Free Republic

Hillary Clinton touted the economic growth seen during the last two Democratic presidencies during a speech before the New America Foundation on Friday, and she warned that the U.S. risks falling behind global competitors if policymakers do not do more to revive the middle class by generating broad-based economic growth. Clinton, a former secretary of state who's eyeing a presidential bid in 2016, praised both President Obama and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, for their economic stewardship. And she contrasted their years in the White House with the tenure of former President George W. Bush, saying eight years of...

Scandal: On the day after Benghazi, the brother of the White House staffer who wrote the Susan Rice prep email said the government believed it was not just a mob reaction to a video. So who told him that? When you're Ben Rhodes, an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, and you've been tasked to prep U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on how to deflect blame from the Obama administration for the Benghazi massacre, it's good to have a brother who happens to run a TV network quite willing to push the White House spin....

FULL TITLE: Ben Rhodes’s brother, the day after Benghazi: The government thinks this could be a coordinated attack, not a video protest Ben Rhodes’s brother is of course David Rhodes, the president of CBS News — although, if you’re a CBS viewer, maybe I shouldn’t assume that you know that. Anyway, a nifty catch here by John Sexton of Breitbart. The key bit comes 50 seconds in. Quote: “Our government thinks that, you know, there’s a really good chance this was not just a spontaneous mob reaction to what some thought was an offensive film but actually a coordinated effort...

... On Friday, Republicans leaked what they said was a quote from Rhodes: "We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don't want to undermine the FBI investigation." But it turns out that in the actual email, Rhodes did not mention the State Department. It read: "We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation." Republicans also provided what they said was a quote from an email written by State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland. The Republican version quotes Nuland...

I can't keep up with it. Under Janet Napolitano - and in the MSM then - an act of terrorism became known as (or redefined as) "man-caused disasters." Before that, under the Bush administration, it was defined as an act of "terrorism." In the MSM, now, and to a large degree some Ukrainians are called terrorists. Sometimes they are called anti-Kiev protesters, or sometimes anti-government protesters. Should the MSM call Right Sector and others in Ukraine "terrorists"? One hardly ever even sees the word "fascist." But when you look at the top four news articles cached on Yahoo.com, when entering...

CBS News and 60 Minutes became the center of controversy last year when it turned out that they had aired a segment on the 2012 Benghazi attacks with a witness who had later discredited himself in contradictory testimony to the FBI. The segment’s reporter Lara Logan took a leave of absence, and the network began an investigation of what went wrong with the flagship newsmagazine show’s editorial process. And now, ThinkProgress reports that CBS seems to have requested that journalistic document database LexisNexis remove all traces of the infamous segment’s transcript. When one attempts to search in the Lexis database...

One day after The White House released 100 pages of Benghazi emails, a report has surfaced alleging that Republicans released a set with altered text. CBS News reported Thursday that leaked versions sent out by the GOP last Friday had visible differences than Wednesday's official batch. Two correspondences that were singled out in the report came from National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. The GOP version of Rhodes' comment, according to CBS News: "We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don't want...

It's Jew Vs. Jew as Battle Over Team Heats Up.Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Sunday he expects Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling to put up a “long, protracted fight” to retain ownership of the team after being banned for life from the National Basketball Association because of racial comments. Garcetti, appearing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program, was asked about a potential boycott of Clippers games if Sterling balks and said, “I would certainly keep that arrow in my quiver.” Last week NBA Commissioner Adam Silver fined Sterling $2.5 million and imposed a lifetime ban after...

On Friday, CBS Evening News caught up with its Big Three competitors and reported on the latest developments on the controversy surrounding the September 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya. CBS also finally mentioned its own president's family connection to a White House official involved in the Obama administration's handling of the immediate aftermath of the attack. Nancy Cordes gave a full report on how the "the White House released previously unseen e-mails" about the federal government's response to the terrorist strike, which led to House Speaker John Boehner forming a new select committee to investigate...

Former CIA directory (and part of the Benghazi cover-up) went to work for Ben Rhodes’ brother at CBS. David RHodes is the brother of ‘big Ben’ and president of CBS News. Need any other reasons why CBS has ignored the latest e-mail released about the Benghazi cover-up? Surely there isn’t a conflict of interest there right? Need another reason why Sharyl Attkinson left CBS?Michael Morell, who retired as deputy director of the CIA last summer, has joined CBS News as an intelligence, national security and counterterrorism contributor, the network announced this week. Morell has held various senior leadership positions during...

Former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson has made the media rounds claiming that network management was not exactly happy she was covering stories critical of the Obama administration. When new Benghazi information was made public this week, CBS News covered the new details (with a disclosure that Ben Rhodes, the Obama administration official at the center of the controversy, is the brother of CBS News President David Rhodes). However, some conservative sites still claimed a serious conflict of interest, with the Heritage Network blog and the Washington Free Beacon picked up on the familial connection.

Watching the celebration at the NRA convention over the defeat of background checks was the most nauseating experience of the day. I am not a New York gun control liberal, either. I support a shotgun for home defense, a handgun for limited conceal/carry, and an assortment of hunting rifles to balance West Virginia's exploding deer population (as evidenced by hourly collisions with cars). So, I am hardly out of the mainstream. But, the gun safety debate is B.S. This foaming at the mouth, Obamar is coming for the guns, Nanny Bloomberg is a bad billionaire, and most despicable of all,...

In a bizarre op-ed in The Charleston Gazette last week, journalism professor Christopher Swindell argued that the National Rifle Association “advocates armed rebellion against the duly elected government of the United States of America.” Stirring words, to be sure, but Swindell was hardly done — not even close. He also said that the NRA is guilty of “treason” “worthy of the firing squad.” “To support the new NRA president’s agenda of arming the populace for confrontation with the government is bloody treason,” Swindell charged in his wacky essay. After briefly playing the race card and alluding to the Civil War,...

The CBS Evening News on Wednesday ignored one of the day’s top news stories: the revelation that White House aide Ben Rhodes — brother of CBS president David Rhodes — instructed Susan Rice to emphasize a false talking point about the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya. In a White House email chain recently obtained through a lawsuit by Judicial Watch, Ben Rhodes urged Rice “[t]o underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy” ahead of her infamous appearance on several Sunday shows. The decision by CBS to ignore the story...

BENGHAZI SMOKING GUN EXPOSED Posted By Arnold Ahlert On May 1, 2014 @ 12:55 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments The idea that the Obama administration willfully orchestrated a disinformation campaign with regard to the attacks in Benghazi has now been confirmed. An email written by then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes and obtained by Judicial Watch contained four bullet-point “Goals” outlined as part of the strategy to contain the political damage engendered by the murder of four Americans on September 11, 2012 at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. One bullet-point in particular revealed the Obama...

Video at Link On Tuesday's CBS This Morning, co-host Charlie Rose provided viewers with a mere 30-second news brief on Secretary of State John Kerry sparking a "storm of criticism" by claiming that Israel would become an "apartheid state" if it did not accept a two-state solution with Palestine: "Secretary of State John Kerry's backtracking after controversial comments about Israel....Kerry released a statement last night saying, quote, 'If I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word.' Kerry says he's been a staunch supporter of Israel for years.'" [Listen to the audio] That quick mention of the...

Media Matters founder David Brock said Sunday that he’s grateful for progressive billionaire George Soros’ “generosity” and confirmed that he chooses to “pursue” journalists if he “starts to see patterns” in their work. Brock, his silver mane and bizarre vocal intonations lending him the likeness of a socially awkward Bond villain, sat in San Francisco for a softball interview with CNN’s Reliable Sources to respond to the controversy surrounding former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson. The liberal smear machine Media Matters has been hammering the brilliant female investigative reporter with the term “shoddy reporting” to describe her exposes on Obama...

Opinions about Obamacare are improving even in congressional districts held by Republicans, according to a new poll. But opponents of the Affordable Care Act in those districts still outnumber those in favor of the law. The poll may draw fire from Republicans since it was conducted by a Democratic firm, Democracy Corps. The firm did not comment about how Republicans might view the results, and a representative said there would be a call to discuss the poll Monday afternoon. But attitudes about President Barack Obama’s signature health law are changing, according to the poll, which was shared in advance with...

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney may take another run at the White House, "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer said. "I have a source that told me that if Jeb Bush decides not to run, that Mitt Romney may actually try it again," Schieffer said during a panel discussion on the CBS Sunday morning news show.

This morning on CNN’s Reliable Sources Brian Stelter asked David Brock, founder of Media Matters for America, how his group operates both independently and collaboratively with other journalists and media watchers.Last Sunday former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson told CNN’s Reliable Sources that far left Media Matters helped produce news reports for CBS News. They used to work with me on stories and tried to help me produce my stories, and at some point –“ Attkisson also said CBS blocked several of her reports.David Brock, chairman of the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt group Media Matters for America and self-described “Democratic political activist”, did...