Free Republic

The Canadian debate was in sharp contrast to the main Republican debate that saw Fox News in a blatant attempt to take down Donald Trump, especially with Kelly’s “war on women” question Thursday was a busy night. At 5 pm (all times Eastern) the second tier Republican debate took place. Later at 8:50 pm, the debate between the top 10 Republican presidential candidates began. And if that wasn’t enough, for Canadians in general and Torontonians in particular, the Toronto Blue Jays were home to the Minnesota Twins. The Jays have become a lot more exciting to watch after the acquisition...

We all know,or should know, that the 'stars' of Fox News or any network newsreaders are self indulgent, self promoting and very sensitive about anyone doubting their relevance and status in the 'journalistic' community. We also know that, or should know, that 'stars' must always dominate any interview they conduct, to have more 'focus' on them instead of the interviewee by asking them questions that takes longer to ask than can be answered and interrupting constantly.

Decades of upgrades to the Internet have yet to fix one nagging problem: the people on it. The recent drama at Reddit is just the latest example. The managers of that expansive archipelago of forums have apparently just realized that the site provides a platform for some singularly hateful people. And yet they don’t seem sure what to do about it, beyond hiding some of the site’s uglier neighborhoods from public view. But let’s be fair to co-founder and now chief executive Steve Huffman (whose predecessor Ellen Pao resigned under fire after removing a community leader and banning some hate-mongering “subreddits”): People have been banging their...

As this campaign season draws to an end, doubtless many will comment on what was right and what went wrong for each party. Let me beat the crowd by stating whatever the outcomes of the Congressional and state races the notion of Republicans continuing to allow Democratic operatives posing as newsmen and women to act as moderators in candidate debates is one of the most inexplicably stupid blunders of all. And yet each election it is repeated. Let this be the last time. Here are some names and incidents that should be engraved forever on the RNC steps and in...

Somewhere, somehow, in the last year my tag-line got deleted. I'd like to re-instate it, but can't seem to find out how to do this. I've looked through the admin sections several times, can't seem to find out the mechanism to do so. Any help is appreciated. TIA.

If Reince Priebus wants to apply pressure on broadcasters to reform both the presidenial primary debates and their own attempts to monetize Hillary Clinton for their own benefit, this is certainly one way to do it. Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner picks up on a comment last week from RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer, who said in a Sirius XM interview that there are other fish in the sea — and Bedard’s sources say they are very big fish indeed: Miffed that their candidates were singled out for personal questions or CNN John King’s “This or That,” when he...

There are many moderators, with different kinds of secret knowledge. Anything you might say about them (including this) will be false for some of the Moderators, but true for others, which only adds to the confusion and mystery. The Moderators infiltrate and take over cliques of all kinds, from drug warriors to libertarians to chatters, and turn them to their own ends. And, just as a black joke, some of their secret cliques advertise themselves as Secret Cliques. They have agents and "sleepers" planted everywhere. Many of these people have no idea who they are really reporting to. Others are...

With all of the problems with finding moderators that can or will moderate the debates without obvious bias, the only option available is to structure the format without the need of a moderator.. The only requirement for a true debate is timing, requiring the participants to adhere to and agreed upon time limit for discussion of the chosen topics.. All that is required is an announcer, and a time clock, and an automatic switch that terminates the camera, and microphones, and move on to the next topic.. Each participant has an allotted time period.. Fin

Carole Simpson, the first — and, until tomorrow, only — woman to moderate a presidential debate, slammed the Commission on Presidential Debates this morning for never allowing a woman to moderate a presidential debate in which they actually get to choose the questions. "I was very upset that women were reduced to the vice presidential debate and to the town-hall format, which does not give a woman a chance to ask the questions," Simpson told MSNBC's Chris Jansing today.

If your going to pull a thread send a broadcast to all responders. It isn't that hard.

Tendentious? You bet it is. That's the point. Potemkin messiahs never face a televised engagement against narrowly-focused and background supplied opposition, to people aiming at dissecting their fundamental beliefs in order to prove them wrong in public and ruin their candidacies. In fact, Liberals are protected form it, which is why their governing notions are so stale, unimaginative and out of touch with reality. Hilary Clinton was subjected to a simulacrum of it in the run up to 2008 when the media ditched her for Barack Obama, and she cried publicly. Only conservatives and Republicans face these lions as they...

No principled people available for these things? Who's idea was it to have Obammunist hacks like Brian Williams and Politico editor John F. Harris running a Republican primary debate, anyway?  Ron Reagan Jr? These unblushing Administration enabler-apologists shouldn't even be allowed to set foot on those hallowed grounds- rather a photo should be tacked-up in the security guards' booth right at the main gate... How can it be nobody in the GOP would put the kaibosh on allowing such unabashed Obama cheerleaders to manipulate our side of the primary contests... firing unscreened 'gotcha' questions (before a national TV audience) point-blank from the safety of...

The first one: STATE. You know, that thing that has all of the powers of government not explicitly delegated in The Constitution to The Federal government? Yes, that thing. There are 50 of them in The United States. Notice that we don't call the nation "The United Federal Government." We call it "The United STATES." That's because States have supremacy. Always have. They originally joined together under a promise of a limited Federal government, which was mostly about the common defense - and little more. Now as for the second word..... Sedition.

Users have been flocking to the Queen's new Facebook page to post abusive messages about the Duchess of Cornwall, it has emerged. The Queen's Facebook page - The British Monarchy - has attracted nearly 200,000 visitors since it launched on Monday. Royalists and republicans alike have logged on to the social networking site to view images, videos and news about the British monarchy. But moderators were forced to remove many abusive comments by anti-monarchist saboteurs who clicked the 'like' button in order to post anti-Royal messages.

A Modest Proposal for Political Debates Political debates have become a joke, and the principal reason is that moderators have a tendency to focus on the wrong issues and/or are either unable to control the debate or appear to actively be working for (or against) one of the candidates. This is a real problem because debates, if properly run, may very well be the best way for voters to properly compare candidates and understand the differences between them. It allows candidates to directly challenge and contrast against each other, and makes them have to defend their own positions. As such,...

FLASH 8/5/08 11:31:52 AM ET: Presidential debate moderators: Jim Leherer of PBS, Tom Brokaw of NBC, Gwen Ifill of PBS and Bob Scheiffer of CBS... Developing...

Jim Robinson has created and maintains a huge treasure trove of news and information here at FreeRepublic.com. He gladly shares it with us Freepers and the rest of the world (a.k.a. - lurkers). And thanks to Jim and staff, FreeRepublic has a fantastic search engine (far surpassing Google), IMHO, due to the plethora of relevant news and information from around the world posted by us Freepers. For lack of a better description, I would classify FreeRepublic as a huge historical news and information database thanks to all of the postings and comments of Freepers (and a few disrupters - ZOT!!)....

Is there a standard procedure here for having a private conversation with a moderator?

That is a question many have asked - and it deserves some straight answers, removing rumor and setting the record straight about moderators, what they do, and why. This is not the expose some might hope the title promises, but it will tell you much you did not know, and much you need to know. Up front, I’ll tell you that I am merely the first moderator to serve. Above that I am the least of the moderators in many ways, as all others serve FreeRepublic in stellar ways I could not hope to match. I serve as their trainer ...

It appears the latest popular way to discredit those who publish opposing views on forums is to accuse them of being impostors, not really who they claim to be, the same person posting under several names, as though no two people could possibly share the same opinions. This has happened on a variety of sites on the internet. Moderators find it an easy way of doing away with people they don't like who stay within the rules. Whether it is on a TV forum, or a political forum, the trend seems to be the same. TV Heaven, a while back,...