Free Republic

The proposed U.S. financial bailout scheme is a dreadful mistake that could plunge the country into an economic abyss for years and will only reward the people who brought the financial system to the brink of disaster, says famed investor Jim Rogers. "It's the wrong approach," Mr. Rogers said yesterday while huffing through a lengthy morning workout on an exercise bike in a downtown Toronto hotel. "This has never worked in history. Other approaches have worked, which they're ignoring. Part of the problem is these guys don't know any history. "All they know is, Goldman Sachs is on the phone...

If Barack Obama loses the presidential election, it may well be the result of a public perception that he is detached and elitist -- a politician whose expressions of empathy for hard-working Americans stem more from abstract solidarity than a real connection to the lives of millions of citizens. Suggestions that Sen. Obama has failed to relate to working- and middle-class voters in swing states have dogged his campaign for months. His choice of Sen. Joseph Biden as his running mate only marginally corrects the problem. While Obama supporters attempt to dismiss the charges about their candidate's perceived hauteur, they...

I understand the rough and tumble of politics. But Barack Obama -- the supposedly postpartisan, postracial candidate of hope and change -- has gone where few modern candidates have gone before. Mr. Obama's campaign is now trafficking in prejudice of its own making. And in doing so, it is playing with political dynamite. What kind of potential president would let his campaign knowingly extract two incomplete, out-of-context lines from two radio parodies and build a framework of hate around them in order to exploit racial tensions? The segregationists of the 1950s and 1960s were famous for such vile fear-mongering. Here's...

Note: Brian Fitzpatrick contributed to this articleThis past Tuesday (Sept. 9), The Wall Street Journal allowed a homosexual activist to criticize GOP “gay-bashing” on the top of its op-ed page – but didn’t let readers know the author has a dog in the fight. In his lengthy article, “The GOP Should Kiss Gay-Bashing Goodbye,” James Kirchick is identified simply as “assistant editor of The New Republic.” But Mr. Kirchick is not just another opinion writer. Kirchick was named the 2007 Journalist of the Year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA). In 2006, he won the NLGJA’s Excellence...

The exploding interest in Sen. John McCain's campaign, fueled in part by the addition of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the ticket, has his staff scrambling to expand events. A loosely organized and sometimes ad hoc approach to campaigning has been part of Sen. McCain's political persona. But after he announced his running mate two weeks ago, thousands have been attending the rallies that have replaced Sen. McCain's intimate town-hall meetings. The campaign is expanding the number of Pennsylvania offices to 30 from 14, and its Ohio offices to more than 35 from 18. The formerly lean McCain campaign and...

** EXCERPT ** "Sarah Palin is in the crucible of national politics. Just as sunlight through a magnifying glass becomes concentrated to a burning intensity, so too will the media's focus either destroy Mrs. Palin or strengthen her to a tempered resolve. Her Wednesday evening speech is David's stone flung at the liberal establishment's Goliath. If she delivers, we will soon be speaking of 'Palinism' politics and the era of the 'Palinites.'" -- Jim Sever "I don't think the lower 48 media pack will faze Governor Palin one bit. Sparring with them will be a piece of cake for someone...

Things are supposed to be looking rosy for Democrats this November. But in case Barack Obama loses the Presidency, an excuse is all ready to go: America's too racist to elect a black man. Not even, in his Vice Presidential pick Joe Biden's inimitable description, one so "articulate and bright and clean." This narrative has gained traction with the Democratic Presidential candidate's recent setbacks in the polls. We hear it from the convention crowd in Denver and liberals in the press. The older, poorer, white, often Hillary voter who sounds ambivalent about the Obama coronation is an enticing scapegoat.

Springfield, Ill. -- Barack Obama used his first joint appearance with his vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joseph Biden, to push a more populist economic message, emphasizing his running mate's blue-collar roots and painting Republican Sen. John McCain as out of touch. (Text of Speech) "This working class kid from Scranton and Wilmington has always been a friend to the underdog," Sen. Obama said of Sen. Biden, of Delaware, to the 35,000 people gathered outside the Old State Capital, the same site where he declared his candidacy 19 months ago. The two men plan to take a tour of economically-stressed...

The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal has long been an indispensable voice of conservatism. As President Bush said in 2003 in awarding the Medal of Freedom to editorial page editor Robert L. Bartley shortly before his death, he—and by extension his editorial page—has been "a champion of free markets, individual liberty and the values necessary for a free society." But there is one area in which the editorial page's policy diverges strikingly from conservative orthodoxy, and that is on the matter of immigration. To varying degrees, the paper's editorialists have inveighed in favor of a more flexible attitude...

Network news is old news as far as politics is concerned. According Gerald Seib, an assistant managing editor and the executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal, ABC’s “World News,” the “CBS Evening News” and the “NBC Nightly News” just aren’t important in the grand scheme of Washington politics, and that’s part of the changing culture of the news media. “This is a shakeout period for the press in general and the Washington press in particular,” Seib explained. “There’s an interesting passage in the book, also interesting, which bears this point – which is – we talked to Elliott...

Excerpt - The Wall Street Journal's Web site, WSJ.com, will keep a significant portion of its content behind its paid-subscription wall, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said Thursday. Speculation that News Corp. would make WSJ.com a completely free site had been rife in recent months, since Mr. Murdoch had signaled he was contemplating lifting the subscription wall. Mr. Murdoch had indicated that lifting the pay wall could broaden the Journal's online audience and boost its Web advertising revenue, offsetting any loss in subscription revenues. ~ snip ~

Excerpt - Murdoch's Dow opens Web Journal to some free access LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Dow Jones & Co has begun opening access to previously paid-for online Wall Street Journal content just weeks after the $5.6 billion buyout by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research). An item in the Wall Street Journal Europe newspaper on Thursday said the company has rolled out a new Web site offering free access to all its editorials and opinion columns. Core news content remains a subscription service. The move represents one of the first tangible signs of how Murdoch is putting...

Mitt Romney loves data and lusts after process. In a recent cover profile in The Weekly Standard by the magazine's Fred Barnes, Mr. Romney is portrayed as the man who would be the CEO of America. Says Mr. Barnes, quoting Mr. Romney, a Harvard M.B.A.: "His idea of the perfect deal is not when one side wins but when 'you find a new alternative that everybody agrees is the right way to go. That doesn't always happen.' " Indeed. Mr. Barnes says Mr. Romney's "approach to government is not ideological." A Romney adviser is quoted as saying of his candidate:...

Excerpt - Washington - A Pakistani businessman suspected of playing a role in the 2002 brutal killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl died earlier this year, shortly after being interrogated by US and Pakistani intelligence, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Pearl, a Karachi-based correspondent for the Journal, was kidnapped on January 23 2002, and killed execution-style shortly after. The newspaper said Karachi businessman Saud Memon became a key suspect in the case because he owned a nursery where Pearl had been held captive. Citing an unnamed senior US law enforcement official, the report said Memon was interrogated by...

Rupert Murdoch, who is set to complete his $5 billion takeover of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones, says he wants to move the newspaper beyond its financial core and target mainstream competitors such as the New York Times. Speaking at a conference in San Francisco on Wednesday night, the News Corp. chief said: “We have a lot of plans and a lot of ideas that need to be refined. But I want to improve it in every way – in what it does now in finance to start with, but I also want to add more national and international...

Justin Logan is a foreign policy analyst a member of the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy. Former White House chief of staff Andrew Card famously remarked that the reason the White House ramped up the case for the Iraq War in September was that "from a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." To judge from recent developments, Americans may look back on August 2007 as the month the country again turned toward war—with Iran. The same network of think-tank analysts, media outlets, and government officials who brayed for war in Iraq have set their...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A top Democratic fundraiser wanted as a fugitive in California turned himself in Friday to face a grand theft charge. A judge in San Mateo County Superior Court ordered Norman Hsu handcuffed and held on $2 million bond. A bail hearing was scheduled for Sept. 5, at which the judge will consider reducing his bail to $1 million. Hsu appeared in court here Friday following reports that he had skipped his sentencing on a 1991 grand theft charge. In the ensuing years, he became a top donor to numerous Democratic candidates, including presidential contenders Hillary Rodham...

When children get lost in a mall, they're supposed to find a "low-risk adult" to help them. Guidelines issued by police departments and child-safety groups often encourage them to look for "a pregnant woman," "a mother pushing a stroller" or "a grandmother." The implied message: Men, even dads pushing strollers, are "high-risk." Are we teaching children that men are out to hurt them? The answer, on many fronts, is yes. Child advocate John Walsh advises parents to never hire a male babysitter. Airlines are placing unaccompanied minors with female passengers rather than male passengers. Soccer leagues are telling male coaches...

LONDON (Reuters) - News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch has said he might make the Wall Street Journal's Web site free, a shift that could compel Britain's Pearson to do the same with the online version of its Financial Times. Numis Securities analyst Lorna Tilbian said any move by Murdoch to make wsj.com free has to put pressure on Pearson, while Dresdner Kleinwort's Usman Ghazi estimates a potential hit of up to six percent on earnings per share. "You can resist if you don't want growth," Tilbian said. Wsj.com is one of the Web's most successful subscription businesses with a $99...

In reference to the liberal New York Times' publisher, the new owner of the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, said in a recent interview reported by Editor and Publisher, "I won’t meddle any more than Arthur Sulzberger does…. I just think The Journal needs a little more urgency.� According to the report, there may be some changes at the venerable newspaper under its pending new leadership. "We have lots of decisions to make,� Murdoch said. "How much should we really spend developing the Saturday paper? What should we do digitally? Should we remain subscription-based on the Web, or should we...

The sale of the Wall Street Journal isn’t the end of the world.Help, the sky is falling! So say the pro-regulation media agitators at Free Press, which fired off what is sure to be the first of many hysteria-ridden press releases about Rupert Murdoch’s successful acquisition of the Wall Street Journal and its parent company, Dow Jones & Co. “This takeover is bad news for anyone who cares about quality journalism and a healthy democracy,” argued Robert W. McChesney, president of Free Press. “Giving any single company—let alone one controlled by Rupert Murdoch—this much media power is unconscionable.” The argument...

Many on the left regard Rupert Murdoch, architect of the rise of Fox News Channel, as the anti-Christ. More accurately, Murdoch deserves the title of the anti-Pinch. Murdoch's successful bid to take over Dow Jones & Company, publisher of Wall Street Journal, is a nightmare-come-true for Pinch Sulzberger, the hereditary occupant of the chairman of the board's and publisher's office at the New York Times. Poor Pinch. Murdoch is everything that he is not. Conservative, smart, and wildly successful in the media business. As a result, Pinch faces serious challenges as a family member, business leader and corporate strategist....

Excerpt - Rupert Murdoch's courtship of the Bancroft family appears to have triumphed, with enough shares pledged to make News Corp. the owner of the newspaper whose Web site you are now reading. Readers are naturally asking how this will change the journalism we practice. Our sincere answer is that we intend to stand for the same principles and standards we have for more than a hundred years. The Bancrofts have been wonderful stewards of The Wall Street Journal for a century, and we are grateful for the support they have provided for our brand of independent journalism. They are...

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation was tonight set to seize control of Dow Jones and its flagship title, The Wall Street Journal, after securing sufficient votes from the controlling Bancroft family to win its three-month bid battle. News Corporation, the media group run by Rupert Murdoch and parent company of The Times, is understood to have secured close to 40 per cent of votes from the Bancrofts. That would give it a clear majority when coupled with institutional shareholder votes, who control about 29 per cent of the stock. Institutions are believed to be broadly in favour of the offer. A...

Like the Olympics, it's a game that's played every four years. The media march out on the field in their ideologically matching blazers and try to convince the GOP to ditch social issues. Their pitch goes something like this: Republican voters are far more moderate than their party's platform. The day of the religious right has come and gone. With pro-life, pro-marriage stands, the party alienates legions of voters who agree with it on taxes, spending and defense. An article in the July 5 Wall Street Journal ("Giuliani Support Hints at Shift") argues, "Mr. Giuliani's lead in the polls -...

The pro-Israel outlook of the Wall Street Journal and many News Corp. outlets could waver if one of Rupert Murdoch's sons, James Murdoch, takes the helm of the publishing and broadcasting company, a new book suggests. The just-published diaries of a communications director for Prime Minister Blair, Alastair Campbell, indicate that James Murdoch launched into a foul-mouthed tirade that suggested that the behavior of Palestinian Arabs was justified by their poor treatment by Israelis. The outburst occurred at a private dinner with his father, his brother, Lachlan, Mr. Blair, and others at no. 10 Downing St. in January 2002. The...

Rupert Murdoch has succeeded with his $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, owners of the Wall Street Journal, according to sources acting for the Dow Jones board. Negotiations have been completed and the board is confident the terms of the deal will be accepted by the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of voting shares in Dow Jones, over the next few days. A formal announcement is expected next week. Murdoch’s News Corporation will take over America’s most prestigious financial publisher at the price he originally offered on April 17, when he proposed $60 a share when the stock was...

Democrats won both houses of Congress in the 2006 elections in part by arguing that Republicans were incompetent to govern. On immigration, they enjoyed a comparatively united party and cooperation from a Republican White House. More than any other factor, heat from the right killed the bill. But voters elect congressional majorities to solve problems, and Democratic incumbents can expect to pay some price every time they fail. But that fallout almost certainly will pale alongside the damage to future Republican presidential candidates. Hispanics represent the fastest-growing chunk of the U.S. electorate. Their choices help drive the rising swing states...

About 200 Wall Street Journal journalists did not show up for work Thursday morning to demonstrate their opposition to a potential takeover of the newspaper by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the IAPE union said. The number of journalists who participated in the action represented about one-third of the prestigious business daily's US staff. The Journal employs some 700 journalists worldwide, 600 of whom are based in the United States. The paper is owned by Dow Jones Co., which Murdoch is vying to takeover for five billion dollars, and the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees (IAPE) union said the protest had...

International man of mystery and Hudson Institute fellow Richard Miniter visits the island of Akhtamar in Lake Van, Turkey, to see the newly restored Church of the Holy Cross - one of the holiest sites for Armenian Christians - for himself at the opening ceremonies: Our story starts with a small sandstone 10th-century Armenian church, on an uninhabited rock less than 500 yards wide, in a remote Turkish lake that changes colors like moods and sometimes bubbles like soda. If you had seen the ruins of it, as I did in 2000, you might cry. Its roof was gone. Its...

Journalists Prefer Left-Wing WSJ Buyout over Murdoch News media up in arms at prospect of media mogul owning Wall Street Journal and Fox News. By Julia A. Seymour Business & Media Institute 6/6/2007 3:41:15 PM On paper, it’s a match made in heaven. The proposed marriage of the business-savvy Wall Street Journal and the savvy businessman Rupert Murdoch was celebrated by investors and denounced by journalists. “He’s a meddler on one hand and it may not be good for the workers,” CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi said of Murdoch during the May 6 “Reliable Sources.” Just hours after the...

...Is immigration, I asked--especially illegal immigration--good for the economy, or bad? "It's neither one nor the other," Mr. Friedman replied. "But it's good for freedom. In principle, you ought to have completely open immigration. But with the welfare state it's really not possible to do that. . . . She's an immigrant," he added, pointing to his wife. "She came in just before World War I." (Rose--smiling gently: "I was two years old.") "If there were no welfare state," he continued, "you could have open immigration, because everybody would be responsible for himself." Was he suggesting that one can't have...

Did anyone here the audio clip that Bill Bennett played of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board roundtable on the immigration bill?

The Wall Street Journal weighs in today on the immigration deal. And per usual, we get this kind of hyperbole: Restrictionists are calling this "amnesty," but they were going to slap that label on anything this side of mass deportation. The public is understandably upset about the presence of so many illegal aliens in the U.S. But there is no evidence that voters want millions of foreign families—many of whom have been here for decades and have American children—uprooted and forcibly removed from the country. The restrictionist wing of the GOP simply wants no new immigration, and "amnesty" is merely...

NEW YORK (AP) - Shares of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, soared almost 60 percent on Tuesday after the financial news network CNBC reported that Rupert Murdoch's media company News Corp. offered to buy the company for $60 a share. After opening at $37.12, the shares jumped $20.95. or 58 percent, to $57.28 before being halted on the New York Stock Exchange for news pending. They had traded in a 52-week range of $32.16 to $40.08 before Tuesday's news. Spokesmen for Dow Jones and News Corp. did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Dow Jones...

Blogs are very important these days. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has one. The invention of the Web log, we are told, is as transformative as Gutenberg's press, and has shoved journalism into a reformation, perhaps a revolution. The ascendancy of Internet technology did bring with it innovations. Information is more conveniently disseminated, and there's more of it, because anybody can chip in. There's more "choice" -- and in a sense, more democracy. Folks on the WWW, conservatives especially, boast about how the alternative media corrodes the "MSM," for mainstream media, a term redolent with unfairness and elitism. The blogs are not...

WSJ's Opinion Journal has indulged in another round of the MSM's upturned nose to the lowly blogger, another cornucopia of contumelies, a mountain of maligning. We are all fools and imbeciles according to assistant editorial features editor, Joseph Rago in today's Op Ed, The Blog Mob. Here's the wind up... Blogs are very important these days. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has one. The invention of the Web log, we are told, is as transformative as Gutenberg's press, and has shoved journalism into a reformation, perhaps a revolution. I feel a "but" coming! And the pitch... The blogs are not as significant...

(CBS) NEW YORK The Wall Street Journal is making some changes for the New Year. According to Dow Jones & Co., the newspaper's pubisher, is getting a major facelift, in part, to make it even more appealing to women and the younger generation. Less paper and more graphics are just two of the changes you will see when you pick up The Wall Street Journal next year. On Monday, the publisher offered a sneak preview of the new user-friendly format, which will have an easier-to-read font, colorful graphics, summary boxes and a more narrow size. For many commuters it's a...

The Wall Street Journal, whose wide pages and text-rich look have long been an icon of the American newspaper business, is about to undergo several changes that include cutting three inches off its width. Along with the size reduction, which is equivalent to about one of its columns, the newspaper will add more color and graphical elements, including greater use of photographs. It also will have fewer stories "jump" inside the newspaper. The changes, which take effect Jan. 2, were to be unveiled at a press conference in New York on Monday. Robert Christie, a spokesman for Dow Jones &...

The Wall Street Journal has a most excellent editorial (reg required) on the war against Wal-Mart. It was so detailed and so intriguing I pulled out the old MindManager and slapped this together: click here

by Mark Finkelstein August 4, 2006 - 21:39 John Fund of the good old Wall Street Journal talking up the impact of the blogs on the Dem Connecticut primary. Mega-blogger Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of the Daily Kos talking it down. The odd couple, guests on this evening's Hardball, engaged in some serious media gender-bending. Fund went first, and overflowed with praise for the role the blogs have played in the race: Fund: "I think [the blogs' impact has] been very significant. I offer a tip of the hat to them. They have taken the former vice-presidential candidate and created a...

Fuss in Washington notwithstanding, there's an easy way to reduce illegal immigration. It doesn't involve building fences or spending hundreds of billions to create an intrusive bureaucracy to hunt down illegals one by one and deport them. Just introduce a fraud-proof national ID card with biometric information; make it illegal, with real penalties, for employers to hire anyone, citizen or immigrant, who doesn't have one. Presto. Businesses would no longer be able to profess the impossibility of judging who's legal and who isn't. Most of the jobs illegal immigrants do would disappear, and many if not most of the immigrants...

At Opinionjournal.com today, under the heading for Opinionjournal Political Diary, it refers to Brian Bilbray as follows: "Anti-immigrant Republican is the new favorite in San Diego's special House race" Bilbray is not anti-immigrant, he is anti-illegal immigrant. The WSJ should retract that false accusation. Regards, Allan J. Favish www.allanfavish.com

The Wall Street Journal is typical when it comes to the sob story coverage of illegal aliens by the Mainstream Media. For a newspaper that claims to know so much about what is the best immigration policy for America, the Journal betrays itself as completely clueless on the issue. The pro-"guest workers" paper is so much a hostage of big business looking for cheap labor that its editorial writers apparently missed the memo: There isn't an INS anymore and hasn't been for years. In an editorial on Friday's Taste Page, the Journal emphatically stated its opposition to House language in...

AP Dow Jones Shares Decline After Downgrade Wednesday April 5, 4:52 pm ET Dow Jones Shares Drop 3.2 Percent After Analyst Reduces Rating on Stock to 'Sell' NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, fell more than 3 percent Wednesday after an analyst reduced her rating on the stock to "sell," citing a high price for the shares and the likelihood that ad revenue growth could be slowing. Dow Jones shares fell $1.26, or 3.2 percent, to close at $37.85 on the the New York Stock Exchange. However, even with the...

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission will adopt a new policy on subpoenaing journalists, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said Thursday in a move to resolve a controversy over the agency's recent demands for reporters' records. Cox and the other four SEC commissioners decided unanimously at a closed-door meeting to issue "clear principles" to guide agency attorneys on media subpoenas within the next week or so, he told reporters in a meeting. On Monday, after news reports had appeared on the matter, Cox took the unusual step of halting the agency's pursuit of subpoenas previously served on columnists for...

A regulatory investigation into allegations of collusion between short-sellers and a stock-research firm has led to the serving of subpoenas on TheStreet.com and its co-founder and major shareholder, James J. Cramer. Both TheStreet.com, which publishes this Web site, and Cramer, who writes a column on its RealMoney subscription site, have objected to the government's demands for communications between journalists and their sources. The subpoenas are related to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into allegations that Gradient Analytics, an Arizona stock-research firm, published bearish research reports at the behest of a group of short-sellers, including Rocker Partners, a minority...

"Much of the current analysis focuses attention on Israel's relationships with the Palestinians. Will Israel expand the wall? Continue the path toward isolation? I think the attention is misplaced. Israel's next significant act on the world stage will be as a fighter once again in our war. The most serious question to face Sharon's successor will most definitely not be what to do with the Palestinians. That's settled, old news. Tomorrow's question will be whether or not to attack Iran in an attempt to destroy that country's capacity to build a deliverable, or marketable, nuclear device."

ASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — Federal law enforcement authorities said in court documents unsealed on Friday that they suspected a group of Islamic charities in Northern Virginia of laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars or more from Saudi Arabia to help finance terrorist attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.The authorities said in documents that they suspected that the network of charitable and educational institutions known as the Saar group in Herndon, Va., used an elaborate system of domestic and overseas financial transactions to "blur the trail" of its revenues and disguise the fact that it was sending money to aid...

WASHINGTON--When President Bush nominated Harriet Miers on Monday, we saw it as a missed opportunity. It left us underwhelmed, not appalled. But having spent last evening communing here with some 1,000 conservatives at National Review's 50th anniversary dinner, we see a political disaster in the making. We talked to quite a few people, and we heard not a single kind word about the nomination from anyone who wasn't on the White House staff. A couple of our soundings led us to think that such support as it has received has been more sycophantic than sincere. One putative proponent privately distanced...