Free Republic

Free Speech: President Obama, while addressing college graduates, condemns our access to new media as a subversion of democracy. Is the iPad a threat to democracy or exactly what Thomas Jefferson had in mind? At Hampton University in Virginia on Sunday, the president lamented that in an age of text messaging, the Internet and the iPad, information and its unfettered exchange had become a diversion that was putting a strain on democracy. We are not making this up. The "24/7 media environment," he told the students, "bombards us with all kinds of comments and exposes us to all kinds of...

THE next time the FCC complains about How ard Stern, Viacom has promised to yank him off the air immediately. The unusual "sudden death" deal is part of a sweeping, $3.5 million consent decree announced yesterday by the FCC that wipes out "at least 50" indecency investigations against all of Viacom's radio and TV stations — including several against Stern, as well as Opie & Anthony's $357,000 fine for their infamous "Sex in St. Pat's" contest. It does not include the $550,00 fine against CBS for Janet Jackson's Super Bowl flash, which the network has vowed to fight in...

· You will recall that the Diary's very own brand new conspiracy theory (which held that Kerry's tanking presidential campaign was a deliberate Democratic feint aimed at giving Hillary Clinton a clear run in 2008) was rather anticipated by those crazy rightwing nerds at freerepublic.com, who had already posted several threads to that effect before we could bestir ourselves to come up with a username and password. In fact, much of the internet-friendly hard right seems to believe that Hillary is working diligently for a Bush victory by supplying the Kerry campaign with forged documents. You have to get up...