Free Republic

We previously discussed the movement in journalism schools to get rid of principles of objectivity in journalism. Advocacy journalism is the new touchstone in the media even as polls show that trust in the media is plummeting. Now, former executive editor for The Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr. and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward have released the results of their interviews with over 75 media leaders and concluded that objectivity is now considered reactionary and even harmful. Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle said it plainly: “Objectivity has got to go.” Notably, while Bob Woodword and others...

Though the majority of people aspire to having a single family home in a safe and pleasant suburban neighborhood, activists are taking legal action to force density by inserting multi-unit housing in San Francisco, California. The legal arm of a group favoring housing density filed suit claiming city officials violated laws by halting the construction of a 469-unit housing project in a tower near Sixth and Market streets.

Feedback please. Constructive comments please. The thought was to put LOCAL county officials, generally health departments, or a CEO, boss on legal notice of things they don't seem to know about COVID19 successes in several countries with super dense populations. A legal notice about the latest Ivermectin Observational Studies in several countries that have happened lately in large dense populations. That would let them and you know that they know for sure and with possibly professional legal service. If they don't act accordingly, in this case by distributing Ivermectin to people with symptoms or make it easy to get or...

Four years ago, I wrote about my decision to live as a woman in The New York Times, writing that I had wanted to live “authentically as the woman that I have always been,” and had “effectively traded my white male privilege to become one of America’s most hated minorities.” Three years ago, I decided that I was neither male nor female, but nonbinary—and made headlines after an Oregon judge agreed to let me identify as a third sex, not male or female. Now, I want to live again as the man that I am. I’m one of the lucky...

A heads up for patriots. I received a notification from the offices of NC pols Richard Burr, Thom Tillis, and Virginia Foxx that they had received and would soon reply to correspondence from me. I had NOT (this time) created the correspondence. Turns out a group called “Seniors Speak Out” (SSO) and “Voter Voice” (VV) had forged my name and email address to the correspondence delivered to Burr, Tillis, and Foxx. I found the administrator of SSO “Nona Bear” and SSO’s blog, twitter, and Linkedin accounts. None of the direct message functions allowed contact. Turned out that VV had a...

WASHINGTON, DC – You might recall the films, The Invisible Man, starring Claude Rains, and The Invisible Woman, starring Virginia Bruce. These works of fiction entertained audiences in the 1940s. But, it’s the 21st Century and it turns out invisible people really exist. “They live among us in the guise of senior citizens,” according to Dan Weber, president of AMAC, a powerful senior advocacy organization. San Francisco-based psychologist and psychotherapist Tamara McClintock Greenberg put it this way in an article for Psychology Today: “Why people are increasingly treated as if they’re invisible as they age (more prevalent it seems, for...

A profile in The Times of Tony Hovater, a white nationalist and Nazi sympathizer in Ohio, elicited a huge amount of feedback this weekend, most of it sharply critical. Here’s how the piece came about, why we wrote it and why we think it was important to do so. The genesis of the story was the aftermath of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August, the terrifying Ku Klux Klan-like images of young white men carrying tiki torches and shouting “Jews will not replace us,” and the subsequent violence that included the killing of a woman, Heather D....

For those you have engaged in public advocacy in the past: what is the right/best way to petition the county sheriff's office or local police departments, to ask them to issue a public statement saying "We will not obey or enforce any illegal or unconstitutional laws"? Hoping that some of you have been through something similar in the past and can offer good solid advice. Thanks FReepers. PS: if your answer is "Move to another state" or "It's too late for your state" -- that's not helpful. Yes, we know the long-term solution -- but some still want to put...

LGBT pride shirts are now available for all 30 NBA teams. The NBA has done something that the sports world has never seen before. In partnership with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the league has introduced a new line of apparel that features all 30 team logos in rainbow colors to celebrate the newly designated LGBT Pride Month in June. The shirts are being sold exclusively on Teespring, and all proceeds go to GLSEN. It is the first time a men’s professional sports league has released official apparel in support of LGBT pride

Scott Walker was asked whether being gay was a choice. This was important to ask because homosexuals are an estimated 1%-2% of the population (not including transvestites who declare themselves gay, which actually makes them straight), so I understand the need to constantly talk about this little group at the expense of issues affecting the other 98%. So Walker was asked whether being gay is a choice and so far, unlike other gay-topical questions, he has only given one answer, which is "I don't know." But what I want to know is, if being gay isn't a choice, why is...

With a straight face, professors mostly tell you that they avoid advocacy. “The American Economic Association has never taken a position on any public-policy issue,” Beth McMurthie wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education on February 21, 2014. “The American Political Science Association is thinking about becoming more active.” “And some members of the American Studies Association are wishing their organization were less so. In academe, where every argument quickly finds a counterargument, the role of the disciplinary association in matters of public advocacy is a curious one. Recent, heated debates within the American Studies Association and Modern Language Association...

University of Tennessee (UT), a public school, has announced the schedule for its second annual Sex Week, complete with a lectures on orgasms as a political act and masturbation. One event, “Get Wet: Exploring the Connections Between Sexual Pleasure, Health, & Advocacy” will ask students “When is an orgasm a political act? When is lube a tool of the revolution?” The event description promises that host Megan Andelloux will "demonstrate how three components of sexuality - pleasure, health, and advocacy - flow into one another as we explore a variety of topics centered on reproductive justice and sexual freedom." The...

Among the thousands of documents Connecticut police released December 27 related to the heinous crime at Sandy Hook Elementary, the contents and files of Adam Lanza's computer include files on mass shootings, mass murders, pedophiles' rights, and a man/boy love story. According to police reports contained within the documents, Lanza's laptop computer contained "hundreds of bookmarks," a number of which were for "mass murder killing spree" and "mass murders." His desktop had a "document written showing the prerequisites for mass murder spreadsheet." Lanza's desktop also had a "document written advocating pedophiles' rights" and a "screenplay or script describing a relationship...

Conservatives understand that we shouldn't make the perfect the enemy of the good. Personally, I'm reluctant to criticize Republican candidates before even one vote is cast in the Primaries. But Conservatives also know that if we ignore our principles for expediency, we risk losing both. if we learned anything in 2008, that is. Even Erick Erickson of Red State says he's ready to go "none of the above." But "none of the above" won't cut it this year. We are fighting an incumbent that is almost guaranteed the black, gay and pro-abort vote, not to mention all of the many...

Horse slaughter plants are legal again in the United States. Restrictions on horse meat processing for human consumption have been lifted. In a bipartisan effort, the House of Representatives and the United States Senate approved the Conference Committee report on spending bill H2112, which among other things, funds the United States Department of Agriculture. On November 18th, as the country was celebrating Thanksgiving, President Obama signed a law, allowing Americans to kill and eat horses. Essentially, one turkey was pardoned in the presence of worldwide media while in the shadows, buried under pages of fiscal regulation, millions of horses were...

National Public Radio yesterday detailed the chain of events that led the news organization to wrongly report that Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had died in Saturday’s shooting rampage, and said it is considering new safeguards regarding the deaths of public officials. “NPR follows a basic two-source rule when reporting that someone has died. In this case, we followed the two-source rule, but the sources were not as optimal as desired. Also, we did not cite our sources,” spokeswoman Anna Christopher said. “We’re not changing our policy, but we will reinforce best practices going forward.” NPR was the first of several...

On the Franciscan Feast Day of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, patron saint of the homeless. Be blessed.

America’s gun-control proponents might want to consider shooting (pun intended) this memo to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. “Dear Mayor Daley: Please shut up. You ain’t helping us.” Is there anyone doing more damage for advocates of gun control than Daley? The man is a walking billboard for right-to-carry laws. Anyone needing proof of that might want to read the statements he made in the wake of an 80-year-old Chicago man fatally shooting a career criminal who invaded his home. The background story goes like this: The elderly man is a Korean War veteran who bought a handgun after three...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 10, 2009 Contact AARP Media Relations, 202-434-2560, media@aarp.orgMultimillion-Dollar AARP Campaign Busts the Myths of the Health Care Debate Campaign couples power of 40 million members, reach of national ad blitz WASHINGTON—This week, AARP will launch the next phase of its Health Action Now campaign with a multimillion-dollar national advertising and grassroots push to ensure every American has a choice of doctor and dependable, affordable health insurance. The Association’s paid advertising—available online now—will run nationally on television, locally on radio, in print publications and online. AARP activists will also be in action in every state to ensure...

A White House Web site activated Monday uses the same set-up as the "Fight the Smears" page the Obama campaign maintained last year to battle rumors seen as potentially damaging to his candidacy. The Obama administration has launched a new Web site to battle what it calls "wild rumors" about the health care reform plans being pushed through Congress -- including an invitation for the public to tattle on any other "myths" they come across.