Free Republic

How many members are in your family, your close family, the family that comes to birthday parties or lifecycle celebrations? Ten? Twenty? I bet it's fewer than 40. How about your friends — your close friends, the ones who call when you're sick, the ones who share vacations? How many? I bet it's fewer than 40. Now imagine if, in one fatal moment, they were all gone. On Friday, in northwest Pakistan, a suicide bombing killed around 40 people in a mosque. This was during prayer hours. The carnage was so bad, according to news reports, that people saw body...

On a weekend when we praise those who serve in our military, you might want to know how that military is being criticized. Last week, Amnesty International issued its annual report. In it, the United States was criticized for: Thumbing "its nose at the rule of law and human rights." Abuse and mistreatment of prisoners. Not acting quickly enough on legal challenges from detainees. Attempting to "redefine" torture. Making a "mockery of justice." And, in the wallop sentence that Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan knew would make headlines, Guantanamo Bay was called "the gulag of our times." The gulag of...

Will the Real News Fabricator Please Stand Up? May 19, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel The Detroit News and its star reporter, David Shepardson, got caught with their pants down. They ran a fake story. But no-one noticed. No-one, except me—which lead to Detroit News Editor and Publisher Mark Silverman and his minions racing to hush the story and bury it, looking for some silent way to cover-up their very large, very exposed rears. They printed Shepardson’s phony story about a terrorist, and I exposed it, last week. Shepardson ran with it, without even a modicum of fact-checking (easily done with...

I try not to bother G-d too often, but I do sometimes ask Him for grace, to lend me some when I need to display it. I admit to asking now. The last three weeks have been the darkest yet most enlightening of my professional life. The dark part is obvious. I made a careless mistake in a column. It wasn't malicious. It didn't harm the subjects. But it was factually incorrect in four paragraphs. I assumed something would happen that didn't. That was wrong. I apologized to my bosses. We were going to run a correction. Then we decided...

NEW YORK An article posted today on the Los Angeles Times Web site gives a mixed picture of Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom, who has been under fire for writing a column in the past tense set at a basketball game that hadn't happened yet. The Times article -- a freelance piece by former Free Press staffer David Lyman -- reported that reader mail has been running 4-1 in Albom's favor since the scandal broke. But people who formerly worked at the Free Press have more varied views of Albom. Lyman quoted Terry Foster, now a columnist for The...

Sportswriter Albom Apologizes to Readers - Thursday, April 7, 2005 (04-07) 13:37 PDT DETROIT (AP) -- Best-selling author Mitch Albom apologized Thursday to readers of the Detroit Free Press for incorrectly reporting that two former Michigan State players were at the Spartans' Final Four loss to North Carolina. He said he wrote the column before the game took place. Albom said he based the column on what former Michigan State players Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson told him they planned to do. He said he wrote the column in the past tense, as if the events already had happened, because...

Albom Column Suspended While 'Freep' Investigates By Dave Astor Published: April 11, 2005 2:15 PM ET NEW YORK Mitch Albom's work will not appear in the Detroit Free Press while the newspaper investigates his past-tense column about something that hadn't happened yet. John X. Miller, the Free Press' public editor, told E&P today that not publishing the work of an under-investigation staffer is standard practice at the paper. "His salary will continue to be paid," he added, noting that this is also standard practice at the paper in these situations. Miller said the investigation -- being conducted by a Free...

Mitch Albom apologizes to readers for error in column 4/7/2005, 11:55 p.m. ET The Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Best-selling author Mitch Albom apologized Thursday to readers of the Detroit Free Press for incorrectly reporting that two former Michigan State players attended Saturday's Michigan State-North Carolina NCAA basketball game. He said he wrote the column before the game took place. Albom said he based the column on what former Michigan State players Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson told him they planned to do. He said he wrote the column in the past tense, as if the events already had happened,...

Does Mitch Albom bother anyone here? If so, then please explain. Something about him bothers me. Just thought I would see if anyone else feels the same. Especially if anyone heard what he said about Rush.

<p>Here's the thing about the human heart: You can't legislate it. You can't make laws requiring people to like broccoli. You can't force people into theaters to see "Gigli."</p> <p>And it's the reason the NFL's minority hiring policy is seriously flawed.</p>

<p>In the days after Jayson Blair resigned in shame from the New York Times, everyone tried to reach him. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, old friends, colleagues. He spoke to almost no one.</p> <p>But he did call one person -- an agent named David Vigliano about a book and movie deal. Those deals are now in motion. And that's all you need to know about Jayson Blair.</p>