Free Republic

Kathy Griffin has issued a plea for fans to purchase more of her standup comedy tour tickets, as she admitted that some were "not selling well." The comedian is set to hit the road with her My Life on the PTSD List tour from Des Moines, Iowa, on February 2, heading to Omaha, Nebraska, the following day… Griffin has assured fans that the turmoil in her personal life should make her a "riot" when she takes the stage. Griffin filed for divorce from her husband, Randy Bick, in late December, days before their fourth wedding anniversary. Speaking in a video...

When Adam Smith got in his car, drove up to a Chick-fil-A drive through window and began confronting an employee about LGBT rights, he thought he was doing something positive.For him, it was one step in undoing anti-gay messaging he says he was taught as a child.But his first act of protest ever would soon cause his life to unravel.Smith filmed the 2012 encounter in Tucson, Arizona as part of a larger demonstration against the fast food chain. Its chairman, president and CEO Dan T. Cathy — a noted Christian — had publicly said he was "guilty as charged" for...

Viewing of linear television fell below 50% for the first time in July as streaming viewing hit a new record, according to Nielsen. Total broadcast viewing last month finished at 20% of TV, a new low for the category. On a year-over-year basis, broadcast usage was down 5.4%. Cable viewing slipped to 29.6% of viewing for July, with a year-over-year drop of 12.5%. The top-viewed cable programs of the month were the Home Run Derby and College World Series on ESPN, followed by Hallmark’s “When Calls the Heart.” Streaming accounted for 38.7% of all TV viewing, a new record led...

For the past decade, Disney has been the Teflon movie studio, remarkably adept at withstanding the tectonic changes impacting the film industry, and well fortified by its arsenal of key properties such as Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar. But this year, the long-reigning titan of the box office has shown cracks as four of its biggest releases from those brands and others have struggled in theaters. There was the dispiriting release of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” a rare Marvel movie to likely lose tens of millions in its theatrical run; “The Little Mermaid,” a remake of the 1989 animated classic...

...Across the tech industry...wide swaths of people tasked with protecting the internet's most-populous playgrounds are being shown the exits. The cuts come at a time of increased cyberbullying...and as the spread of misinformation and violent content collides with the exploding use of artificial intelligence....Twitter effectively disbanded its ethical AI team in November and laid off all but one of its members, along with 15% of its trust and safety department, according to reports. In February, Google cut about one-third of a unit that aims to protect society from misinformation, radicalization, toxicity and censorship. Meta reportedly ended the contracts of about...

ARCO, ID - APRIL 21: A sign disparaging Bud Light beer is seen along a country road on April 21, 2023 in Arco, Idaho. Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Bud Light has faced backlash after the company sponsored two Instagram posts from a transgender woman.Bud Light sales continued to worsen for the week ended April 29, NielsenIQ data showed, amid controversy around the brand's partnership with a transgender influencer. The country's No. 1-selling beer brand saw in-store sales of $71.6 million that week, off 23.4% from the same week in 2022. Bud Light sales were off 21.4% for the week...

...On Thursday evening Rumman Chowdhury, listed on LinkedIn as a Twitter director of machine learning ethics, posted a photograph of her failing to sign in to her Twitter email, with an error message revealing: "Your password was changed less than an hour ago." She later added: "It's already started—just had the honor of being thanos snapped." Chowdhury is referencing a scene in 2018 Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War, when protagonist Thanos snaps his fingers, causing half of all life in the universe to disintegrate. Has it already started? Happy layoff eve! pic.twitter.com/0AcaQjGJvm — Rumman Chowdhury (@ruchowdh) November 4, 2022 Daniel...

..."The most zealous ones at my organization when it comes to race are white,” said one Black executive director at a different organization, asking for anonymity so as not to provoke a response from that staff."......Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and other reproductive health organizations had similarly been locked in knock-down, drag-out fights between competing factions of their organizations, most often breaking down along staff-versus-management lines. It’s also true of the progressive advocacy space across the board, which has, more or less, effectively ceased to function. The Sierra Club, Demos, the American Civil Liberties Union, Color of Change, the Movement...

Sources: ‘Late Show’ staffers were unaware of Letterman’s bombshell Fri Oct 2, 4:29 pm ET Much of the buzz around David Letterman’s late-night revelation keeps circling back to one question: Why was the studio audience laughing? Viewers who watched it on TV or online immediately took to Twitter to express everything from bewilderment to outrage over the audience's reaction. Shawn Ryan, creator of the FX show "The Shield," opined, "What a fascinating confession/comedy act from Letterman. Audience didn't know how to respond at parts." Another Twitter user going by the handle "Brain" stated, "Letterman audience clapped when he said he...