Free Republic

'Thugs' attack Islamists outside Egypt's Defense Ministry, killing 11 By NANCY A. YOUSSEF AND AMINA ISMAIL McClatchy Newspapers CAIRO -- In the deadliest outbreak of violence in weeks, at least 11 protesters were killed and at least 150 wounded early Wednesday outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo in clashes with civilian attackers, putting Egypt's presidential election and already-fragile democratic transition in further turmoil. Several Islamist presidential candidates announced Wednesday that they were suspending their campaigns - some for 48 hours and some indefinitely - in response to the violence and the military-run government's apparent unwillingness to stop it. Officials also...

One measure of how far newspapers in general and McClatchy newspapers in particular have fallen is a mock newspaper front page (image below the fold) created by workers at the Raleigh News & Oberver making fun of their McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt (photo). Pruitt, who went on a disastrous spending spree a few years ago buying up doomed newspapers, including the Miami Herald, is widely credited for bringing McClatchy newspapers to the brink of financial collapse. This issue of the mock News & Observer front page was published in honor of the 31 employees who were released from their jobs...

What is the result of an incredibly fawning newspaper puff piece about a new senator in which the subject of the story displays her supposed independence from President Barack Obama by voting for every piece of his legislation? An extremely hilarious demolishment of the story by an astute blogger. Such was the case with McClatchy Newspapers reporter Barbara Barrett whose puff piece article about new North Carolina senator, Kay Hagan, was amusingly demolished by blogger Bane Windlow of Carolina Politics Online. To get the full flavor of Windlow's demolishment of Barrett, I will place his comments in [brackets] following Barrett's...