Free Republic

When the Reagan administration barred critical news media from White House press conferences, liberals quite rightly protested. So where is liberal outrage now that gubernatorial candidate Tom  Barrett has blocked a reporter from his public events? Four male Barrett campaign staffers escorted Wisconsin Reporter’s Dustin Hurst from a Chippewa Falls rally for Barrett, the Democrat hoping to oust Republican Gov. Scott Walker in Tuesday’s Wisconsin recall vote. Hurst is the Wisconsin Reporter journalist who caught on tape the arrest of a pro-Walker protester at a June 1 Barrett rally featuring former President Bill Clinton. But limiting Hurst’s access to the Barrett campaign was more...

Health-care reform is said to be in trouble partly because of those raucous August town-hall meetings in which Democratic members of Congress were besieged by shouters opposed to change. But what if our media-created impression of the meetings is wrong? What if the highly publicized screamers represented only a fraction of public opinion? What if most of the town halls were populated by citizens who respectfully but firmly expressed a mixture of support, concern and doubt? There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer (and from...