Free Republic

Three hours after reporter Brian Ross attempted to connect a mass killing in Colorado to the Tea Party, ABC News admitted that the story on Good Morning America was "incorrect." The retraction was added to the top of an existing online article about the murders. The story conceded, "An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect." [Update: Ross has now admitted his error on live ABC coverage.]

IF AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN'S first speech as Israel's new foreign minister did nothing else, it certainly vexed the media. The AP called it a "scathing critique of Mideast peace efforts" that had diplomats "cringing," while other reports said Lieberman had "dropped a political bombshell," "sparked an uproar," "repudiated a key accord," and "reinforced fears." The NY Times pronounced Lieberman's remarks "blunt and belligerent," describing the foreign minister as a "hawkish nationalist" ..."Israeli official hits peace efforts," "Lieberman dumps peace deal." But the headlines were wrong, as anyone can ascertain by reading Lieberman's short address. Far from disparaging peace, Israel's new foreign...

Fox News Channel chairman and CEO Roger Ailes responded to Keith Olbermann's latest critical volley against Bill O'Reilly on Monday, saying the MSNBC host's behavior "is over the line." Ailes, appearing Monday at the summer meeting of the Television Critics Association, was referring to a weekend incident at the gathering in which Olbermann whipped out a mask of O'Reilly and gave a Nazi salute. Ailes said Olbermann picks on Fox's O'Reilly to boost his ratings. "Clearly he has no viewers except those he gets when he attacks Fox News," Ailes said. Of Saturday's incident, Ailes said, "I really think that's...

A grieving mother of a soldier killed in Iraq wants to voice her opinion. She has a message about the war in Iraq and feels the American people need to hear what she has to say.  Her name is Merrilee Carlson and her story is compelling and newsworthy. Unlike another mother of a fallen soldier, Carlson is not a household name. Her message is exactly opposite of the over-exposed message of the well-known protesting mom.  Regarding the war in Iraq, Carlson says, "We have to take a step back and look at what we have asked our military to do. We have asked...

On the day a priest came to her hospital bed and prayed over her withered body, Diana Abad would not have believed good fortune awaited. Or seemed to be, until one day her back started to ache and another day her legs swelled. She had her blood tested and learned her white-cell count was absurdly high. Leukemia, her doctor said. Without a bone-marrow transplant, she would be dead in nine months. David Mason would not have believed in 1990 that by checking a box on a Navy form he would set in motion the chain of events that led him...

This is an update from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in Washington, D.C., issued Monday, November 29, 2004. For further information, call 202-626-8820, send e-mail to Legfederal@aol.com, or visit the NRLC website at http://www.nrlc.org Please forward this e-mail to any appropriate lists. ASSOCIATED PRESS AND OTHER MEDIA DISTORT ROE V. WADE AND PUBLIC OPINION ON ABORTION POLICY WASHINGTON (November 29, 2004) -- Nearly thirty-two years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand, some major organs of the news media continue to misreport key elements of what the Court has done, with the Associated Press being the latest...

ABC is preparing a major investigation of the Matthew Shepard gay-bashing murder that contends it may not have been a hate crime — but a mugging gone wrong. Friends and family of Shepard — who became a national symbol of the senseless violence against gays — as well as gay activists are upset about the report, scheduled to air on "20/20" later this month. [snip] In a press release promoting the show, ABC promised "surprising revelations, including Laramie's underground world of methamphetamine use that may have contributed to the crime and whether or not Shepard knew his killers." "ABC...

What we don't know can hurt us What the press teaches about Islam and other religions is not nearly as important as what it leaves out of its reportingBy Marvin Olasky Last year WORLD examined the treatment of Christian conservatives in the press. This year, with the war in Iraq, the slant of stories about Saddam Hussein and the effort to stop him is significant. But it's even more important over the long run that our press educators alert us to the warlike propensities of a large chunk of Islam, not just an extremist faction. Christianity has had its...

New York Times has Strong Ties to Kerry's campaign! Jonathan M. Stein Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 The New York Times, which advertises itself as containing “All The News That’s Fit To Print,” a slogan that suggests objectivity, has myriad and dubious financial and political ties to John Kerry’s presidential campaign. These links between Kerry and the Times seriously call into question the objectivity of that allegedly impartial media outlet, which has enormous power and influence over public opinion. According to major news outlets, including the Times, the fact that a major Republican donor has contributed money to the group known...

The Stem Cell Cover-Up Posted May 24, 2004 By Michael Fumento Activists such as Christopher Reeve have it backward when they say that restrictions on funding for embryonic stem-cell research will prevent him from walking again. Stem-cell research constitutes one of the most exciting areas in medical science. It promises to prevent, ameliorate and cure diseases for which there are now few if any treatments. Far easier is listing what stem cells don't have the potential to do, but here are a few of the wonders in progress: More than 30 anticancer uses for stem cells have been tested on...

Has anyone noticed The beginning of the new movie Seabiscuit? The story of Seabiscuit took place during the big depression and the viewer is given a montage of depression era souplines, "okie" camps, stockmarket wipeouts, etc. Then the venue changes and we are treated to 1930's news shots of WPA construction projects, CCC rural improvement projects and a quick shot of FDR with the commentator saying "Things are better because of FDR and the help of the government". I was shocked by this propaganda display and feel that it had nothing to do with the story. Also, interjecting this material...

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- While one media outlet, ABC News, has already been criticized for its biased coverage of the 2004 March for Life, a comprehensive analysis by a media watchdog group shows that the national media largely ignored the 2003 pro-life march as well. The Media Research Center conducted an analysis of the 2003 March for Life coverage and found that national outlets spent more time covering a much smaller anti-Bush, anti-war protest that occurred just four days earlier. ABC, CBS, and NBC aired 26 segments on the anti-war march, 14 of them before the rally began. The...

The mainstream media is ignoring promising news about adult stem cell researchMEDIA BIAS is alive and well and busily promoting the brave new world. I personally experienced the phenomenon recently when I participated in an educational symposium in Frankfort, Kentucky (along with Drs. David Prentice and John Hubert). Our purpose was to provide empirical and moral support for pending state legislation that would outlaw human cloning in Kentucky. (Similar laws have already passed in Michigan, Iowa, North Dakota, and Arkansas.) We spoke about regenerative medicine (using cellular treatments to repair injured or damaged organs), the science of human cloning (how...

Peter Jennings confusing the liberal elite of New York City with the feelings of "the country"? Interviewing Attorney General John Ashcroft, on Wednesday's World News Tonight Jennings relayed how he asked Ashcroft "if he was uncomfortable being thought of as one of the country's most divisive public figures?" Jennings followed up: "Do you think these portraits of you abusing power, seeking power, relentlessly exercising individual power are caricatures?" Jennings devoted most of the interview, which was taped on Tuesday, to the Patriot Act and to pressing Ashcroft to defend the detention, as an "enemy combatant," of accused dirty bomb plotter...

A new journalism study reveals news coverage about the federal government has plummeted in the last two decades, and the amount provided tends to favor Democrats over Republicans. The report, entitled "Government: In and Out of the News," is being issued by the Washington-based Council for Excellence in Government. The study examined more than 400 hours of airtime from the broadcast television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) as well as some 13,000 front-page newspaper articles from national publications (the New York Times and Washington Post), and four regional papers: the Austin American-Statesman, Des Moines Register, San Jose Mercury News, and...

NBC's Today on Tuesday brought aboard Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy and Republican Senator Richard Shelby to separately discuss the evidence for going to war against Iraq, but while Kennedy got plenty of time to say what he wanted, partially because he just kept talking, Shelby received a third of the time, in part because Katie Couric took more time posing questions to him than he used to answer them. Couric challenged Shelby with lengthy questions in which she laid out the attacks on the Bush administration, including taking nearly a minute to read from a hostile New York Times editorial....