Free Republic

The numbers show Democrats have an image problem, amid record-low approval ratings and a growing voter registration gap. To reverse that trend, some Democrats are working to build a message they say can win over more Americans. Democrats suffered heavy losses in the 2024 elections, both nationally and in battleground states. Last year more new voters registered Republican than Democrat for the first time since 2018, according to data from business intelligence firm L2. “Democrats have to reestablish trust with voters and win a whole bunch of folks back,” said Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio. Landsman hopes to lead the charge...

In a move that’s sending shockwaves through the American media landscape, Fox News personalities Jeanine Pirro and Tyrus have fired a warning shot at the country’s legacy networks—CBS, NBC, and ABC—declaring an all-out “war” that’s as much about influence as it is about ratings. The campaign, fueled by a staggering $2 billion war chest, isn’t merely a battle for viewers; it’s a fight for the soul of American discourse as the nation barrels toward the 2025 election. The War Begins: Fox News Goes Nuclear The drama unfolded in a series of televised segments and behind-the-scenes strategy sessions that quickly leaked...

Democratic friends, let’s try a thought experiment. Imagine you woke up one morning and all your media sources were produced by Christian nationalists. You sent your kids off to school and the teachers were espousing some version of Christian nationalism. You turned on your sports network and your late-night comedy, and everyone was preaching Christian nationalism.That’s a bit how it feels to be more conservative in the West today — to feel drenched by a constant downpour of progressive sermonizing. What would you do in such circumstances? Well, at least at first, you’d probably grit your teeth and take it...

... In 2022, after eight years of intermittent fighting in Ukraine’s east, Russia initiated a full-scale invasion, with the aim of reducing a rump Ukraine to a satrapy. Putin has given no indication of renouncing that ambition or of abandoning his broader goal of restoring Moscow’s sway over much of the former Soviet or tsarist empires, including the Baltic states and other nations to Russia’s west. Any “deal” between Trump and Putin (and the U.S. president, who has more recently referred to a “feel-out” meeting, is clearly downgrading expectations) will, given the Kremlin’s longer-term objectives, never be enough. The best...

‘How many people do you employ this month?” might sound like the kind of question an employer can easily answer, but it’s not. Especially for large businesses, the exact number of employees in a given month is hard to pin down. The media report layoffs and hires in round numbers, but for calculating total employment in the country, it really matters whether “500” means 478 or 523, because those discrepancies multiplied across millions of businesses make a huge difference. Within government, Donald Trump’s appointee as BLS commissioner, William Beach, has been a leader in calling for modernizing the surveys that...

Egads! After a disastrous first 100 days, Donald Trump is starting to have a much more successful presidency. This is not what we, his foam-at-the-mouth critics, had planned or perhaps secretly hoped for. Some of this is a function of good policy, like getting NATO’s European members and Canada to spend much more on their defense, something previous American presidents asked for, but much too politely. Far from destroying the Atlantic alliance, as his critics feared, Trump may wind up being remembered for reviving and rebalancing it, to the advantage of both sides. Some of this is courageous policy: Joining...

Champions of the almost entirely party-line vote in the U.S. Senate to erase US$1.1 billion in already approved funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting called their action a refusal to subsidize liberal media. “Public broadcasting has long been overtaken by partisan activists,” said U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, insisting there is no need for government to fund what he regards as biased media. “If you want to watch the left-wing propaganda, turn on MSNBC,” Cruz said. Accusing the media of liberal bias has been a consistent conservative complaint since the civil rights era, when white Southerners insisted news...

When Elon Musk sued Media Matters in 2023, the law firm of Democratic super-lawyer Marc Elias swooped in to represent the liberal media group. It made little headway against the lawsuit before submitting millions of dollars in legal bills, prompting Media Matters officials to lash out at the firm as they faced financial ruin, according to a new report. According to the New York Times, Elias Law Group originally represented Media Matters against Musk’s lawsuit, which accused the group of manipulating X posts to falsely link the social media platform to white nationalists and anti-Semites, part of what Musk alleged...

Some people may call it the chickens coming home to roost. Media Matters for America (MMfA), a George Soros-funded left-wing censorship group, reportedly may be on the verge of collapse. The organization is reeling after a series of lawsuits and government investigations, which are straining its already frazzled finances. (MMfA raised $19 million in 2023 — and somehow spent $20 million.) But here’s what some may consider poetic justice: The group essentially claims the government is now doing the Right’s bidding in an effort to destroy it.This is the same group, a 2012 report held, that was previously coordinating with...

Media Matters, a left-wing media watchdog, is reportedly facing an existential crisis as it drowns in government investigations, legal expenses from a defamation case and loss of donors, according to The New York Times. Media Matters’s future looks so dire since layoffs were reported in May that some involved with the organization have contemplated declaring bankruptcy or shutting down entirely in recent months, the NYT reported Friday, citing internal documents and 11 sources familiar with the situation. The Democrat-aligned group purports to monitor and combat “conservative misinformation in the U.S. media” and is under investigation by the Trump administration’s Federal...

"The Late Show" wasn't just a platform for Democrats under Stephen Colbert's tenure, it was also one for left-wing journalists and hosts. Fox News Digital has counted at least 200 episodes of "The Late Show" that featured members of the liberal media. The far-left politics of "The Late Show" have been facing scrutiny after CBS announced last week that it was pulling the plug on Colbert's program, which will officially wrap up in May 2026. According to IMDB search results, CNN anchor and "60 Minutes" correspondent Anderson Cooper holds the record with 20 formal guest appearances on "The Late Show."...

Stephen Colbert declared to Donald Trump that “the gloves are off” in his first broadcast since his Late Show was cancelled amid a political firestorm, as his fellow hosts lined up to defend him with Jon Stewart scathingly denouncing Paramount for trying to “censor and control” its hosts. Colbert, the top-rated late-night talk show host in the US, said last week on his CBS show Late Night – which he took over from David Letterman in 2015 – that Paramount’s decision to pay a $16m settlement to Trump over another flagship CBS show, 60 Minutes, amounted to a “big fat...

Stephen Colbert called himself a 'martyr' before firing off a crude message to Donald Trump, warning 'the gloves are off' after the president gloated over The Late Show’s cancellation. The comedian's decade-long run as the host of CBS' late night flagship will end next May, with network insiders suggesting the top-rated show was canceled because it was losing anywhere from $40 to $100million per year.

“I am your host,” The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon kicked off, telling his Monday broadcast crowd. “Well, at least for tonight,” the comedian added, obviously referencing the recent cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Fallon quickly told the crowd he didn’t like it.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) both called the sudden cancellation of Stephen Colbert's Late Show "suspicious." Schiff said "I was on the show when Stephen told the everyone that his contract wasn't going to be renewed. The outburst of dismay and caterwauling from the studio audience was heartbreaking. That this brilliant voice will be removed from the battle for our democracy is tragic." Warren pointed out that "CBS canceled Colbert's show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump – a deal that looks like bribery. America...

NEW YORK CITY — In a stunning example of rampant fascism, a TV network cancelled a show that wasn't making any money and had terrible ratings. "The Colbert Show spoke truth to power and its cancelation is a chilling example of the fascism that's growing every day here in the U.S.A.," online culture blogger Danielle Swanson wrote this week. "With Colbert off the air, there will not be one single late-night host left who will criticize Trump. Fascism has won." CBS announced this week it was cancelling The Late Show starring Steven Colbert, stating it was purely a business decision...

On Saturday's edition of MSNBC's The Weekend, former NPR president and CEO Vivian Schiller, commenting on the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's show, said: "Stephen Colbert is unafraid to speak truth to power. He does it in a very bipartisan way over the years. And comedy and parody is [sic] an important part of a democratic ecosystem. " Yes, so bipartisan that, as NewsBuster Alex Christy has reported, in the first half of 2025, Colbert hosted 14 partisan officials, more than any of the other daily late-night comedy shows. All 14 were Democrats, none were Republicans. When it came to journalists...

Everybody was shocked — shocked! — when Stephen Colbert announced this week that CBS canceled “The Late Show.” The despondent media reacted like a meteor was about to smash into Earth. But how surprising was Colbert’s kibosh really? Did peoples’ jaws also hit the floor when Blockbuster Video called it quits in 2014? Were they muffling their screams when blimps were phased out for air travel in 1937? “What do you mean ‘no more silent films’?!” The end of “The Late Show” was every bit as writ-in-stone as any of those predictable downfalls. And it’s not only Colbert. The Grim...

"CBS has announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end in May 2026, bringing the show’s historic run—and the Late Show franchise itself—to a close."Colbert addressed the show’s cancellation himself while taping tonight’s show."

It takes the undeveloped ego of a toddler to pout this long. But if Elmo on Sesame Street can learn how to share, surely these three can too. For all its concern about a peaceful transfer of power, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) are probably not planning a story about the three board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) who have refused to leave the board after Trump removed them in April.Not so long ago — in 2020 and 2021 — PBS and NPR were spreading propaganda that President Donald Trump was going...