Free Republic

Pay-TV keeps taking hits in subscribers, with Leichtman Research Group finding in its latest quarterly report that about 1.53 million people dropped their pay-TV subscriptions during the second quarter of 2019. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of decline, per Leichtman, and more than a million of subscribers cutting their service from the same time period in 2018 (420,000). Consisting of the top 14 pay-TV services in the U.S. making up about 93% of the market, which includes satellite, cable, phone and vMVPDs. Satellite companies lost about 855,000 subscribers during Q2, with DirecTV accounting for 778,000 alone in its fifth...

Often while watching CNN, one can only just shake their head at the utter lack of self-awareness regarding many of their anti-Trump declarations. One such moment occurred during Tuesday’s edition of Anderson Cooper 360 when infamous plagiarist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria chastised President Trump, suggesting that no one believed what he said. And to add to the irony of the situation, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper agreed that it was a sorry state of affairs. After playing clips of President Trump talking about how he doesn’t like to broadcast military actions, Cooper questioned Zakaria about Trump’s statement about pulling out...

In an extensive piece published by The Intercept on Saturday, co-founder of the news site Glenn Greenwald excoriated CNN (as well as a host of other news outlets) for recklessly advancing agenda driven stories involving the Russia investigation, with no transparency when the stories blow up in their face and go viral with fake news. Greenwald began by noting how “Friday was one of the most embarrassing days for the U.S. media in quite a long time.”“The humiliation orgy was kicked off by CNN, with MSNBC and CBS close behind, with countless pundits, commentators and operatives joining the party throughout...

After starting Sunday’s Reliable Sources by shredding ABC and Brian Ross for their disastrous reporting regarding Michael Flynn’s plea deal, host Brian Stelter retreated to more familiar grounds: Claiming President Trump was insane and was a threat to everyone. His inspiration for the segment was the recent diatribes published in the New York Daily News, The Washington Post, and on MSNBC, places known for their even keel attitudes towards the President (please note the sarcasm).Jeff, let's have what I always say is this uncomfortable conversation. I think it is deeply uncomfortable to talk about this. But I think we have...

The journalists on MSNBC and CNN on Tuesday continued to be annoyed that Donald Trump hasn’t connected Hurricanes Harvey and Irma to global warming. MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle offered a snide aside in a story on Pope Francis. She began,“ In the wake of Hurricane Irma, Pope Francis is criticizing climate change deniers.”  Going off script, Ruhle mocked the head of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency: “You hear that, Scott Pruitt?” The co-anchor continued, “Speaking to reporters as he flew over devastated areas in the Caribbean, the Pope warned history will judge the world leaders who do not act.” Snide MSNBC Uses Pope...

Friday morning on Fox & Friends, Washington Post Writers Group columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. gave President Donald Trump only grudging and partial credit for the steep decline in illegal border crossings from Mexico into the U.S. so far this year. Navarrette's "logic," which went unchallenged by host Steve Doocy, ignored several policy-related Trump administration announcements which have had direct impact, and failed to recognize how the tone which has been set at the administration's highest levels has had an impact on how the law is enforced on the ground.Navarrette has been called "the most widely read Latino columnist in the...

On the left, there is obsessive talk of impeaching Donald Trump. Despite the fact that the press reports which supposedly form the foundation of such talk are almost always based on anonymous sources, and despite the fact that the Trump administration has successfully refuted most if not all of them, the obsession continues. On his Wednesday night show, after successfully swatting away pathetic pro-impeachment arguments made by guest Krystal Ball and her citations of weak-kneed Republicans who can't seem to resist bending with the Beltway wind, Tucker Carlson got fed up. The segment (posted in full here) opened with a...

The television screen went dark a month ago as Daniel Fitzgerald watched “American Pickers” on the History Channel. Perplexed, he grabbed the remote and surfed through CNN, Disney, Comedy Central and the rest of the standard cable lineup. Many of them were gone, too. In their place was a black background with a small block of text advising him that his subscription no longer provided those channels. “I thought, ‘What the hell? I just paid the cable bill,’” Fitzgerald recalled last week in the tiny Lexington [Kentucky] apartment he shares with his disabled 16-year-old son. Fitzgerald called Spectrum, the subsidiary...

The wagon-circling campaign to protect Obama administration and intelligence community officials who surveilled Donald Trump and his transition team during his presidential campaign and post-victory transition is moving into hyperdrive. On Monday, CNN's Don Lemon proclaimed that "there is no evidence whatsoever" supporting Donald Trump's claim about having been "spied on illegally" (note the inclusion of the word "illegally," which is crucial), and declared that he would not "aid and abet the people who are trying to misinform you." Lemon's stridency as he delivered his rant on CNN Tonight appeared to betray "he protests too much" behavior, while subsequent events...

CNN's Brian Stelter angrily contends that the rape of a 14 year-old girl at Rockville High School in Montgomery County, Maryland on March 16 at the hands of two late-teen illegal immigrant freshman classmates should never have been a national story — and the fact that it is to an extent, despite obvious attempts to blackball it by the Big Three broadcast networks, is all Fox News's fault. The real question, which the public education establishment and their accomplices in the press don't want anyone to ask, is this: What has happened in the nation's schools during the past 35 years as...

He's done it before, but he quadrupled down this time. CNN's serial plagiarist Fareed Zakaria, who insists that former President Barack Obama's administration was "largely scandal-free," contended on Don Lemon's CNN Tonight show Friday evening that Donald Trump owes his whole life, his success and his election to the presidency to "bullsh*tting." As Matthew Balan at NewsBusters observed in early August, Zakaria described Trump as a "bullsh*t artist," and went to the left's favorite characterization of anyone they disagree with or don't like: CNN's Fareed Zakaria ripped Donald Trump with an uncensored expletive on Monday's Wolf program over the billionaire's...

On Thursday, President Donald Trump held a marathon press conference, covering a whole host of topics and questions from journalists inside and outside the establishment media.  Both during and afterward, the media meltdowns were palpable. On both social media and television, they lamented the President’s repeated attacks on their negative coverage of his administration and what he deemed to be fake news as a result of their “level of dishonesty” that’s “out of control.” Without any further adieu, here’s the top 12 moments from the nearly-two-hour presser of the President laying into the liberal media.12 of the Top Trump Jabs...

They say California gives us a glimpse of the future for the entire country, but the future of budget battles - state and federal - might be taking place in Alaska. Alaska has no sales tax or income tax. Nearly all permanent residents receive a check every year from the state - it was about $2,000 in 2015 - and its percentage of residents on public assistance is the highest in the nation. And now the state has a nearly $4 billion deficit, and lawmakers are meeting in Juneau to determine what to do about it. Gov. Bill Walker, an...

Cox Communications said Wednesday it is closing a call center in San Diego, eliminating 500 jobs. The move comes as part of a company-wide consolidation of call center operations for Atlanta-based Cox Communications, which is trimming its current 19 call centers nationwide into seven large sites. Company spokesman Dennis Morgigno said the expanded call centers will be located in Las Vegas; Phoenix; Omaha, Neb.; Oklahoma City; Wichita, Kan.; Hampton Roads, Va.; and Baton Rouge. California wasn’t chosen as a call center site because the company lacked real estate to expand here, Morgigno said. It had space available in the other...

My Charter Communications cable television went out about 3 hours ago. I know, boohoo you say :) I agree but I was interested in the FedEx Cup golf I had DVRed. It went black and I soon discovered the entire cable feed was off. I called Charter and the rep asked do I live in Georgia. Yes, I reply. He says there is a big problem and it's out for the entire state of Georgia. No estimate to get it back on but "repair crews had been dispatched." groan.... I searched bing, google and the local news site but no...

In all of cable, not just cable news, Fox News was the most-watched channel throughout all of last week. During the Boston bombings and subsequent manhunt, the new "Most Trusted Name In News" averaged 2.874 million viewers during primetime, and 1.77 million in total day. CNN came in a distant third with 1.985 million and 1.329 million respectively. Because no one turns to left-wing talk radio when major news is breaking, MSNBC humiliated itself with a 19th place showing. Fewer than a million viewers tuned in in primetime, and fewer than 600,000 in total day. This is not a small...

The entertainment industry is too big and powerful, but that will change. What will not change is that the nation is losing its values. The last election has brought on essays bemoaning the conservative disconnect from popular culture and the need to somehow reconnect with it. The means of this reconnection are hardly ever stated, though there is the implication that conservatives would need to “evolve” on certain social issues in the hopes that its economic viewpoint will be taken seriously by a population whose social way of life doom it to be dependent on government support. As plans go,...

If you have cable TV service, you probably have at least one set-top box in your house. On Monday, a federal rule change takes effect that could eventually force you to rent more cable boxes. Right now, most cable systems don’t scramble the “basic tier” service which includes local broadcast stations, public, government and education channels, as well as some non-premium programming. Buy basic service and you can plug the cable into a digital set that has a QAM tuner and see these unencrypted channels without a set-top box. Cable companies want to scramble everything coming through their wire, including...

Media analysts make their money drawing contrasts among the nation’s three premier cable news networks: Fox News (right-leaning, self-righteous); MSNBC (left-leaning, outraged); CNN (hurricane!). These carefully cultivated news identities did surface Tuesday night, though not in striking form. MSNBC generated a lively discussion with a panel that included the Rev. Al Sharpton, Lawrence O’Donnell, Republican strategist Steve Schmidt and Rachel Maddow. The highlight came when Chris Matthews beamed in from New Hampshire and started hassling the Republican strategist. Hey, why hasn’t Mitt Romney released his tax forms? Hey, what’s up with the Republicans essentially deporting President Obama to Europe via...

The number of people subscribing to US cable television services has suffered its biggest decline in 30 years as younger, tech-savvy viewers lead an exodus to web-based operations, such as Hulu and Netflix...cable operators were hard hit, with subscriber numbers falling by 741,000 – the largest decline in 30 years. The figures suggest that “cord-cutting” – one of the pay-television industry’s biggest fears – is becoming a reality as viewers drift to web-based platforms.