Free Republic

Yaa, you repukes are not doing so well, huh? Imagine, you repukes control the presidency, both houses of Congress, and appointed 7 of the 9 Supreme Court justices. Yet the Supreme Court thre out sodomy laws in all 50 states and recognized the right of government to seize land for any reason. And you couldn't pass your Social Security changes could you? Sorry, that was your last shot. Come November, we're going to start seeing more Democratic faces in the House. It's the end for you guys. You guys are celebrating when Bush's numbers go *up* to 45%. Then Faux...

Bush’s giant Right Wing Noise Machine (RWNM) loves to preach about the Bush economic miracle. In fact, the RWNM’s current thinking is Bush doesn’t spend enough time talking about his economic triumphs. If only he did, then everyone would fall in line and believe in the great Bush economic miracle. There is one problem with this argument: it’s a lie. Any way you look at the Bush economy, it comes up short. Today, I want to compare Bush’s job creation record with other economic recoveries. As usual, Bush comes up way short. The national Bureau of Economic Research has identified...

Why does anybody support George w Bush as President? He is clearly the worst President I have ever seen -- a complete disaster. And before you say anything, I have been a registered Republican for 25 years.

Media dinosaurs gaze in the mirror as disaster looms By JONAH GOLDBERG THE YEAR-ENDING edition of NBC’s “Meet the Press” offered an excellent glimpse at why the elite mainstream media as we know it is facing extinction.“Meet the Press” host Tim Russert invited NBC’s Tom Brokaw and ABC’s Ted Koppel to ladle out some observations from their deep wells of wisdom for all of the world to imbibe. These three giants of television journalism tut-tutted about one government failure after another, from the Katrina response to the government’s inability to provide health care for everybody to our dismayingly low taxes....

After reading all of the crap that people have been saying regarding Adult Private Social Clubs, I felt that I had to post an article and give my opinion. I am sick and tired of all the religous groups that are saying that there are drugs, prostitution, minors, non-consenting people, and just immoral people at these clubs! First of all, who do these people think they are to decide what is morally right or wrong for me? I believe that I have a good set of morals. I am a law abiding, tax paying citizen, I work full time and...

Broadcast veterans Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel agree that Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq just like George Bush if he were still president in 2003. Appearing on "Meet the Press” with Tim Russert, Brokaw and Koppel also agreed that the press shouldn't be judged too harshly for not pursuing questions about claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. According to a transcript appearing in Editor & Publisher, Koppel defended the media’s treatment of the WMD claims: KOPPEL: In large measure, when the president and his top people tell you, as they did, "Here's our perception of what...

Watching Tom Brokaw, Ted Koppel and Tim Russert this past Sunday wasn't quite like seeing dinosaurs asking each other what's happened to all the tasty fronds, but the year-ending edition of NBC's "Meet the Press" offered an excellent glimpse at why the elite mainstream media as we know it is facing extinction. No doubt intended as a grand treat for the viewing audience, "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert invited NBC's Tom Brokaw and ABC's Ted Koppel to ladle out some observations from their deep wells of wisdom for all of the world to imbibe. These three giants of television...

"You can call me anything you want, but do not call me a racist," said an indignant President George Bush on Dec. 12, commenting on the despicable, opportunistic suggestion that any inadequacies in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina were due to racism. But veteran network media giants Ted Koppel and Tom Brokaw don't quite see it that way. Indeed, they don't appear to see eye-to-eye with President Bush on much of anything if their joint interview with Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press" is any indication. Russert was uncharacteristically tame..

NEW YORK Appearing on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert this week, two broadcast veterans, Tom Brokaw of NBC and Ted Koppel...declared that Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq just like George Bush if were still president in 2003. Along with Russert, they also argued that it was a "uniformly held belief" that Saddam Hussein had WMD when the Iraq war began. KOPPEL: I mean, the only difference between the Clinton administration and the Bush administration was 9/11. BROKAW: Right. KOPPEL: If 9/11 had happened on Bill Clinton's watch, he would have gone into Iraq. BROKAW: Yeah. Yeah.

"You can call me anything you want, but do not call me a racist," said an indignant President George Bush on Dec. 12, commenting on the despicable, opportunistic suggestion that any inadequacies in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina were due to racism. But veteran network media giants Ted Koppel and Tom Brokaw don't quite see it that way. Indeed, they don't appear to see eye-to-eye with President Bush on much of anything if their joint interview with Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press" is any indication. Russert was uncharacteristically tame toward these two, offering them repeated softballs concerning...

It was a year of goodbyes -- some noble, some less so -- as journalism's old guard departed from the spotlight. And it was a year when some of media's biggest institutions started thinking, in earnest, about reinvention. Dan Rather took his colorful metaphors and erratic temperament from CBS in March, his reputation marred by a flawed report about President Bush and the National Guard. Peter Jennings, suave and substantive, died tragically of lung cancer in August. Ted Koppel, who brought wit and heft to late-night news, left ABC's ''Nightline" in November, headed for less grueling work at HBO. Aaron...

The Talk Shows Sunday, December 25th, 2005 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; musician Wynton Marsalis; and Sen. David Vitter, R-La. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw and former ABC "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel. FACE THE NATION (CBS): CBS News correspondents review 2005 and a look ahead at 2006. THIS WEEK (ABC): Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and author Peggy Noonan.LATE EDITION (CNN) : No broadcast.

Lies of omission about 9/11 -- stoking fears of terrorism THEY WANT YOU TO BE AFRAID The following post was censored by freerepublic.com shortly after it was posted on their "public" forum on 9/11/04. That forum is designed to appear as though it is a community forum open to all, but this post only received three responses before it and its replies were deleted, and a repeat posting at 4 am PST on 9/20/04 didn't stay online for 5 minutes! Someone is apparently watching closely over the content of the freerepublic.com forums and censoring them 24/7 (though they might have...

Executives at ABC and CBS News can be relieved this week that, unlike with Hurricane Katrina, their Rita coverage didn't appear seriously affected by voids at the chief anchor position left by the late Peter Jennings and Dan Rather. It's been more than five months since both men last anchored the evening news. ABC is conducting its search for a successor very privately. CBS has struggled, although it gave itself the bigger challenge. NBC's ratings spiked high in the wake of Katrina and the very visible work of its anchorman, Brian Williams. Even though its anchor decision hasn't been made,...

Last year Tom Brokaw bought a Montana "dude ranch" with several others, including Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, actor Michael Keaton, one of the other partners, revealed on Wednesday's Late Show with David Letterman. The February issue of Sunset magazine reported the purchase and how the buyers turned the ranch into a private fishing camp, but didn't mention Rubin's involvement: "Last spring...an out-of-state partnership including former anchorman Tom Brokaw and actor Michael Keaton purchased a 640-acre ranch for a reported $8 million, creating a private hunting and fishing preserve." Back on the May 12, 1999 NBC Nightly News, the...

The rapidly disappearing cohort of Americans that endured the Great Depression and then fought World War II is receiving quite a send-off from the leading lights of the so-called 60s generation. Tom Brokaw has published two oral histories of “The Greatest Generation” that feature ordinary people doing their duty and suggest that such conduct was historically unique. Chris Matthews of “Hardball” is fond of writing columns praising the Navy service of his father while castigating his own baby boomer generation for its alleged softness and lack of struggle. William Bennett gave a startling condescending speech at the Naval Academy a...

America's three original network news shows face the same momentous choice at nearly the same time: Pass the torch to a new anchor who, each hopes, has the gravitas to hold viewers and win new ones, or break with a star-driven tradition developed back in television's Pleistocene era and try something different. This moment of transition - brought on by the departures of Dan Rather at CBS and Tom Brokaw at NBC, and now Peter Jennings's decision to curtail appearances on ABC's news broadcasts - brings into stark relief some of the ongoing challenges for the networks. Even with established...

Once upon a time, way back in 1987, Mike Wallace and Peter Jennings took part in a seminar filmed for PBS entitled "Ethics in America" where they were placed in a hypothetical setting accompanying an enemy patrol during a Vietnam-like war. What would you do, they were asked, if American soldiers were about to be ambushed by these enemy troops? Wallace declared emphatically, and Jennings with some trepidation, that as "journalists" they would not interfere to save American lives but would simply report the event as it occurred; that their first duty was not to their country or countrymen but...

The best editor in America today isn't a journalist. He's Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, also known as the "Instapundit." He's endangering my livelihood. I used to say that I was in a declining industry, but fortunately, I was declining faster than it was. Now I'm not so sure. Journalists tend not to like bloggers, because they report on errors we make. Dan Rather and former New York Times editor Howell Raines are unemployed chiefly because of the vigilance and tenacity of bloggers. (We journalists rarely turn the spotlights we use on business leaders...