Free Republic

America’s mainstream media continues to blow President Trump’s words and threats out of proportion while giving the Obama administration a pass for its actions against press freedom and forgetting Bush’s jailing of a New York Times reporter. Trump’s tweets putting an untrustworthy media in its place are far from “unprecedented.” I’m not pretending Trump is a saint at all. He is far from perfect. Though he has certainly said some alarming things, he has not taken any significant action against the media or attacked the First Amendment in any way. Sure, Trump suggested journalists be sent to jail, as we...

Scientists examined some of the reasons as to why people drink alcohol. Of course, some of these reasons can be personal - a special occasion, habit, outing with a loved one, or Friday evening. However, these are all specific occasions. It is important to consider what a person’s motivation is when they drink during these times. What is it that they want to achieve? This study is not simply about those who are alcoholics. Scientists in this study were interested in the behavior of all drinkers without exception, even if a person drinks only once a year and solely for...

On June 2, 2011, Judicial Watch released documents that show the Obama FCC’s collusion with a radical leftist organization to seize control over the Internet. This investigation caught the eye of congressional leaders, and now it appears a congressional probe of the matter is in the offing. ... The documents we uncovered show that the Obama FCC was deeply involved in discussions with the radical leftist organization Free Press in the run up to the December 2010 FCC vote. How deep? Free Press reached out to the FCC to invite FCC Commissioner Michael Copps to write an op-ed for the...

Following the presidential election, numerous stories surfaced about how “fake news” influenced the results. This prompted a reaction from the media and a concerted effort by the social media giant Facebook to crack down on the phenomenon—announcing that it would in part by using liberal fact-checkers to distinguish the “real” from the “fake” news.The truth is that while the American media landscape has been in a constant state of change over two centuries, the spread of hyperpartisan, scurrilous, and even phony news stories has been more common than uncommon throughout the history of the republic.Ultimately, despite the increasingly Wild West...

There was just a press conference in San Bernadino with local and federal officials. It was originally scheduled hours earlier. They were coming out with what "sources" had implied would be new information . Instead, a few new crime scene photos were offered. Then the press was thanked for their patience. In lieu of one new piece of information, an officer who was first on scene yesterday was asked to give his account of events. It was a compelling story, and worth hearing. HOWEVER, it was not a press conference. Not one bit of information was given. It appears this...

Global warming/climate change hoax In a recent Daily Caller article, Michael Bastach took note of “25 Years of predicting The Global Warming ‘Tipping Point’.” This is the message that the Earth is warming rapidly and, if we don’t abandon the use of fossil fuels for power, it will arrive to wreak destruction on the human race and all life on the planet. It is astounding how many past and present world leaders are telling everyone this despite the total lack of any real science, nor any actual warming—the Earth has been in a natural cooling cycle since 1997! At the...

The Internet regulations the FCC quietly passed last month have finally been disclosed. The LA Times reports: “The FCC’s action was strongly opposed by AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and other broadband providers as well as most Republicans. AT&T hinted at a likely legal challenge of the regulations Thursday.” Chuck Ross at The Daily Caller cross-referenced the nearly 400 pages of new regulations and found the organization Free Press referenced 46 times, while making the case for the so-called “net neutrality” regulations. He also pointed out who is behind the group: “It has received $2.2 million in donations from progressive...

New internet regulations finally released by the Federal Communications Commission make 46 references to a group funded by billionaire George Soros and co-founded by a neo-Marxist. The FCC released the 400-page document on Thursday, two weeks after it passed new regulations, which many fear will turn the internet into a public commodity and thereby stifle innovation. “Leveling the playing field” in that way has been a clear goal of Free Press, a group dedicated to net neutrality which was founded in 2003. As Phil Kerpen, president of the free-market group American Commitment, first noted, Free Press is mentioned repeatedly in...

The powers behind the FCC’s muscling of the Internet Today’s vote by a bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility is the culmination of a decade-long battle by the Left. Using money from George Soros and liberal foundations that totaled at least $196 million, radical activists finally succeeded in ramming through “net neutrality,” or the idea that all data should be transmitted equally over the Internet. The final push involved unprecedented political pressure exerted by the Obama White House on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, head of an ostensibly independent regulatory body. “Net...

On Monday, former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson revealed details of a $35 million lawsuit against the Justice Department and the U.S. Postal Service for the alleged hacking of her computers. This led to a new round of snark from Politico’s Dylan Byers, who suggested on Twitter Attkisson was taking the wrong approach: #Realtalk: If you believe U.S. gov hacked your computers this isn’t the way you go about doing it… if you want publicity, on the other hand— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) January 5, 2015 This raises an obvious question. What is the right approach under the circumstances? Sharyl Attkisson pointed...

Over the weekend President Obama issued the following statement in honor of the first-annual International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. "History shows that a free press remains a critical foundation for prosperous, open, and secure societies, allowing citizens to access information and hold their governments accountable. Indeed, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reiterates the fundamental principle that every person has the right “to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Each and every day, brave journalists make extraordinary risks to bring us stories we otherwise would not hear - exposing...

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Reporter was barred from covering a campaign rally Tuesday in Madison for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke and featuring first lady Michelle Obama. Melissa Baldauff, communications director for the state Democratic Party, informed Wisconsin Reporter on Monday it wasn’t allowed to attend the event at the Overture Center because the online publication isn’t a legitimate news source. This marks the second time in about a week the Burke camp has dictated press coverage of a campaign fundraiser in Wisconsin headlined by the first lady. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Meg Kissinger reported White House and Burke staff tried...

Mr. Chairman, this is the single most radical and most dangerous proposal introduced in the 113th congress. If this proposal were adopted, it would repeal the free speech protections of the first amendment. The breadth of this proposal is astonishing. It should lead the evening news on every station. It saddens me that 46 democratic senators have signed their name to a constitutional amendment expressly repealing the free speech provisions of the Bill of Rights. Ted Cruz continues....

Malia Obama went to a famous L.A. restaurant Monday night -- a restaurant regularly frequented by celebs and paparazzi -- and when the White House found out a photog took her pic, they went into DEFCON 1 to KILL the photos. The 16-year-old went to Gjelina in Venice, CA with some friends. The photog got the pic as Malia walked out and then sent it to the AKM-GSI agency to sell. The agency posted the pic on its website for media outlets to purchase, but several hours later The First Lady's Office called AKM-GSI and asked them to please take...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- In Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro controls the TV remote. A week after he turned off Colombian television station NTN24, he threatened to pull the plug on CNN. “They want to show the world that there’s a civil war in Venezuela,” Maduro told a cheering audience Thursday night. “CNN, get out of Venezuela, enough of your propaganda.” Hours later, four of the broadcaster’s journalists had their press passes revoked. Adding to the confusion of the past two weeks of violent protests in Venezuela is that they’ve taken place amid a broadcast brownout. As local television stations have either...

Last week, I highlighted the fact that the latest Press Freedom Index showcased a 13 point plunge in America’s press freedom to an embarrassing #46 position in the global ranking. If the authoritarians in the Obama Administration have their way, this country is set to fall much further in next year’s index. Incredibly, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to roll out something called the Critical Information Needs study, which will embed government “researchers” into media organizations around the nation to make sure they are doing their job properly. No this isn’t “conspiracy theory.” It is so real, and...

The Obama Administration’s Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is poised to place government monitors in newsrooms across the country in an absurdly draconian attempt to intimidate and control the media. Before you dismiss this assertion as utterly preposterous (we all know how that turned out when the Tea Party complained that it was being targeted by the IRS), this bombshell of an accusation comes from an actual FCC Commissioner. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai reveals a brand new Obama Administration program that he fears could be used in “pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.” As Commissioner Pai explains in the Wall...

A federal appellate court ruled Friday that the author of a blog post deserves the same treatment in a defamation case as "institutional media." The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held unanimously that there is no difference between a journalist for a media outlet and another speaker when it comes to First Amendment protections. The case stems from a series of blog posts published in 2010 by a woman accusing a financial advice firm of fraud and corruption. One of the firm's principals was appointed as the bankruptcy trustee to a company that had misappropriated client...

Monday, January 13, 2014 The "Catholic" Free Press: Pope Francis' example makes it possible to accept heresy The Catholic Church claims, and has pronounced on many occasions, the infallible truth that Christ both willed and established a hierarchical Church. Father Kenneth Baker, S.J., in his book entitled Fundamentals of Catholicism, Volume 3, notes how, "In the course of her long history, there have been many heretics and dissenters who have denied, in one way or another, the hierarchical constitution of the Church. Some have said that Jesus had no intention of establishing a visible Church with bishops, priests and sacred...

Three weeks before parliamentary elections in Cameroon, the government's National Communications Council (NCC) has ordered the suspension of 11 media organisations, accusing them of unprofessionalism and unethical behaviour. The suspension of seven newspapers, three radio outlets and a television station constitutes a violation of press freedom in the West African country, the International Press Institute (IPI) said today. The NCC also suspended two publishers and a journalist, ranging from one to two months, on the grounds of failing to respect professional norms and ethics. The actions affected both French- and English-language news outlets in the capital Yaoundé and other cities....