Roger Aronoff

Three Cheers for the Thomas Jefferson Center

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression noticed my recent article on "Obama's War on Journalists," and pointed out that three of their "Jefferson Muzzle" awards are aimed squarely at the Obama administration.

President Obama’s War on Journalists

Critics on both the left and the right are lambasting President Obama for his ongoing policies restricting the freedom of the press, ostensibly in favor of national security, which in some cases amount to a vendetta against reporters who publish what leakers leak, rather than just going after what the leakers have done themselves. “The Obama administration’s unprecedented pursuit of criminal liability against security leakers threatens to rope in the Fourth Estate,” wrote Stanford’s Jennifer Granick and Morgan Weiland for Forbes. (Weiland used to work for the far-left Media Matters.) “The message? Don’t report national security stories or you will become a target.”

Obamacare's Tough Day in Court

Since its passage, a number of lawsuits have attempted to undermine Obamacare as a law, with varying degrees of success. The individual mandate challenge failed before the Supreme Court in 2012, despite what seemed like positive reception to the challenge during oral argument. Hobby Lobby went before the Supreme Court on March 25 to challenge the religious liberty implications of the contraception mandate portion of the law.

The Liberation of Sharyl Attkisson

Sharyl Attkisson has been “liberated” from her post at CBS, finally resigning after months of rumors of a rocky relationship with the broadcast news company. It turns out that she planned on leaving CBS a full year ago, but was persuaded not to at the time. Now the American mainstream media have lost one of the greats of modern journalism.

Clintonworld Determined to Contain Latest Controversy

Much of the media have been obsessed with "Bridgegate," the local New Jersey story about traffic jams caused by the closing of some lanes on the George Washington Bridge leading into Manhattan--and other potential scandals--simply because the person who figures into it most--Chris Christie--is the governor, and was considered by many to be the Republican with the best chance to beat Hillary Clinton in a 2016 matchup.

Susan Rice's Revealing Encore on "Meet the Press"

We have often pointed out how NBC, along with its cable-news arm MSNBC, are networks that work in the service of the Obama administration. That was never more clear than when National Security Adviser Susan Rice visited a Sunday morning talk show last weekend for the first time since her disastrous and dishonest appearances on September 16, 2012, just days after the terrorist attacks in Benghazi took the lives of four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.

Despite FCC Retreat, Free Speech Still Under Fire from Obama Administration

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is claiming that it is backing off of its Orwellian plans to intimidate newsrooms across America into joining the Obama Revolution in "transforming America." Their latest message is, in essence, if you like your sources of news, you can keep your sources of news. But just like when President Obama made that promise as it related to your doctors and your health care plan, they don't mean it for a second. It's just what they believe they need to say at this time to deceive the public and advance their agenda.

Is Merger of Time Warner and Comcast a Good Idea?

While some groups such as Public Knowledge and Common Cause are concerned about the anti-competitive aspects of the proposed merger between Time Warner and Comcast, and how it will affect consumers, Accuracy in Media questions the impact this will have on news and information distributed to viewers. By putting Time Warner’s networks, CNN and HBO, under the control of Comcast, will it pull them even further to the left so that they come to resemble even more the outlook and agenda of MSNBC and NBC?

Does Navy Map Alter the Benghazi Narrative?

Newly released information about the location of military assets on the night of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi in 2012 has been met with a yawn by the mainstream media, but it has caused quite a stir in the conservative press.

Not a Smidgen of Corruption at the IRS?

One of President Obama's statements to Bill O'Reilly in the pre-Super Bowl interview, was that when it came to the IRS controversy, that was another Fox News phony scandal, and there wasn't even a "smidgen of corruption" in his administration.

Obama and His Media Loyalists Still Spinning Benghazi

The media and Obama administration are at it again, trying to defend their earlier actions on Benghazi. For weeks following the September 11, 2012 attacks, President Obama and his colleagues blamed them on a spontaneous demonstration inspired by protests in Cairo, a position that has been repeatedly found to be patently untrue.

The State of the Union is Mendacity

While it is clear that President Obama can successfully deliver a State of the Union speech (SOTU), especially with a teleprompter, does it matter whether or not he is telling the American people the truth, or being hypocritical?

Another Obamacare Fiasco

President Barack Obama said his biggest mistake of 2013 was the rollout of the Obamacare website.

Blaming the Victim in Benghazigate

The media have discovered a scandal they can eagerly embrace, and they are off to the races. Having already found him guilty, they are now trying to determine if New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie knew about or ordered his underlings to arrange to create traffic jams entering the George Washington Bridge, from Ft. Lee, New Jersey into New York City; or to threaten to withhold Superstorm Sandy funds from Hoboken, NJ unless the mayor agreed to play ball with a developer with ties to the governor; or if he created a culture whereby all that could happen.

Is It Time for an Independent Counsel to Investigate the State Department?

Corruption, malfeasance, and complacency represent the stories we heard about the State Department regarding its actions in 2012. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed a fatal attack on an American ambassador and three other Americans on an anti-Islamic video then inflaming the Middle East. Her response when questioned before Congress? "What difference at this point does it make?"

Further Proof Emerges That Obama Knew the Truth About Benghazi

New details have surfaced which further put the lie to the idea that the Obama administration’s knowledge of the Benghazi attacks was “developing” at the time, and that the administration could reasonably have believed that the terrorist attacks perpetrated on September 11, 2012 had anything to do with the anti-Islam video “Innocence of Muslims.”

Revealing Gaffe on MSNBC About Obama Coverage

The scenario is rich in irony. Glenn Greenwald, the left-wing journalist who became the conduit for NSA contractor Edward Snowden to leak American classified secrets to the world about NSA surveillance, both at home and abroad, was on MSNBC on Thursday talking about the latest from Snowden.

More Bogus Reporting from “60 Minutes” on Benghazi

Susan Rice is perhaps best known for her role in the Benghazi, Libya attacks, after which she went on five Sunday talk shows to explain to the American people that, indeed, these terrorist attacks were birthed out of spontaneous protests in reaction to a YouTube video that had inflamed the Islamic world at the time. Both assumptions were proven to be false, and Rice was accused of purposefully misleading the American people. Since then, some in the media have claimed that Rice received a “bad rap”—and that at issue was a rivalry between various departments within the government.

Military Heroes Honored by JINSA

Last week the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs held its annual event honoring six young military heroes for their bravery in the war on terrorism. The six represent each of the five branches of the U.S. military and the U.S. Special Operations Command. These Grateful Nation awards have been held since 2003.

ABC Still Promoting Discredited Bush “Scandal”

Spy scandals might be sexy, but does the Valerie Plame “scandal” really deserve to be ranked alongside the sex scandals of Larry Craig, Anthony Weiner, and John Edwards? Earlier this month, ABC News ranked the Top 10 Political Scandals of the 21st century in a primetime special. Eight of the ten were sex-related scandals; one was about Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor now serving a prison term for corruption; and the other was what the Bush administration supposedly did to the career of “outed CIA agent” Valerie Plame.