapers in Virginia and other battleground states about wrapping their home-delivered products on Nov. 4 in a plastic bag that is said to read: "Vote for Freedom... Defeat Obama." That ad proposal was rejected by The Virginian-Pilot. The Richmond Times-Dispatch leaders initially told employees that the paper intended to accept the ads, according to sources in the company. But when contacted about it this week, the newspaper's strategic marketing director, Frazier Millner, said the Richmond newspaper...

Gonna need a little help from the freepers. This one can be voted on multiple times.

Pravda was a beacon of journalistic truth and technical prowess compared with the Virginian Pilot The editors at the Virginian Pilot must have had a thrill running up their leg when they wrote about the new best seller "The Obama Nation." The Virginian Pilot, never one to let facts stand in the way of opinion, had declared Jerome Corsi’s “The Obama Nation” “ - a scrim of discredited reportage..” It is, of course, a matter of settled wisdom among the Leftards that remain employed at this disreputable rag, that the Swiftboat Vets were also discredited. What’s never disclosed is what...

When the newborn is shown to a bunch of women, you always hear the same lies: “what a beautiful baby.” The fact is that the parents are grateful that it has ten toes and fingers. And the wrinkled little tyke is anything but beautiful; we’re just glad that it’s finally out and alive. The same with that “dialog on race” that the MSM is always wishing for. It’s a lie. Here is what the MSM looks for in a dialog on race.

Pravda was a beacon of journalistic truth and technical prowess compared with the Virginian Pilot When the war was going badly the Virginian Pilot demanded a pullout because we were losing. Now that we’re winning, the answer remains the same: pull out. The Pilot’s editorial staff sees no reason to be in the Middle East, never has, never will. They don’t make the case that the war is over and we should come home. Oh no. They state explicitly that despite the fact that we are on the verge of winning, we need to pull out Nobody might know how...

Pravda was a beacon of journalistic truth and technical prowess compared with the Virginian Pilot The lead editorial from today's Virginian Pilot: Rapper's profanity at Norfolk festival was out of place Certain things go together: Peanut butter and jelly. Bikinis and sunscreen. Ants and picnics. ... Festevents, the group that organizes festivals and concerts at Town Point Park in Norfolk, will explicitly state in its contracts that bands and singers shouldn't utter profanity while performing on stage. Earth-shattering, isn't it? The ability of the idiots who steal their pay at the Pilot to have the gall to put this kind...

Pravda was a beacon of journalistic truth and technical prowess compared with the Virginian Pilot The Virginian Pilot has now gone four days without any reference to Barack Hussein Obama breaking his pledge to go with public financing for the general election campaign. ... What will be interesting this year will be to see if the drive-by-media will be able to drag this empty suit over the finish line ahead of John McCain? Now I grant that John is not a great campaigner. In the past his main constituency has been the media who have cheered him when he was...

Pravda was a beacon of journalistic truth and technical prowess compared with the Virginian Pilot When you combine arrogance, bias and stupidity in a single package you have the editorial writers for the Virginian Pilot. Today’s proof, boys and girls is the editorial page which has on it two editorials that are perfect examples of what I’m talking about. The first, No easy answers for high gas prices, proves that the editors are not only clueless about why prices are high but freely admit that they have no idea what to do … except offer platitudes. Let’s get to their...

Pravda was a beacon of journalistic truth and technical prowess compared with the Virginian Pilot ...let’s show two stories in today’s Virginian Pilot, one on McCain and the other on Obama. The first story is about a McCain proposal: McCain urges end to ban on offshore drilling. It turns out that, according the David Espo, the AP writer: The current ban on offshore drilling covers an estimated 80 percent of U.S. coastal waters. It would seem unexceptional that more oil would reduce the price of gasoline. Why would we be asking the Saudis to increase production if not to reduce...

No, No, no, not the written content which most people agree deserves the appellation of mental compost for midgets. I’m talking about the actual physical paper product you touch with your hands. Now, I’m no more squeamish than the next guy, but I was reminded of the the deadly hazards that can be found in paper when I picked this morning’s paper up in my gloved hands and noticed this headline: “Researchers: AP’s Sludge Story Sloppy, Unfair” As is typically the case with stories found in the Virginian Pilot, this one was not written by one of the few writers...

Pravda was a beacon of journalistic truth and technical prowess compared to the Virginian Pilot. Isn’t it the Drive-by-media that is always opining that we should “stick to the issues?” That “negative campaigning” (defined as telling the truth about Democrats) is taking the low road? Why, yes it is! So what’s the headline news in today’s Virginian Pilot? Senate candidates' staffers look for that 'macaca' moment. And why is that, boys and girls? The writer, Austin Wright, explains: Two years ago, former U.S. Sen. George Allen looked into a video camera and doomed his re-election bid. This year, the campaigns...

The Virginian Pilot has decided that displaying a Christian cross crosses the free speech line. Free speech must allow nude dancing and sex shows because if we close them down, we are on the slippery slope to Fascism. But displaying a cross? Horrors! People will get the idea that anything goes regarding that First Amendment. Let’s read that once again: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government...