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WASHINGTON - Unfavorable court rulings have the news media facing their most serious challenge in more than three decades over protecting the identities of confidential sources. The latest defeat came last week when a federal appeals court in Washington declined to reconsider a three-judge panel's ruling compelling Time magazine's Matthew Cooper and The New York Times' Judith Miller to testify before a federal grand jury about their sources or go to jail for up to 18 months. The two reporters have been called to testify about the leak of an undercover CIA's officer's name. In a separate case, The Associated...

TEHRAN - Director for France’s oil giant Total in Iran Pierre Fabiani said that Total would continue its cooperation with Iran despite pressures from the United States, Iranian Students News Agency reported here on Monday. He also said that Total is a professional company and does not meddle in the problems existing between the two countries – Iran and the U.S. - adding, “For us, it is a problem between Iran and the United States, at the first place we are a French company and at the second, Total is a European company and at the third, it is an...

It happened again. Last week, during an interview in Beijing, Washington Post Managing Editor Philip Bennett voiced his contention that the United States should not be the “leader of the world.” Along with this abhorrent declaration, Bennett launched into various other statements, mostly displaying a distinctly anti-American sentiment. Such words were particularly vile, in light of the fact that he was offering them to a regime that aspires to eventual supremacy on the world scene, and is relentlessly building towards that goal. Though it is by no means certain that Bennett’s anti-American diatribe will cost him his position as chief...

Texas needs a law that protects journalists from government harassment in the form of compulsory testimony and forced revelation of sources Two news reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, face going to jail for 18 months. Their crime? They agreed to listen to what a senior administration official had to say on the condition that they would not publicly connect the information with the official's name. In this case, the administration officials revealed that Valerie Plame, the wife of a fierce critic of the administration, was a CIA agent. Unlike columnist Robert...

Accuracy in Media is all over the other CBS News scandal, the one you haven't heard about yet. >>>While the media were abuzz over the release of the independent review panel report on CBS's "memogate" scandal, another CBS scandal was emerging. Coinciding with the release of the CBS report was the release of the January cover story, "Tin Soldier," in the Columbia Journalism Review, strongly suggesting that 60 Minutes Wednesday used phony Al Qaeda videotapes in its 2002 segment "Heart of Darkness." Dan Rather narrated the segment. The powerful Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) story was written by Mariah Blake. It...

In 2000, Michael Bellesiles published what the nation took to be a groundbreaking work of history. His book, Arming America, argued that Revolutionary Americans disdained gun ownership. He said the idea that individuals had a right to bear arms came from a myth created in the post Civil War era in order to justify the new boom in gun ownership. The book was an instant hit. Walter Wink of Christian Century flatly stated that the book "debunks this myth [of widespread gun ownership]" (March 21, 2001). In Insight on the News, Phillip Gold called it "a brilliant history with unintended...

SOURCES: NY GOV PATAKI WORKS BEHIND SCENES TO BE CONSIDERED HOMELAND SECURITY SEC ... DEVELOPING...

Activist federal judges in the District of Columbia and Providence, R.I., have already thrown two chilling strikes at journalists for refusing to betray their sources. In San Francisco, a third strike against reporters' ability to gather the news may be on the way. This sudden wave of judicial repression, unless checked quickly by higher courts or by Congressional action, will make it much easier for the government to deny a citizen's right to know about wrongdoing by every miscreant from corrupt officials to sports heroes. One year ago, baseball's leading slugger, Barry Bonds, was called before a federal grand jury...

Maybe you haven't noticed, but the mainstream media are suffering from the perception that they're just the teeniest bit arrogant. Oh, who am I kidding? They behave like they're nobles or a priestly class. Dan Rather, Brian Williams, and Peter Jennings might as well wear flowing ermine robes. From their palaces in midtown Manhattan they determine what the peasants see and read. They regard upstarts such as National Review, Fox News, and — shudder — bloggers as little more than a motley collection of heretics, Anabaptists, and barbarians. In the Middle Ages, aristocrats and clerics were protected by a panoply...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Gal Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington, D.C. He is a specialist on strategic issues and energy policy with a PhD in strategic studies from Johns Hopkins University. A former lieutenant colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, his writings have appeared in Commentary, Foreign Affairs, the Los Angeles Times, Middle East Review of International Affairs, the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Luft addressed the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia on October 27, 2004. Introduction In both World War Two and the Cold War, the side best deploying scientific...

Forged documents. Questionable sources. A journalist out to prove her case, not the truth. A prestigious national media outlet desperate to save its reputation. In the wake of the CBS network's stunning display of media bias, questions emerge: how widespread is this phenomenon in the media and what is the effect? What recourse is available to the targets of media bias? The Media Research Center (web site) has studied the problem of media bias for years. Brent Bozell, chairman of the MRC once wrote, "With the political preferences of the press no longer secret, members of the media argued while...

In one of the highest-profile retractions in the history of broadcast news, CBS admitted Monday that documents it used for a story accusing President Bush of receiving preferential treatment during his Vietnam-era service in the National Guard may have been forgeries. ''We should not have used them,'' CBS News President Andrew Heyward said. ``That was a mistake, which we deeply regret.'' CBS anchor Dan Rather, who for the past two weeks claimed that critics of the documents were merely disgruntled Bush supporters, added his own apology. ''If I knew then what I know now, I would not have gone ahead...

SACRAMENTO — Facing persistent criticism over his fundraising practices, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is imposing new limits on how he collects campaign money, pledging to turn away donations from workers' compensation insurers, energy companies and Indian gambling interests. Schwarzenegger's political team this week returned a $25,000 contribution that came in last month from Liberty Mutual, citing a guideline under which the governor will refuse contributions from insurers that underwrite workers' compensation policies. One of Schwarzenegger's main priorities has been overhauling the workers' compensation system in a bid to curb costs. Schwarzenegger, though, will not give back earlier donations that he received...

Yellowcake: Joe Wilson Skating on Thin Ice By Andrew L. Jaffee, July 14, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms Remember President Bush’s State of the Union Address in 2003? During his speech, Bush spoke of Iraqi attempts to buy uranium oxide -- now infamously known as “yellowcake” -- from Niger. The President’s assertion about a Nigerian uranium connection was attributed to British, not American, intelligence. Now, do you remember Joseph C. Wilson IV, the one-time CIA operative in Niger? He told the Washington Post that President Bush ignored his warning that it was “highly unlikely” that Iraq tried to buy yellowcake from Niger....

HOUSTON - Enron Corp. founder and former chairman Kenneth Lay was expected to surrender Thursday on charges stemming from the company's collapse, 2 1/2 years after the federal government launched its painstaking investigation, sources close to the case told The Associated Press. Two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said an indictment against Lay, 62, was expected to be unsealed upon or shortly after his surrender to the FBI (news - web sites). Prosecutors from the Justice Department (news - web sites)'s Enron Task Force presented an indictment to U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Milloy in Houston on Wednesday. At...

HOUSTON - Kenneth Lay, Enron Corp.'s founder and former chairman, could be indicted on charges stemming from its 2001 collapse by the end of June, sources close to the case told The Associated Press on Saturday. Two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said federal prosecutors are aggressively pursuing Lay, and witnesses with information about him have recently testified before a special grand jury probing Enron's December 2001 collapse. Barring any delays, federal prosecutors aim to ask the grand jury for an indictment before the Fourth of July, the sources said. The Houston Chronicle first reported the possible indictment...

Cable and Internet Loom Large in Fragmented Political News UniversePerceptions of Partisan Bias Seen as Growing, Especially by DemocratsReleased: January 11, 2004Navigate this reportSummary of Findings About the SurveyQuestionnaireDetailed Demographic Tables Summary of FindingsThe 2004 presidential campaign is continuing the long-term shift in how the public gets its election news. Television news remains dominant, but there has been further erosion in the audience for broadcast TV news. The Internet, a relatively minor source for campaign news in 2000, is now on par with such traditional outlets as public television broadcasts, Sunday morning news programs and the weekly news magazines....

I just received an enquiry from a bright 20 year old sophomore, who is majoring in philosophy. She is interested in writing a paper on the historical development of ideological conservatism, and its various historical and present-day versions and offshoots, but she does not know much about the subject. Obviously, I suggested the Conservative Mind, written by the late Dr. Russell Kirk. But it is a dated book, having been published in 1953, and does not have iformation about the developments in American conservatism since then? Does anyone know of a book written in recent years, which traces the historical...

CBS refuses to reveal which scholars or authorities on Ronald Reagan were consulted by the producers and scriptwriters of the two-part miniseries “The Reagans.” The fictitious hatchet job, originally scheduled for Nov. 16 and 18, stirred such a storm of protest that it has now been canceled and shifted to the cable outlet Showtime. In announcing that it was yanking the program, CBS stated, “The producers have sources to verify each scene in the script.” But when asked by NewsMax to name the “sources,” the network balked. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any comment on that,” CBS spokeswoman Nancy Carr...