Free Republic

We the media have "fact-checked" President Trump like we have fact-checked no other human being on the planet, and he's certainly given us plenty to write about. That's probably why it's so easy to find lists enumerating and examining his mistakes, missteps and "lies." But as self-appointed arbiters of truth, we've largely excused our own unprecedented string of fact-challenged reporting. The truth is, formerly well-respected, top news organizations are making repeat, unforced errors in numbers that were unheard of just a couple of years ago. Our repeat mistakes involve declaring that Trump's claims are "lies" when they are matters of...

Sean Davis at The Federalist reports a newly declassified transcript of congressional testimony shows former Obama administration defense official Evelyn Farkas testified under oath that she lied during an MSNBC Morning Joe interview when she claimed to have evidence of alleged Trump collusion with the Russians. Farkas served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia from 2012 through 2015. She's currently one of eight Democrats running for Congress in New York's 17th District, seeking to replace Nita Lowey, who's retiring. On March 2, 2017 she told Mika Brzezinski “I was urging my former colleagues and,...

A viral clip from comedian Jimmy Kimmel was edited to remove some important context. On his Thursday night show, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel used a clip of Pence at the nursing home to suggest there was nothing inside the boxes. "Since it was going so well and also because he didn't realize he had a mic on, Magic Mike decided to keep it going," said Kimmel. "Listen in closely here." Kimmel then cut to video showing the vice president inquiring about the last boxes in the van before being told they were empty. "Well, can I carry the empty ones?...

Former Obama administration defense official Evelyn Farkas testified under oath that she lied during an MSNBC interview when she claimed to have evidence of alleged collusion, a newly declassified congressional transcript of her testimony shows. Farkas testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on June 26, 2017. Lawmakers keyed in on an appearance Farkas made on MSNBC on March 2, 2017, in which she urged intelligence community bureaucrats to disseminate within the government and potentially even leak to media any incriminating information they had about Trump or his aides. “I had a fear that somehow that information would...

The Washington Post turned a blind eye for weeks The Washington Post, an enormously influential and widely cited publication, fought the good fight. For five solid weeks, it was able to pretend that Tara Reade’s sexual-assault allegations against Joe Biden either didn’t exist or were so illegitimate as to be unworthy of any serious attention. For five solid weeks, The Post was able to wait and see which way the political winds might ultimately blow, and to give Ms. Reade some time to realize that she was fighting a losing battle and should just go away.    Consider a few remarkable...

Last week, you knew the anti-Trump opposition press was going to latch onto President Trump’s disinfectant remarks. It might not have been the most artful remark. In fact, the only reason why it was a terrible remark is that the liberal media would go ballistic over it, distracting us with their nonsense as we fight his Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. Partially, it wouldn’t shock me if Trump had the latter in mind, given the media’s pervasive tenacity to take everything he says literally. Frankly, I don’t care. Trump is president. They’re not. And given how badly the media has covered this...

Dr. Deborah Birx said the media’s continuing focus on President Trump’s comments about people being injected with disinfectant as a coronavirus treatment “bothers” her and jeopardizes the administration’s ability to get information to people about the pandemic. “It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle,” Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday “I worry that we don’t get the information to the American people that they need when we continue to bring up something that was from Thursday night.” “Because I think we’re missing the bigger pieces of what...

A reporter at The Washington Post learned that size does matter after trying to pin the exorbitant price of isopropyl alcohol on President Trump and his administration. The Post’s Amber Phillips posted and then deleted a tweet on Thursday announcing that the cost of isopropyl alcohol on Amazon was shockingly $2,375. Her tweet came after Trump’s coronavirus task force briefing at the White House Thursday where a Department of Homeland Security official spoke about the use of the product against the coronavirus.

Fact-checking and accountability journalism from AP journalists around the globe: AP FACT CHECK: Trump distorts gains in retirement accounts today AP FACT CHECK: Trump hypes ‘comeback,’ impeachment acquittal yesterday AP FACT CHECK: Trump, Dems and the state of disunion February 8, 2020 AP FACT CHECK: Ripping up copy of Trump’s speech not illegal February 7, 2020 AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s exaggerated ‘great American comeback’ February 4, 2020 AP FACT CHECK: Bracing for Trump’s ‘relentless optimism’ February 4, 2020 AP FACT CHECK: Distortions in Trump’s case for acquittal February 2, 2020 AP FACT CHECK: Trump defense wrong about FBI investigation January...

Mary Grabar's book, 'Debunking Howard Zinn,' takes aim at the celebrated historian who is as influential as he is ideological and dishonest. Howard Zinn’s book, The People’s History of the United States, is one of the most famous American history textbooks ever written. His goal was to change the way Americans saw their own history by writing from the perspective of those he called “underdogs.” In doing so, he thoroughly distorts the true historical record and paints America as an inherently unjust nation.Mary Grabar believes that at the root of his agenda is a desire to see America turned into...

As 2019 wound down, well-known press figures sounded alarms about the “erosion of truth.” MSNBC’s Chuck Todd spoke to our own Peter Wade about the “epidemic” of “disinformation.” Washington Post editor Marty Baron and New York Times editor Dean Baquet joined Todd on Meet The Press to talk about how the Internet and Donald Trump and Russia are all combining to create an era in which “crazy conspiracy theories” and “absolute falsehoods and lies” can proliferate. This isn’t a new idea. Since 2016 especially, a wide array of American politicians and think-tanks have been hammering the idea that the free...

It must be really hard to have to report a story that flies in the face of CNN’s hype over climate change. CNN published a Jan. 7, story headlined “Glacier National Park is replacing signs that predicted its glaciers would be gone by 2020,” and admitted that “[i]n 2017, the park was told by the agency [U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)] that the complete melting off of the glaciers was no longer expected to take place so quickly due to changes in the forecast model.” The signs were put up over a decade ago, according to CNN.

Screenshot from this video  As we reported, MSNBC spread an unverified rumor from Iranian media about the Iranian missile strikes on U.S. forces killing 30 Americans. Now they couldn’t verify and said so, but ran with it anyway. It was of course picked up and spread everywhere on social media. At about the same time, U.S. officials were releasing their initial reports and saying that there had been no casualties. So of course, what did MSNBC run with? The Iranian propaganda. Chris Hayes tried to justify running it, claiming they told everyone it was state media and unverified. Somehow...

If decent people working in mainstream American media want to know why many Americans do not trust them and are willing to use the term "fake news" to describe the mainstream media, I offer one of the most glaring examples of a lie in my lifetime. Last week, Newsweek headlined the following: "Conservative Radio Host Ridicules Anne Frank: 'I Don't Get My Wisdom From Teenagers.'" Now, imagine how that must have struck any reader not familiar with the "conservative radio host" or with what he actually said. "Ridicule Anne Frank" -- what kind of terrible human being would do that?...

The Justice Department fired Mr. McCabe in the spring of 2018, citing Mr. Horowitz’s conclusions. Mr. McCabe is suing the Justice Department for wrongful termination, alleging President Trump ordered his firing. When FBI investigators confronted Mr. McCabe about the leak, he denied authorizing the disclosure to the Journal. He also presented himself as a “victim,” according to the agent who conducted the interview.Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe admitted he misled investigators about his role in a media leak and apologized for it, according to transcripts of his interviews with investigators released Thursday. The transcripts were released by the Justice...

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe apologized to an FBI investigator after changing his story regarding a leak to the media in October 2016, according to documents released Tuesday. McCabe was interviewed May 9, 2017, the same day James Comey was fired as FBI director, regarding two separate leaks to the media. During the interview, FBI agents also asked McCabe whether he knew how FBI information wound up in an Oct. 23, 2016, Wall Street Journal article about an investigation of the Clinton Foundation. McCabe said during that sit-down he did not know how the Journal story came about, but...

Did You Know John Dingell Once Told Trump to Go to Hell? Dec 19, 2019   RUSH: I checked the email in the break. It says, “Rush, you haven’t commented on Trump’s insulting of John Dingell.” Well, okay. So Trump is in Michigan. Grab sound bite number 20. Looks like this might be it. In three, two, one, go ahead and hit it.THE PRESIDENT: Debbie Dingell, that’s a real beauty. I gave the A-plus treatment. Take down the flags. She calls me up. “It’s the nicest thing that’s ever happened, thank you so much. John would be so thrilled....

It might not be worth the effort to deconstruct articles appearing in a magazine that sold for $1, but still–when I saw this Newsweek cover on InstaPundit, I was curious. I was curious because I am a frequent reader of Fars News, which is conventionally described as the “semi-official” voice of Iran’s mullahs. One of Fars’s most insistent themes is that the United States and Israel are allied with ISIS, and that Iran stands alone in fighting the terrorist group. This article is one of hundreds of instances of this fantasy, peddled shamelessly by Fars News on behalf of Iran’s...

President Donald Trump mocked Newsweek after they reported Thursday he spent Thanksgiving golfing and tweeting. In fact, the president was secretly traveling to Afghanistan to visit deployed American troops. “I thought Newsweek was out of business?” Trump wrote on Twitter, sharing a screenshot of the article and photos of him with the troops in Afghanistan posted by his son Donald Trump Jr. I thought Newsweek was out of business? https://t.co/3ro4eSJloo — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2019 “Fake news gonna fake!” Trump Jr. wrote. The Newsweek story, first published at 10:16 a.m., was later updated to reflect the president’s...