Free Republic

Nothing illustrates the political passions of a television network’s audience quite like ratings for a presidential inaugural. The 6.53 million people who watched President Joe Biden take the oath of office and deliver his inaugural address on MSNBC Wednesday was a whopping 338% bigger than its audience for Donald Trump’s swearing in four years ago, the Nielsen company said. On the flip side, Fox News Channel’s audience of 2.74 million for Biden on Wednesday represented a nearly 77% drop from its viewership for Trump in 2017, Nielsen said.

As a white, male, middle-aged conservative talk radio host from Virginia, John Fredericks is something close to the Platonic ideal of a Fox News fan. And until last year, he was one. But then Fox’s treatment of the Republican primary race — the presentation of Karl Rove as a political analyst despite his having “thrown in for Romney” and Sean Hannity’s clear ties to the Republican establishment — began to grate on him. So he changed the channel.

Fox Business host Neil Cavuto had strong words of praise for CNN journalist and debate moderator John King during his Friday broadcast. Cavuto, who acknowledged the former House Speaker political savvy and intellectual prowess, also pointed out that King is an “excellent journalist” who asked a “fair” question about the “elephant in the room.” Gingrich, as far as Cavuto is concerned, did what any politician in the same circumstance would do — which is to “swat away an embarrassing question.”

Free Republic founder Jim Robinson has a message for supporters of Mitt Romney: go away. In an email to POLITICO this afternoon, Robinson admitted that the site routinely blocks Romney supporters from posting -- and offered no apologies for the practice: Free Republic is a pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, pro-small government, pro-constitution, pro-liberty site. Governor Romney is none of the above. His record is that of an abortionist, gay rights pushing, gun grabbing, global warming advocating, big government, mandate loving, constitution trampling, flip-flopping liberal progressive with no core values. That and the fact that he is the chief architect and advocate...