Free Republic

A simple biography of the film critic Roger Ebert would have made for a full documentary, but the director Steve James set the bar much higher with “Life Itself.” The film, receiving its television premiere Sunday night on CNN, covers the life and career of Mr. Ebert, who died in 2013 ...

The new comedy Mom's Night Out features a stay-at-home mother who finally gets the chance to cut loose with her girlfriends. Chaos ensues, and so do a few faith-friendly messages for the masses.

(CNSNews.com) - Hours after the BBC reported the death of conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Monday, President Barack Obama still had not issued a statement on her passing. But last week, within half an hour of film critic Roger Ebert's death, the White House tweeted a statement from the president. As of 10:00 a.m. EDT on Monday, there was still silence from the White House on Thatcher's death, which the BBC tweeted at 4:49 a.m.

On Thursday morning, February 28, I found CNN featuring a continuous shot of a helicopter. The network cut between a close-up and a distant dot. It was Benedict, flying from the Vatican City. This was extraordinary attention for an ordinary cardinal, because as Benedict told the throng awaiting him, "I am no longer Pope." I am not a scholar of Catholic history, but I believe we were witnessing the first time the Papal throne was vacant while an elected Pope was alive. "This no one can deny," wise Sister Rosanne told us during the 8 am theology class that began...

Last week famed film critic, Roger Ebert, passed away, having long suffered from Cancer. Vitriol against the dead is unseemly, and Shout Bits does not want to lower itself to the leftists who inevitably will denigrate the late PM Margaret Thatcher, one of the true greats of the 20th Century. Still, Ebert's story cannot be told without understanding his rabid partisan leftism. Especially after he was robbed of the ability to speak, Ebert was famous for his anti-Republican and anti-capitalist screeds. As with Walter Cronkite, Ebert's role has been supplanted by a more egalitarian system that far better serves the...

CHICAGO (AP) — Roger Ebert, the most famous and most popular film reviewer of his time who also became the first journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for movie criticism, and on his long-running TV program, wielded the nation's most influential thumb, died Thursday. He was 70. Ebert, who had been a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, died early Thursday afternoon at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, his office said. He had announced on his blog Wednesday that he was undergoing radiation treatment after a recurrence of cancer.

Roger Ebert's death, coming so soon after he announced he was curtailing his movie-reviewing schedule because of recurring cancer, is being greeted—especially across the Internet--with widespread shock, and the kind of grief one feels when one loses a longtime neighbor, a trusted friend, a beloved teacher whose lessons may not have had an immediate impact but became more meaningful with time. *** In fact, it's only natural the blogosphere should feel the pain of Ebert's leaving. One could say that blogs of all shapes, sizes and subjects owe their existence in part to the examples set by Siskel and Ebert.

Roger Ebert, the longtime film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, passed away Thursday, the newspaper reported. His passing comes just one day after publishing a note on his website that he would be scaling back work as he continued his battle with cancer. He was 70 years old. Ebert was hospitalized last fall with a broken hip, of which his wife tweeted was caused by "tricky disco dance moves." Last May he unveiled plans to reinvent "Roger Ebert Presents at The Movies" on PBS, and Tuesday he said he will launch a fundraising campaign via Kickstarter in the next couple...

Ebert, 70, who reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years, and who was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic, died Thursday in Chicago. He had been in poor health over the past decade, battling cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland.

CHICAGO (AP) — Acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert said he's been diagnosed with cancer again and that he will scale back his prolific writing of movie reviews while undergoing radiation treatment.

We've already heard Constitutional scholar Matthew Modine opine on the Second Amendment this week. Now, it's film critic Roger Ebert's turn. And the Thumbs Up pioneer offers an even daffier version of U.S history than the "Vision Quest" star.

Unless we find an angel, our television program will go off the air at the end of its current season. There. I've said it. Usually in television, people use evasive language. Not me. We'll be gone. I want to be honest about why this is. We can't afford to finance it any longer. Before I go into details, let me say that by any fair measure, "Ebert Presents At The Movies" has been a great success. The program has a coverage of more than 90% of the country, and all of the top 50 markets. Our ratings place us among...

There are vertical prayers and horizontal prayers. Vertical prayers are directed heavenward. Horizontal prayers are directed sideways at others. It fills me with misgivings when a possible Presidential candidate warms up by running a "prayer rally" in a Texas sports stadium. A prayer "rally?" I can think of words like gathering and meeting that might more perfectly evoke the spirit. Prayer rallies make me think of pep rallies. Their purpose is to jack up the spirits of the home team and alarm the other side. Of course the other side has its own pep rallies, presumably leaving it to God...

All I know is just what I read in the papers. -- Will Rogers Me too. Or hear on TV, or see on the net. That's all most of us knows. I'm sure the President and Senators and government officials know more, but we elect them, they don't elect us. And I'm sure the CEOs of powerful corporations know more, although the Murdoch testimony indicates he didn't know as much as he could have read in the papers. What I read,and hear is that the Republican Party is abandoning its hopes of speaking for a majority of Americans. It will...

Film critic Roger Ebert says admitted was 'probably too quick to tweet' when he posted a message about Jackass star Ryan Dunn, who died in a fiery car crash yesterday morning. The 69-year-old wrote that 'friends don't let jackasses drink and drive' shortly after the star's death prompting fury from Dunn's friends, including co-star Bam Magera. Taking to his blog today, the 69-year-old, who has won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism, offered his condolences to Dunn's family and agreed his brazen statement were untimely. 'To begin with, I offer my sympathy to Ryan Dunn's family and friends, and to those...

Andrew O'Hehir of Salon is a critic I admire, but he has nevertheless written a review of "Secretariat" so bizarre I cannot allow it to pass unnoticed. I don't find anywhere in "Secretariat" the ideology he discovers there. In its reasoning, his review resembles a fevered conspiracy theory. In this example , we do not find proof that Obama is a Muslim Communist born in Kenya. No, the news is worse than that. It involves Secretariat, a horse who up until now we innocently thought of as merely very fast. We learn the horse is a carrier not merely of...

When you think of crimes against America, crimes so dangerous they strike out against the very existence of the country, what comes to mind? Espionage, terrorism, and treason perhaps top the list. But what about not publicly declaring that Barack Obama is in fact not a Muslim? (Snip) Limbaugh in particular must cease his innuendos and say, flat out, whether he believes the President is a Muslim or not. Yes or no. Does he have evidence, or does he have none? Yes or no. To do anything less at this troubled time in our history would be a crime against

We already know the numbers. Pew finds that 18% of Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim. A new Newsweek poll, taken after the controversy over the New York mosque, places that figure at 24%. Even if he's not a Muslim, Newsweek finds, 31 percent think it's "definitely or probably" true that Obama "sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world."

Here at The Concession Stand, NRB’s pop culture division, we are sustained by a steady stream of boneheaded remarks from celebrities grand and small. One of the gifts that keeps on giving is Chicago-Sun Times film critic turned political pseudo-blogger Roger Ebert. Ebert was recognized by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists as one of the best bloggers of 2010 for his “clarity and depth.” Such an accolade is laughable when you objectively consider an average Ebert post. Far from deep or clear, a typical Ebert rant is a long piece of well crafted gibberish. In his most recent post,...

I had heard a great deal about Saul Alinsky's book Rules for Radicals, but had never read them. The Right has demonized Alinsky, linking him to Obama. Curious to know more, I went to Wikipedia and found the Rules themselves. As I read them, it occurred to me that these Rules are strategic, not ideological. Alinsky was of the Left, but the Rules have no party. As I look around America in 2010, it occurs to me that the group currently using these Rules most effectively is the Tea Party.