I’m a paid subscriber from the early Common Sense days and I’ll never be without the FP. If it weren’t for publications like this and Racket News we’d never be exposed to these stories. I’m so happy that the tremendous work that Bari and team put forth is flourishing.
The FP is a beacon of light every morning. Let’s not forget about all the brilliant commenters too. They are always adding new perspectives and chuckles to the story. Kudos to Bari and team for letting us speak freely and build community!
Recall that in the “early days” of Sub stack there were some folks who urged censorship of “hate speech”. There was an outpouring of opposition from mainly subscriber commenters but some of the Substack writers as well. Even some blowback ack to the Substack founders hosting some folks known for shoddy journalism. The
Founders even went so far as to censor comments or to bar comments. Fortunately, I have not ween that repeated. Fingers crossed!
Agree, RBM (with a nom de plume like that, were you at Burning Man?). I too have been a subscriber since very early days. Bari is not afraid to confront us (me!) and mostly it’s good. But to take just one example, it’s sometimes disturbing: when she interviewed former AG Bill Barr and he revealed his judicial AND social philosophy - I saw for the first time just how radical is the right-wing Catholic view of the world. It explains a lot about the current USSC, six of whom are Catholics.
And recall that “hate speech” is usually in the mind/bias of the objector. It is uncommonly an objective thing. And that was the case with the “hate speech” objectors on Sub stack
I have only 2 other subscriptions. One is to Steve Keen's Patreon, a renegade economist exposing the reality that neoclassical economics that virtually every journalist on earth believes is beyond malarkey. https://www.patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen
I subscribed very early on as well. While I sometimes question if I want to give it another year, along comes articles like the ones Bari mentioned and more, and I realize I would never hear about these pieces of news if not for TFP. Besides our politicians and the crazies of both the left and right (mostly left…by far!), the media is a major cause of the division and problems we face (see links to Chris Hayes’s reporting of the trans article Bari first mentioned).
I waver back and forth between continuing to subscribe because I find glaring blind spots in the reporting (and in much of the lefty politics, even as "middle of the road" as they are, of many of the journalists), but there is SO much good, thought-provoking material in here, and honestly, the commentators are the best. So I will continue to subscribe! Because I don't think you can get this variety of reporting anywhere else. And honestly, I'll just keep hope alive that they might drift slightly more conservative. :-) Or at least not more progressive!
There is definitely a lens to this reporting that is inescapable. I would encourage them to break through and be openly ambivalent to the Democrat Party. Be free, Bari!
Bridget Phetasy, who is a writer and podcaster, says that so much of this kind of rhetoric is from the perspective of "...*sigh*, BUT THE RIGHT." i.e., we'd be more into this conservative idea, or conservative policies make more sense here but...the Right sucks and will always suck (and she grew up fairly liberal and currently considers herself "politically homeless"). I get some of that same vibe from The FP. "Gender ideology is messed up, just like conservatives have been saying! ...oh man, BUT THE RIGHT, bleh." So I view most of their reporting through that lens. I'm probably that same way about the left/liberal ideas. It's hard to give them any credit at all!
Whataboutism is degenerate journalism. I don't see it constantly which is why I haven't pulled the plug on my subscription yet. But more than that there is a fair amount of skew in the reporting here that's probably only obvious if you're a conservative. It's extremely easy for us to spot.
I think the reporting pretty much middle of the road. FP defends and tells the stories of people who have not only been pilloried by the PC/Woke tyrants but have lost their jobs. You can't get more left than the PC/Woke swine. FP exposes them for what they are, vicious, small minded, hurtful, bullying assholes.
I like the diversity ideas that FP brings to us every day. I won't quit because FP has a left wing commentator post here. Who knows the loon might just have a point (but they cover it with a hat).
I’d agree, Erin, but my takeaway these last few years has been that when the right overreaches, I have to console a gay friend, or tell a Muslim friend that we aren’t all bad, or tell my young daughter that yes you are allowed to burn the flag...stuff like that.
BUT when the Left overreaches, My daughter is taught she is an oppressor in school and that she is to be defined her entire life by the color of her skin, I'm told by a guy in a private jet that climate change will kill us all and it is all my fault for owning a house, air conditioner, and a gas stove...and that I should buy a $20 LED lightbulb and a $100K EV or I am an environmental terrorist ... I lose my right to free speech, freedom of assembly, right to own a gun, I’m locked down forced to go out of business and forced to inject experimental drugs, taxes increase, my health insurance company flees the state, inflation puts everyday items out of reach, WW3 can break out at any moment, or can get killed in a crime wave...and basically live in a constant state of fear and panic...even speaking here may get picked up by a left wing Brownshirt and my life gets cancelled...
Good thing I ignore almost all of it and read TFP among others. Still not a day goes by that something from the left overreach doesn’t directly affect my life
Sorry, I’ll take the “bleh, right” 6 days a week and twice on Sunday
I tried unsubscribing once. I found myself reading headlines and teasers of stories I wanted to read. I resubscribed. I’m conservative. Very conservative. I don’t read every single story. Some don’t interest me. Others I quit reading halfway through. But there’s enough good stuff I’ll keep paying and reading more than half of what’s published. As conservative as I am, I appreciate well intentioned, sound opposing perspectives. Generally, Bari and her crew give that.
Yeah me too. I paused my subscription, but missing Douglas Murray was an ongoing pain and those teases and my curiosity just forced me back. I reckon prospectors had to be patient and keep the faith while digging for gold back in the day, and conservative gold is mostly buried in this current age. I’m glad you are here on behalf of the good “nuggets” sometimes available as well. Have a great day in America!
Yeah. Bari gets it wrong sometimes. She got it wrong on lab leak, and still refuses to talk to actual virologists who study this stuff. But mostly it's good.
On the contrary. Check out Honestly about China from two years ago. Literally:
“So today, in Part One, a look into what went down in Wuhan and Washington during the fateful month of January 2020. We show how the “Lab Leak Theory,” due in big part to Josh’s reporting, went from a fringe conspiracy theory to a credible explanation for the virus that continues to ravage the planet.”
Same here, Alison, I am a proud supporter! Reading Bari’s resignation letter to the NYT was my first introduction to her. I’d cancelled my subscription to the NYT during the Hillary Trump campaign, not because I supported Trump, but because of their total & complete blatant bias for her & against ANYONE who dared run against her! Poor ‘ole Bernie got nothing, and Trump got vilified.
I was so impressed with Bari stepping up and speaking out (or stepping out & speaking up) about her appalling treatment at the Times JUST because she dared write an article that was unbiased! Oh my god, how dare she go against the WOKE LEFT narrative!! And, yet, she did not! She simply reported like all journalist should!
Bari and her Common Sense / The Free Press has served as the “pendulum swinging back toward center” I was fearful wouldn’t happen.
The Times is fun to read to see how thoroughly and blatantly twist facts to create today's narrative. The length they go to dissemble is extraordinary.
Reading NYT comments scares me. It shows too many people with blinders on standing shoulder to shoulder while heavily armed with absolute conviction they are right. Also, may serve well to lower anyone’s opinion of the educated elite. There is no trace of independent or critical thinking in these comments. My blood pressure goes up when I read them.
The NYT died for me when I ran an office in the Central Asia. I was close to assassinations and political events. When I told the NYT that, for instance, a man they reported as a suicide had 2 bullets in his head of 2 different calibers? NYT actively suppressed it. I could go on. Suffice to say that what Americans read about foreign events is largely hogwash. "Foreign correspondents" phoning it in from... Washington DC. Or, maybe, a 5 star hotel 3 nations away.
Bravo Honey. I feel the same way about Bari and FP. On a side note, journalism has always been this way. Over a century ago it reported to the right. The press got us into the Spanish American War and in the mid to late 1800s newspapers gave birth to yellow journalism.
Journalism is now in the thrall of the loony left. Hopefully the pendulum will swing back to the center right.
LP, am currently visiting what is commonly known as Hearst Castle (William Randolph Hearst’s palatial estate in San Simeon, CA) and was just reading about “yellow journalism”. Apparently it was media wars between the two NYC newspapers from Hearst and Pulitzer at the time.
“It was said of Hearst that he wanted New York American readers to look at page one and say, ‘Gee whiz,’ to turn to page two and exclaim, ‘Holy Moses,’ and then at page three, shout ‘God Almighty!’”
You do Dean, I promise. Matt Taibbi and Walter Kern on Friday mornings are excellent, plus lots of small articles during the week. Shellenberger with another person run Public and it publishes a lot of content daily, lots of writers. They’re exposing the truth on a daily basis and call out the censors. Also Sasha Stone & the 4th Turning.
Lee Fang is also worth subscribing too. Great independent, investigative journalism usually on stories you don’t hear about. I flounder him when he published some articles defending Matt Taibbi.
He was. Taibbi's become too uncritical of people who are influencers. He is doing more than a little of "follow my money". I couldn't stomach it anymore.
Yes, all information on the cross-sex ideation cult is so important and the main stream media is more like an arm of their indoctrination. I know it all quite well for 31 years, as my ex-husband went down this path starting in 1992. He's never seemed happy, satisfied or fulfilled since. Here's a clip of me reporting fraud of a "sexologist" who has uncertified "therapists" working under her, in NYC to do the 1 appointment "gender dysphoria" diagnoses. It's the "mail order gender affirmation degrees" now circulated which should shock everyone.
You're welcome. There's elephant in the room, preventing this utterly nonsensical, illogical diagnosis, with origins from child sexual molester and masochist Alfred Kinsey and it's preventing the exposure of this corruption. Men like my ex-husband, named Neddy in my memoir (In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow, iuniverse, 2022) have so much to lose. They are powerful, tech-oriented, wealthy men who express their sexual fetishes by adopting a "female persona." Well, lobotomies were debunked and countless women had been damaged by the practice. We just have to pick ourselves up and move on.
Very well said Alison. I also became a subscriber early on,, impressed that Bari flipped off the NYT and went on her own. American Dream stuff.
I'm encouraged she thinks: "By covering these hard topics in a sober, fair way, we force others to follow. And in doing so, slowly, we believe we are changing the conversation in the culture and the country."
I don't see it yet, but it took a long time to get where we are culturally, so it'll take a long time to turn it around.
I also was an early paid subscriber. They publish occasional nonsense that frustrates me and makes me question if my money has been well spent. The bizarre and condescending piece about the abortion vote in Kansas was one such article. But the truly groundbreaking news like those Bari mentioned and even the Sunday feature of Things Worth Remembering are such treasures, I know my subscription is well worth it.
I agree completely with Alison. I especially like TGIF, but also many of the articles about specific subjects that it's hard or impossible to get fair reporting on or discussions of elsewhere. I'm a happy subscriber from early on, and it's such a bargain.
Bari, Nellie--The Story is the Biden corruption machine. And it’s not being covered. Why not?
I think it’s fine to take a bow for the stories you have covered, but if aren’t willing or interested in covering what looks like massive corruption in the White House, do you really get to call yourself the antidote to the NYT?
This comment says it all...but not in the way it is phrased. What FP subscribers, readers and fans of you and your contributors are asking for is what FP provides consistently, a clear, objective but thoughtful and well researched look at the facts so that we as citizens can see a path forward on the issues of the day. It’s not Biden per se, it’s the desire for an objective, no “spin, no dictated catch phrase” review of what has happened to the political class. How can so many politicians and governmental “C Suite” level employees use public service as a path to wealth, using taxpayer’s money & “equity value” in access to the still greatest asset on earth- the US Constitutional Democracy and the vast opportunities that flow from it.
It’s asking a lot from the FP to take this on but if not you, who? If not now, when? As a FP supporter and happy reader I applaud and appreciate you.
I'll offer a suggestion: Perhaps it is the subconscious belief of "If not Biden, then Trump". The fear that attacking the Biden family will ensure Trump's re-ascendancy.
Is THAT a valid reason to avoid reporting on corruption and privilege in the highest office in the land? Or is it a vestigial artifact of a liberal/leftist past?
If you are congratulating yourself for doing cutting edge reporting that goes after stories the MSM won’t cover, but then not do stories laying out the evidence against the Bidens, I think the congratulations are a bit premature. If Greenwald can do it night after night, why can’t we expect it here too?
A big surprise for me in reading the FP since inception is just how very very conservative many are Commentators are, not just considered conservatives but actual “drink the right-wing Kool-Aid. Examples: Biden didn’t win without fraud; vaccines are experimental and unproven; supporting Ukraine helps only (pick any) the Democrats, the military money machine, or the dreadful EU; the ERA is a socialist/communist plot; Biden is ga-ga; Trump is not guilty of ANYTHING.
This is not the FP itself but the commenters. I think one has to glean the “truth”, elusive as it is, by looking at many news sources and hope some wisdom emerges. The FP is invaluable, especially by inviting me to look more critically at all sources. I still subscribe to the NYT, mainly for some of its columnists, just as I do to The Economist, The Atlantic, and the WSJ - none of them is the universal oracle.
Hi Will, Looks like you are inclined to read media on the left.
Here are a couple to add—Darkhorse Podcast, two PhD biologists on the left have been exclaiming practically from the start that mRNA vaccines are experimental, unproven and dangerous. The evidence continues to prove them right. Glenn Greenwald, also a noted lefty, is anti Ukraine war.
I enjoy listening to views like these three, plus other people on the left, like Taibbi and Shellenberger, who are challenging the narratives of their team and starting to sound, ahem, like conservatives. Amazing what a little critical thinking can do.
If you read on Substack then you know Biden won by information control, the FBI and cia in conjunction with a bunch of GONGOs conspired with the msm to supress information about Hunter’s laptop in particular.
If Americans had been told it was real millions would have either stayed home or voted Trump according to polls.
Will, your juvenile name calling is the practice of vapid ideas unable counter an argument. Saul Alinsky wrote the playbook, you are a beginner. Name calling means you have already lost the debate of ideas. I am a very Conservative American who finds the FP refreshing in it actually offers stimulating arguments. Biden won due to massive interference by media, Establishment, mail in voter fraud and Trump Derangement Syndrome. Glenn Greenwald has covered the issue, it would be nice to see Biden corruption finally be addressed on FP.
Yes, that was definitely a big surprise for me too, good to know I’m not alone. It’s the reason why while I find FP great, I rarely look into its comments section, because it’s not very useful. Interesting in comparison with another news web that I read regularly, where the reporting and journalism quality kinda sucks, but the comments are often insightful. One would expects those two aspects to correlate, but doesn’t seem so…
One must pick and choose their battles. Bias may contribute to this choice, but also could be factors such as resource allocation, who is already fighting this battle, expertise about the topic, access to sources, etc.
In addition, going up against the DNC - Clinton, Biden, Obama machine is dangerous. My belief is that, for instance, that amazing primary win of Biden in his 1st election was election fraud and helped by classical Republicans. Flatly, as a scientist trained in statistics, that win was impossible. It displays the red flags that get science papers taken down. Picking battles. Yes, Greenwald does it.
Yeah, came here to say basically this but from a slightly different angle: reputable news sources that are just starting out and attempting to be neutral and establish credibility can't be out ahead of everyone else on every story. Investigating, fact-gathering, gaining access to credible sources to corroborate, and publishing actual news (rather than half-baked speculation and partisan hot takes) takes time. Even more so for young, independent news sources with paid subscribers numbering in the thousands rather than millions--i.e., having a small fraction of the resources of both legacy media and more well-established new media. So, just because TFP hasn't yet published results of such a process with respect to a particular topic doesn't mean they're not going to (or even need to, because they never purported to be a paper of record or a one-stop-shop for news). Any inference that they haven't covered the Biden mess or anything else because they are partisan in one direction or another is unsupported by any of their *actual* reporting. And it's not logically valid to say a political bias exists in one direction or the other simply because a publication has not yet reported on a situation people who *do* have political bias think they should. Their stated mission is to bring critical thinking and rigorous journalism back. We already have plenty of news outlets muddying the waters, pandering to one side or the other by rushing to press with unsubstantiated facts, conjecture, and innuendo. Anyone who wants their conspiracy theories of any type confirmed can find a publication that will do that for them. Just not necessarily this one. Which is exactly why I pay to subscribe to this one. Because the reason I read news is to educate and inform myself--and to have my opinions changed when warranted, based on new information. Anyone who's just looking to have their beliefs and biases validated can vote with their dollars and subscribe to a different publication. Complaining in the comments is pointless. You have to vote with your dollars to get the journalism you want. Which is why I subscribe to the Free Press.
I’ve been waiting for the Biden family expose, but I think it’s beyond Biden. IT’s Democrat party corruption beginning with Obama, mainstream media and Soros.
And it’s not pro Trump or Pro Republican to write critically and truthfully about a sitting President’s mental state or history of corruption. It’s good journalism.
Are you interested in any of the emails written under Biden's pseudonyms? The ones being withheld because of "executive priviledge"? What's taking Democrat party so long to call him out for using private emails and fake names to avoid FOIA?
The GOP promised that there would be evidence of money going to Joe Biden's bank account/financial instruments in a direct quid pro quo for him taking actions as a representative of the U.S. Government. So, that's the GOP's job to "call out," Marcia. Just like it was the Democrats to "call out" the Billions Kushner and Ivanka got from the Saudis and China.
Interested in pseudonyms? Not really, Marica. Unless it can be proven those pseudonyms were used to facilitate criminal activity....so, let me know when that happens. Fox News has reported on an email exchange where Hunter had the temerity to contact his Dad in order to see if he could get him an interview. GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh....look who suddenly has a problem with "Executive Privilege."
Wow....you don’t even consider that the Justice Department and the White House have custody of most of the documents that would prove the corruption. Its all so dirty, corrupted and wrong. With the help of some crooked federal Judges, the info stays suppressed in a litigious mess. The truth will emerge soon and many journalists will be sorry they let the people of this country down by ignoring the biggest scandal in US History.
So I guess you won’t be convinced until we find a cheque to Biden from Burisma, with the memo line reading “for firing the prosecutor.” Influence peddling doesn’t work that way. There are smoking guns everywhere and Dem ideologues just wave it away. Same thing with the laptop. The FBI, the CIA, the regime media and big tech all worked together to keep it hidden and elect Biden. Nothing to see here folks.
Trump is a narcissistic psychopath, but the Dems are so much more dangerous because they control all the institutions - the regime media, big tech, big finance, academia, NGOs, the bureaucracy, the culture. All of this is enabled by people like you who are willfully blind to the corruption of policy and people. But MAGA, MAGA, MAGA. We’re constantly told these fascists are a threat to democracy. Meanwhile, the Dems donate more than $10 mill to the most extreme candidates during Republican primaries.
Go ahead, keep deluding yourself, keep moaning about trans issues, keep whining about free speech, but most of all, keep supporting Joe Biden and carrying water for the people that bring you censorship and 13 year olds with chopped off body parts.
You do realize Hunter rented Daddy's (Joe's) house for $50,000 a month when Joe was VP? Do you see anything unusual about that? I guess you are a blind loyalist or uninformed. FP has not covered any of this issue. Greenwald has as has Matt Tailbi.
If you or anyone doesn't know what's on the laptop, you're not looking.
Just maybe the House Oversight Committee is working slowly & methodically before they make a major move, unlike Nancy Pelosi & House Democrats who impeached Trump for innocently doing the very thing Biden may be guilty of doing.
All Trump did in his phone call is inquire why and to what length the Bidens were involved with Burisma.
Why was there a threat to withhold foreign aid?
Why would any sitting Vice President insist his clearly inept son sitting as a board director of a major global energy company, accused of corruption, in a foreign country?
And why would that same sitting Vice President insist on a special prosecutor investigating corruption on the same energy company to be fired?
What possible business of this could be his?
Furthermore, how does a 50 yr. politician living on a government salary afford to buy the DuPont mansion, along with two other very expensive homes? Stock tips from Al Gore?
Shame on all of you ignoring this and looking the other way!
Yes 234! If I could add another question. Why would a sitting US President send his VP to clean up a political/law enforcement controversy involving that VP’s own son? And from that same President we get nary a word of explanation. If these people looking the other way chose to ignore this blatant conflict of interest, then let their naïveté deliver to them the consequences. I believe the truth will emerge and perhaps it wont be delivered by the GOP.
Why do you think the only evidence that exists is on the laptop? You might be surprised if you find out later that you have overlooked other potential sources. Try to think outside of your GOP obsessed box.
Actually....I don't know if it's disinformation or not, as I have yet to have anyone cogently explain what exactly is suppossed to be on this laptop. Wire transfers? Encoded files, screenshots of handing over satchesl full of money, etc.?
I know there's videos of him with women and cocaine, cause MTG was showing the pics.
But hasn't the GOP had the contents of this laptop for a long time? What EXACTLY is suppossed to be on there?
Morning Comprof, It's sometimes hard to remember all the details. But in one particular email Hunter was talking about "10% to the big guy". Please Google that phrase and see what comes up. Then there was the fact that Hunter was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company being paid A LOT even though he self admittedly knew nothing about gas. Why would they hire Hunter Biden?? Joe Biden went to Ukraine to have a prosecutor who was investing the company for corruption fired. JB said if they didn't fire him he would withhold a billion dollars of aide. Got him on tape saying this. Guess what! They fired the prosecutor. The laptop has evidence of money payments to.Hunter. Anyway, I'm going down a rabbit hole here. If you want to know more, please Google it.
The real scandal, in my view, is how the intelligence community has directly operated upon elections.
They invented and ran an intelligence operation against the last president, then censored Americans on a stupendous scale, and buried this factual information from the public by lying to them and censoring them still more, before an election.
Yep. Hunter got a job because of his last name/nepotism. Shocking.
Payments to Hunter?!!! Uh...he's a private citizen, who cares if he got payments from a foreign company?
Now, if someone were to...say get Billions from Saudi Arabia for real estate while they were a government official to influence foreign policy, etc. THAT would be interesting
No. The Giuliani "fired prosecutor" stuff has been debunked.
Your stupidity is truly striking. You've been beating that dead horse of "NO EVIDENCE" for quite a while now. Really do love to display your idiocy, don't you?
Perhaps it's such a massive story, that it would suck up too much time and energy to properly cover it. Taibbi and Shellenberger and doing a great job of it, but I wish they would also publish here so TFB would be a bit more balanced. Especially since Shellenberger is listed as writer for TFP, but hasn't had anything here!
I don't know, maybe there's not much there, NC. The GOP in Congress has had a committee for the last eight months or so looking into all the smoke and fog involving Joe and Hunter and so far, not too much. And they've got hundreds of staffers. Where's the fire? There might be an impeachment inquiry coming soon - something more official and serious. With even more researchers looking for proof. I wish them luck. Perhaps the FP can write something about how something looks really bad, but not provably so. Like the 2020 elections..
As soon as evidence is produced a “special prosecutor “ is appointed. Not even an independent prosecutor. If there’s no there there, why so much covering up?
Where's Jim Jordan when you need him? He's been at this for months. No press reveals. No exposes like the Dem committee covering Jan 6. Nothing. Where are all the subpoenas? Only a couple.
McCarthy isn't even so sure an impeachment inquiry is coming. It looks like he's being pushed by his MAGA wing to have one. But he's worried that not all GOP members of Congress will sign on. If there's so much evidence being thrown around, why the reluctance?
I think bc it exposes too much deep corruption across DC, both parties (Dems more but R yes) would falter. Obama has to be a factor, this would destroy his legacy of “no scandals on my watch”🤣, he’s still very powerful. Threats are being made .
Watergate was just a story about a 3rd rate burglary, until 2 years later, it wasn’t. The evidence for something of this (possible) magnitude does not spring up in a couple of weeks, neatly wrapped with a big bow.
This one might be the hardest of all for "transitioning" progressives, as exposing Joe Biden for what he has always been undercuts almost every argument Democrats have been putting forth since 2017. Biden's corruption is not just an unusually blatant example of inside-the-Beltway greed and sleaze. If what appears to be emerging about his multimillion-dollar indebtedness to our country's most dangerous enemies is true, it explains many of his otherwise incomprehensible policies: stubbornly refusing to control the border, lifting all the hard-won sanctions on Iran, attacking and promising to end our lifeblood oil and gas industry, mandating EV's whose manufacture depends on China's good graces.
Hopefully, with our support and a bit more time, they'll get all the way to the truth. Meanwhile, they are a breath of fresh air.
I subscribed to the Free Press because the Free Press searches for Truth. And, yes, there is a Truth out there, not just my truth or your truth but a real truth.
Bari, ever since Jordan told you to always speak truth, I think that is what pushed you out of the New York Times. Of course, I could be very wrong. It probably was festering for a long time. There is only so much propaganda one can stomach.
* I hope the Free Press (and others) displace the New York Times.
* I hope University of Austin displaces those propaganda and accreditation mills that are so called Universities.
* I hope your success wakes up Journalism schools where they MUST cover you instead of trying to bury you in their devotion to the New York Times and Washington Post. If they do that, some college students might be saved.
TFP keeps a human face on the news. Reports on real people caught in the real consequences of these crazy times. This is a nation built on rights of the individual. As proven in the horrors of the 20th century, the fate of the one can easily become the fate of the many.
Pardon my soap box, but there is a brutal and avaricious psyop/lie screaming over the top of human worth and dignity. Subscription journalism is building a new national fact/truth narrative. To repeat: Without Substack, Elon Musk would have had no place to turn and no voice to expose the illegal surveillance state manipulation of Twitter. There would have been no Twitter Files. The Congressional Taibbi/Shellenberger hearing was a clear message that independent journalism hits home.
The corporate media is a corrupt cabal and the true enemy of the people. Its a shame so many are completely captured by these organizations. Thank goodness we have The Free Press, Public, Racket News and others or we'd continue to be manipulated and misled by the lies and deceit peddled today at CNN, MSNBC, Fox, NY Times, WaPo and others. Lets hope that platforms like Substack, Rumble and Spotify don't cave.....it seems we may have already lost X (Twitter). Keep up the great work Bari!
I was thinking about this today. It's not unreasonable to call Trump mean, but he always speaks the truth as he sees it. Over and over and over people make the nastiest, most baseless, vile accusations--while publicly wishing him dead--and if he responds directly and honestly to them, he is castigated as a monster for a small FRACTION of what they were dishing out.
Leftism is simply not consistent with fairness, a sense of proportion, or the capacity for self awareness. Their mirror is a funhouse mirror which always contorts itself to make them into the beautiful people their narcissism has always told them they are. As long as no honest mirror exists--and that would in theory and historical practice be the job of responsible and ethical media--they will never, ever have any cause to doubt themselves, even if they throw the world into a nuclear catastrophe, which many seem to almost openly be wishing for.
Once Elon got involved, we knew it was game over for twitter. Everyone loves Elon, but looking closely at his family ties and he’s actions, he talks a good game but is NOT for the people:
Are you seriously saying that before Elon there was some game going on with Twitter? The same people that were blocking world-renowned experts because their views didn't align with the prevalent progressive orthodoxy of the moment? That Twitter?
I have to say that I was almost sold that Elon might hold true to his absolute free speech position (or as close as humanly possible), but that all went in the sh*tter when he hired Linda Yaccarino.
Evans, although X isn’t perfect, it’s a far cry from the original Twitter! It’s a lot like what some commentators are saying here, today. They want, and are pleading with Bari for more/something/anything to be reported about the Biden Crime Family Regime, yet aren’t getting it. That does not take away from what TFP is giving us!
Elon, like Bari, was once a darling of the Democrats. Once he went against their WOKE Left narrative and dared speak out for Free Speech for all, he was vilified. The same for Taibbi and Shellenberger.
From his mom, to his money, like why is Elon always everywhere but no where? Once you see the support behind big names, we get a picture who's side are they really on.
great a site that believes we live on a flat earth great site , not ! yes Elon is a modern day rasputan have said that for 15 years but really flat earth people ?
yep! check me out though! i like that you mentioned "rasputan"! I wrote an article on the phenomena known as "MAGIC" and why we need to take it seriously because time and time again, influenctial people in high places are associated with this phenomena (i.e., rasputan, british advisor John Dee).
Here's an article on Reality of Magic and John Dee
So when you take the concept of "magic" seriously, you begin to wonder, what if the physics of our reality is different? this goes back to the geocentric model of Ptolemy (before Socrates and Plato).
I am a subscriber and on balance am gratified that somebody is still trying to do their effing job, as I put it. I was raised to do my job--whatever it was, and it would not matter even now--ethically, as well as I could, and to take pride in those facts.
What I will suggest is that Bari and others read two books: The Fatal Conceit, by Friedrich Hayek, and "Intellectuals", by Paul Johnson. There are certain aspects of your world view, as I see it, that will not stand those shocks, but will nonetheless be better for it.
By today's standards I am extremely right wing. But I see myself as a middle of the road moderate, in a world that has lost its effing mind. There is so much crowding at the far left that people's brains seem to be popping from the congestion.
In my own view, the "right wing" is monarchism and theocracy. It is kings, and compulsary membership in one church or another. The Iranian theocracy, for example, is right wing, as are most Arab governments.
And the left wing is dictatorship, and utopianism, which are equally oppressive, but which, rather than point to a religious text or history, simply decide each and every day what reality is going to be that day for the world, and it punishes anyone stubborn enough or who lacks agility, for the "crime" of momentarily getting out of step with their Dance of the Dead.
Everything in between is Liberal. Functionally, Liberalism in our world is the CAPACITY to engage in honest and open conversation, knowing at the outset that the ending will likely remain disagreement, but with understanding added on both sides, and the implicit promise that we will both think about it, and possibly move closer over time.
My particular liberalism is rooted in the work of Hayek, Thomas Sowell, Paul Johnson, Murray Rothbard, and a few others. And my views on science are rooted in SCIENCE. The Global Warming Cult is not science at its political roots. And the COVIDIan madness was not science either. If you understand the scientific method, you understand that data speaks, and anyone who does not listen is not practicing science. And anyone saying they are scientists but not adhering to data based positions is corrupt. Fauci is not stupid: he is corrupt. He is a paid liar, for whom mass death was not even a factor. Just not something that was going to cause him to lose sleep.
But I will say again that, while I wish this place would go farther on stories like the Biden family corruption, you all are still doing vastly better than most of your competition. In some respects, you have a niche that has no competition. Kudos for that.
I have read Hayek and Sowell at length. Hayek is challenging but powerful and worth the effort. A good beginning is The Road to Serfdom. For those who might not know Hayek is a Nobel Laureate in economics.
I don't know where here is, but loneliness is definitely a defining trait of our culture and nation. Our wealth means most of us live alone. I certainly do.
I don't know what to say, other than hang in there, and take social risks. Wherever you are you could probably find a pickleball league or trivia or something.
I'm with you except that climate science is sound, and Fauci is anything but corrupt. Fauci is aspie enough to be tone deaf politically. I know him a bit. Every decision he made was understandable. Perfect? No. Hell no. But... Fauci wasn't really the guy who was supposed to play that role. Trump's nitwits had shot the CDC pandemic response team in the head because, "Hey, we haven't had one.!" So, the knowledge of things like how lockdowns really work was gone.
This cut it all! Mantra of the silly "right" is wrong. Government is the only thing that can maintain a military or a public health crisis system over the generations of time that might pass in between. There's a reason past generations bequeathed to us military rank to the Surgeon General. They had seen it. Even over a century of time, more Americans die of diseases than in any wars. Doesn't matter which century.
I am going to publicly acknowledge you said those things, and that I profoundly disagree. I am trying to wean myself from political, and in this case scientific, argument, so I won't respond further today.
I am going to permit myself to link a commentary I did 15 years ago, the basis of which remains untouched. None of this passes muster scientifically, but if you have not figured that out, I won't convince you here.
If you do want to take the time to read something that even then was the product of hundreds of hours of study and debate, and comment on it, I will respond substantively.
I am a staunch red-blooded white male (with a penis) conservative. I subscribed knowing BW is a liberal/progressive. BW shows that even liberals can tell the truth, especially when they have been stomped on themselves. Show us where it hurts, Bari.
In what respect is Liberalism not rooted in an ability to tolerate difference, to engage with it honestly, and to remain open in a meaningful way to genuine diversity?
I think Bari IS a liberal, and as such progressive, since dialogue and emotional honesty are at the root of all genuine and lasting progress. I disagree with many of her positions, to the extent I understand them, but grant her sincerity.
YOU are not a liberal. You are not sincere. You don't change your mind when confronted with facts. You do not seem to honestly want to improve the world, but rather to defend a quasi-religious faith that is based on relentless lies.
Like racist, all the -phobes, justice, tolerance, diversity and even truth, liberal no longer means anything. As I think Lewis Carroll had his Red Queen say, words for you mean only what you want them to mean, which is to say whatever suits your momentary whim and political--which is to say power hungry--purpose.
I will leave it there, and leave you to whatever disingenuous follow up suits you today.
What I hear you saying is that you disagree strongly, but on the basis of a childish emotionality that cannot communicate using adult language, and thus want to compare it to the first seemingly absurd analogy you can come up with.
But it's a bit ironic that you would choose Alice in Wonderland, which in many respects is a satire of how genuinely puerile minds do what they call "thinking".
Good examples would be how the Red Queen tries to believe two impossible things before breakfast every morning, and how words mean exactly what she says they mean, nothing more, nothing less.
That is the leftist mindset in a nutshell, which is very certainly an apt analogy.
Bari does not tolerate difference, engage honestly, nor remain open in a meaningful way to "genuine diversity" (whatever the hell that means)
She has a long history of trying to cancel people and consistently engages in selective moral outrage and rehabilitation attempts of bad people.
Yep. Not a liberal. That is correct. However, am exceptionally sincere in not falling for hyperbolic moral panics and people minding their own damn business if it doesn't effect you.
You, nor anyone on here, have provided any "facts" on anything. Just more Satanic Panic 2.0
I've never had a comment pulled, and I have said what I think. That is not true of HuffPo. Media Matters, the Daily Kos, my local newspaper, or a host of other sites, where I am banned for saying the sorts of things I say here, in the same way, using the same words. I am very consistent. It's not hard to be consistent, when your views are based on extensive reading, logical analysis, firm principles, and emotional maturity.
Although, I suppose being a consistent Leftist is not hard either. You just say what you are told to say each day, and hit the reset button every night, just in case you need to have believed firmly all your life what you were attacking the day before.
Barry---For myself, some of the problem we're all facing is that the narrative no longer fits the reality and that is making our attempts to separate the disease from the symptom ever more difficult. The human landscape inside us doesn't match the inhuman landscape our eyes are witnessing.
It has ever been "..rules for thee not for me..." but the sudden expansion of consciousness and the transparency brought on by the leap in tech has frightened and exposed the rigged gamers of the political/financial realm and they're scrambling to put a lid on it. This new age is rapidly outstripping "ism's" and labels of every kind. The European, Australian and Canadian peoples have already entered the dystopian world of the EU/Davos CCP styled re-education center, thought/speech crime arrest, and the travel permitted 15 minute city where euthanasia for the troubled citizen is encouraged and available to all. In America, the natural chaos and social disintegration resulting from rigged game economic looting and a collapsing infrastructure, all contributed to and supported the planned destruction of the necessary middle class, that held the extreme politics of criminal finance in check.
We live inside a lie and the perps have already tripled down. "We the people.." and our every institution is compromised, surveilled and managed. In my view our only engine of survival is the Republic and the Constitution. It is the only human frame of reference standing. As in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia and Mao's China the forces controlling finance and politics exist squarely in the realm of the pathological. Even more frightening is the growing belief in violence and cataclysm as the way forward. It amounts to what primitive peoples term a "loss of Soul". Subsumed by a lie, anomie and hopelessness and the propagandist shadow "othering" being encouraged by the psyop, America is becoming a tinderbox. We all see it and feel it. To paraphrase Leonard Cohen: "it's coming from a feel..that it ain't exactly real..or it's real but it ain't exactly there..".
This little fire in the darkness we call subscription journalism is important. Truth and facts are powerful weapons. As I've said before, it isn't metaphor to say that truth is light because it literally is. Its palpable emotional impact on individual human reality proves the existence of the Psyche. This "Tower of Babel" reality we inhabit is demanding a redefinition of everything.
I'm not talking about the FP discussion board. So, what you claim to have "pulled" or not is actually irrelevant. Was that suppossed to be another "hit at the line?"
Talking about Bari's long history of trying to cancel people, engaging in selective outrage and attempt to rehabilitate bad people.
Not a "Leftists" dude. I think you're being told to call anyone who does not agree with you or this ideological echo-chamber a "Leftists" and you just hit the reset button every night. That's the only thing you're consistent on, which is pretty pathetic.
But hey if you want to claim it's based on your "extensive reading" and "logical analysis"...lol...go right ahead.
I have been consistent since day one:
1. 95% of this discussion board and FP articles are Satanic Panic 2.0
2. Trump finally revealed the GOP base for who they are/have been since 1965. Which is why he will win the nomination.
Anyone who would WANT to work at the NY Times is a liberal. Other than guest editorials (conservative) why would anyone want to read the NYT? I mean really. If you don't think the NYT is working with the Biden admin then you are not only a liberal, you're an idiot liberal
Well....maybe one day Conservative/GOP will develop newspapers, TV Networks, magazines, think tanks, etc. that will "work" with them as well and help even the playing field.
OG Common Sense subscriber. I have spent a lifetime reputation as a conservative, a Christian, a devotee of thinkers like WFB, Thomas Sowell, Hayek. My right-of-center priors are well-established, in other words. I tell people that my favorite media is led by a woman who, as laid up against all of those priors, is just about my polar opposite. And yet, she exemplifies everything that I admire in our world, and she leads a team that produces the most deeply thoughtful, utterly respectful and fiercely courageous journalism extant. I was inspired to happily pay in the early days in hopes the stated purpose would hold fast. My faith in Bari, and the people around her, is weekly justified. They operate on the leading edge of the news, as the editorial above notes.
David, you captured many of my thoughts. I started following Bari when she and her team launched “Common Sense”. I didn’t get on their bandwagon until recently. Over the years I have been deceived by publications that have implied one thing and did another. Like many, they played to the crowd, dodging anything not “political correct”. Before I coughed up my hard earned cash I wanted to feel sure that they “walked the talk”. While I sometimes sense a political bent, for the most part I believe they are fair and open minded. As an “old foggy” born in the dust-bowl depression era I feel no one cares what those of my generation have to say. The same can be said by the younger generations. What has inspired and invigorated me the most about Free Press is that voices are being heard and stories being told that are touching the hearts and minds of grassroots Americans. In this malaise our country as drifted into, it’s refreshing and inspiring to see and feel there is still goodness and hope that the American Dream is still alive.
I’m usually a very late adopter, but proud to be an early one with independent journalism on Substack. With Bari, Taibi, Berenson, and a couple of others -even if I don’t read every article I am proud to sponsor it all --I see it as an investment in the future of the USA. I also find it funny that I as a conservative have paid for journalism from 3 liberals (who realize what has happened to journalism) --I do not want journalism that feeds my beliefs --I want stuff that makes me think. Congrats to you all!!
"I do not want journalism that feeds my beliefs --I want stuff that makes me think."
Actually, my needs are even simpler. I want journalism that's HONEST. That doesn't root for one side or the other, but just reports where the facts lead. If it makes me think as well... that's a bonus.
But in today's America, the one thing lacking most of all is journalism that is just freaking honest. And that's why I subscribe to TFP.
My Free Press subscription is money well spent. I am a right leaning independent from a bi-racial family who has become outspoken on issues of race and the transgender assault on children. The work of the Free Press has proven to be extremely valuable in my fight for normalcy. I don’t agree with everything that is written, but I am not supposed to. Common Sense, as this started, is so critically important in today’s world. Thank you Bari and all for taking the difficult path but the open and honest path.
Yet, David, so many people drink the daily dose of cool aid that MSM (the propaganda arm of the WOKE Left Democrats) passes out! They have no clue they are being lied to & manipulated, else they would not continuously vote in the same politicians time after time. (This hold true for both Right & Left.)
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over & over while expecting different results.
Or, perhaps, they do know. Perhaps they despise the other side so much they are willing to follow lockstep the voices sowing hate & division, not wanting to help bridge the divide.
There it was, in all the darkness, a ray of light. A sane voice from a mainstream news outlet, and one with real authority. If Bari speaks up, I thought, surely more mainstream media actors will wake up from their collective insanity.
Not nearly as many have woken up as I'd hoped, but as this article points out, the work often comes with far more jeers than cheers at first but the impact is eventually there.
Keep up the great work, our great country is lost without it!
On 7/11/22, my dental hygienist told me about Bari and sent me the link to her address to the students at The University of Austin and everything changed. Reading it was like a cool pool on a blistering hot day. I was refreshed and energized... I was full of hope. I never looked back. Thank you, Bari, for opening doors and uncovering windows.
The Free Press often speaks for me. It also often doesn't. This is ultimately what keeps me coming back. Whereas almost every major news outlet tolerates almost no dissent from the chosen narrative, the Free Press's narrative is that the truth is almost always somewhere outside the narratives you hear most often.
The FP will provide many stories I find enlightening, sometimes even exhilerating to read (recent example being A Church Grows in Brooklyn) while at the same time posting articles that frustrate me while still providing new perspectives on subjects I don't know nearly enough about (What Happened When One Illinois Town Passed Reparations).
Every week, I look forward to the next article and the further insights the commentors will provide. It's a community I'm proud and thankful to be a part of.
I find it regularly challenging, which I appreciate. I don't need to be in an echo chamber (but if I DO want that...I just go to the comments, who usually agree with me. Ha!)
I find the comments lean conservative and very often repeat themselves. I’d love to hear from the more liberal subscribers and see less vitriol directed at them when it happens. I say that as a conservative.
As far as I can tell there are no liberal subscribers to TFP, it’s mostly just MAGA republicans who liked the idea that a progressive NYT reporter got fed up with the NYT and publicly resigned, promising to be a traitor to the cause and publish her own less-biased news. As a center-left RINO turned Democrat, I also liked the idea that Bari gave the NYT the middle finger, but I find the volume of MAGA vitriol in these comments, well, surprising doesn’t really describe it. Problematic? Weird? Anyway, that’s my theory about the comments. There are no liberal subscribers of the TFP, and that’s why they’re not in the comments.
I wish it spoke for me less often, TBQH. I am always on alert when I agree too much with any person, In my Army days we said "Get in front of your battle position", meaning to look at what you've constructed to see how you'd attack it. I don't like being comfortable in any belief but then again, as a social/political/theological conservative, I'm used to feeling "under attack" more often than not.
I am a conservative Republican who can’t stomach either the current POTUS or Trump. I joined in the Common Sense days and was drawn to Bari when I saw that a left, progressive journalist like her was canceled by the NYT. I have not regretted subscribing because of her willingness to go for the facts, the truth, without worrying about any predetermined narrative. There is one hot-button issue that I wish Bari and company would pursue with an open debate about facts, science, philosophy and theology—abortion. Bari has made it quite clear that she and her partner are pro-abortion, but the lens of abortion usually presented here is strictly political, I.e., what abortion restrictions, or lack thereof, and what political groups, or the average American, willing to accept in our current political landscape and modern culture. What I would like to see/hear instead is an honest, civil discussion of the emerging science of what exactly is an “aborted 12-week” fetus? Is it a person, a genetically unique human being, a glob of biological matter w/o any dignity of its own! Hard issues I know, but let’s have a science-based debate before politics,
You know, I never thought of it like that. But you are correct. Almost no one actually talks about it from a biological standpoint. It is always about the politics and the rights of the mother. Never from the standpoint of what exactly the thing/being/person being aborted is.
To me that is the stunning thing - that the fetus is not a concern at all for a lot of people. They do not even reach the question of competing concerns, they just dismiss the fetus outright.
I’m a paid subscriber from the early Common Sense days and I’ll never be without the FP. If it weren’t for publications like this and Racket News we’d never be exposed to these stories. I’m so happy that the tremendous work that Bari and team put forth is flourishing.
The FP is a beacon of light every morning. Let’s not forget about all the brilliant commenters too. They are always adding new perspectives and chuckles to the story. Kudos to Bari and team for letting us speak freely and build community!
And let’s pray nothing ever happens to Substack!
I worry about that as well.
Recall that in the “early days” of Sub stack there were some folks who urged censorship of “hate speech”. There was an outpouring of opposition from mainly subscriber commenters but some of the Substack writers as well. Even some blowback ack to the Substack founders hosting some folks known for shoddy journalism. The
Founders even went so far as to censor comments or to bar comments. Fortunately, I have not ween that repeated. Fingers crossed!
Agree, RBM (with a nom de plume like that, were you at Burning Man?). I too have been a subscriber since very early days. Bari is not afraid to confront us (me!) and mostly it’s good. But to take just one example, it’s sometimes disturbing: when she interviewed former AG Bill Barr and he revealed his judicial AND social philosophy - I saw for the first time just how radical is the right-wing Catholic view of the world. It explains a lot about the current USSC, six of whom are Catholics.
You just noticed?
And recall that “hate speech” is usually in the mind/bias of the objector. It is uncommonly an objective thing. And that was the case with the “hate speech” objectors on Sub stack
Yes, certainly can't have censorship of hate speech. Next thing you know, this space will be like Twitter!....or X....or whatever....
I have only 2 other subscriptions. One is to Steve Keen's Patreon, a renegade economist exposing the reality that neoclassical economics that virtually every journalist on earth believes is beyond malarkey. https://www.patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen
The other is to The Everyday Astronaut, Tim Dodd. https://www.patreon.com/EverydayAstronaut/about?l=es
I subscribed very early on as well. While I sometimes question if I want to give it another year, along comes articles like the ones Bari mentioned and more, and I realize I would never hear about these pieces of news if not for TFP. Besides our politicians and the crazies of both the left and right (mostly left…by far!), the media is a major cause of the division and problems we face (see links to Chris Hayes’s reporting of the trans article Bari first mentioned).
Thank you, Bari!
I waver back and forth between continuing to subscribe because I find glaring blind spots in the reporting (and in much of the lefty politics, even as "middle of the road" as they are, of many of the journalists), but there is SO much good, thought-provoking material in here, and honestly, the commentators are the best. So I will continue to subscribe! Because I don't think you can get this variety of reporting anywhere else. And honestly, I'll just keep hope alive that they might drift slightly more conservative. :-) Or at least not more progressive!
There is definitely a lens to this reporting that is inescapable. I would encourage them to break through and be openly ambivalent to the Democrat Party. Be free, Bari!
Bridget Phetasy, who is a writer and podcaster, says that so much of this kind of rhetoric is from the perspective of "...*sigh*, BUT THE RIGHT." i.e., we'd be more into this conservative idea, or conservative policies make more sense here but...the Right sucks and will always suck (and she grew up fairly liberal and currently considers herself "politically homeless"). I get some of that same vibe from The FP. "Gender ideology is messed up, just like conservatives have been saying! ...oh man, BUT THE RIGHT, bleh." So I view most of their reporting through that lens. I'm probably that same way about the left/liberal ideas. It's hard to give them any credit at all!
Whataboutism is degenerate journalism. I don't see it constantly which is why I haven't pulled the plug on my subscription yet. But more than that there is a fair amount of skew in the reporting here that's probably only obvious if you're a conservative. It's extremely easy for us to spot.
I think the reporting pretty much middle of the road. FP defends and tells the stories of people who have not only been pilloried by the PC/Woke tyrants but have lost their jobs. You can't get more left than the PC/Woke swine. FP exposes them for what they are, vicious, small minded, hurtful, bullying assholes.
I like the diversity ideas that FP brings to us every day. I won't quit because FP has a left wing commentator post here. Who knows the loon might just have a point (but they cover it with a hat).
Ah yes. And conservatives are always right! 😇
I agree with you Mike, but I get a lot of pleasure from the times the democrats go after the FP lol. Kind of like to keep it this way.
I’d agree, Erin, but my takeaway these last few years has been that when the right overreaches, I have to console a gay friend, or tell a Muslim friend that we aren’t all bad, or tell my young daughter that yes you are allowed to burn the flag...stuff like that.
BUT when the Left overreaches, My daughter is taught she is an oppressor in school and that she is to be defined her entire life by the color of her skin, I'm told by a guy in a private jet that climate change will kill us all and it is all my fault for owning a house, air conditioner, and a gas stove...and that I should buy a $20 LED lightbulb and a $100K EV or I am an environmental terrorist ... I lose my right to free speech, freedom of assembly, right to own a gun, I’m locked down forced to go out of business and forced to inject experimental drugs, taxes increase, my health insurance company flees the state, inflation puts everyday items out of reach, WW3 can break out at any moment, or can get killed in a crime wave...and basically live in a constant state of fear and panic...even speaking here may get picked up by a left wing Brownshirt and my life gets cancelled...
Good thing I ignore almost all of it and read TFP among others. Still not a day goes by that something from the left overreach doesn’t directly affect my life
Sorry, I’ll take the “bleh, right” 6 days a week and twice on Sunday
Please elaborate on how your daughter is being taught that she is an oppressor in school.
Well said Eric!
I tried unsubscribing once. I found myself reading headlines and teasers of stories I wanted to read. I resubscribed. I’m conservative. Very conservative. I don’t read every single story. Some don’t interest me. Others I quit reading halfway through. But there’s enough good stuff I’ll keep paying and reading more than half of what’s published. As conservative as I am, I appreciate well intentioned, sound opposing perspectives. Generally, Bari and her crew give that.
Yeah me too. I paused my subscription, but missing Douglas Murray was an ongoing pain and those teases and my curiosity just forced me back. I reckon prospectors had to be patient and keep the faith while digging for gold back in the day, and conservative gold is mostly buried in this current age. I’m glad you are here on behalf of the good “nuggets” sometimes available as well. Have a great day in America!
Nobody's perfect.
😂😂nope true, but God can you get a more imperfect bunch at the moment in the WH it’s like a comedy if it wasn’t so tragic.
Yeah. Bari gets it wrong sometimes. She got it wrong on lab leak, and still refuses to talk to actual virologists who study this stuff. But mostly it's good.
On the contrary. Check out Honestly about China from two years ago. Literally:
“So today, in Part One, a look into what went down in Wuhan and Washington during the fateful month of January 2020. We show how the “Lab Leak Theory,” due in big part to Josh’s reporting, went from a fringe conspiracy theory to a credible explanation for the virus that continues to ravage the planet.”
Same here, Alison, I am a proud supporter! Reading Bari’s resignation letter to the NYT was my first introduction to her. I’d cancelled my subscription to the NYT during the Hillary Trump campaign, not because I supported Trump, but because of their total & complete blatant bias for her & against ANYONE who dared run against her! Poor ‘ole Bernie got nothing, and Trump got vilified.
I was so impressed with Bari stepping up and speaking out (or stepping out & speaking up) about her appalling treatment at the Times JUST because she dared write an article that was unbiased! Oh my god, how dare she go against the WOKE LEFT narrative!! And, yet, she did not! She simply reported like all journalist should!
Bari and her Common Sense / The Free Press has served as the “pendulum swinging back toward center” I was fearful wouldn’t happen.
Thank you, thank you, Bari!
The closest I get to the Times is Wordle.
The Times is fun to read to see how thoroughly and blatantly twist facts to create today's narrative. The length they go to dissemble is extraordinary.
Even more fun to read comments by motivated Times readers. Wow!
Reading NYT comments scares me. It shows too many people with blinders on standing shoulder to shoulder while heavily armed with absolute conviction they are right. Also, may serve well to lower anyone’s opinion of the educated elite. There is no trace of independent or critical thinking in these comments. My blood pressure goes up when I read them.
The crossword puzzle is the best of the NYT.
Don't forget Wirecutter.
LMAO, me too!
Exactly. And Connections.
The NYT died for me when I ran an office in the Central Asia. I was close to assassinations and political events. When I told the NYT that, for instance, a man they reported as a suicide had 2 bullets in his head of 2 different calibers? NYT actively suppressed it. I could go on. Suffice to say that what Americans read about foreign events is largely hogwash. "Foreign correspondents" phoning it in from... Washington DC. Or, maybe, a 5 star hotel 3 nations away.
What?! That story was suppressed?! Please tell us more.
Bravo Honey. I feel the same way about Bari and FP. On a side note, journalism has always been this way. Over a century ago it reported to the right. The press got us into the Spanish American War and in the mid to late 1800s newspapers gave birth to yellow journalism.
Journalism is now in the thrall of the loony left. Hopefully the pendulum will swing back to the center right.
We can dream.
LP, am currently visiting what is commonly known as Hearst Castle (William Randolph Hearst’s palatial estate in San Simeon, CA) and was just reading about “yellow journalism”. Apparently it was media wars between the two NYC newspapers from Hearst and Pulitzer at the time.
“It was said of Hearst that he wanted New York American readers to look at page one and say, ‘Gee whiz,’ to turn to page two and exclaim, ‘Holy Moses,’ and then at page three, shout ‘God Almighty!’”
The term itself “yellow journalism” was based on Hearst having poached a popular comic strip “The Yellow Kid” from Pulitzer’s “New York World”.
Love it when the pot calls the kettle black! 😂
Yeah.....that's why you cancelled your NYT subscription....
Bari's NYT "resignation" was BS.....she just didn't like being critiqued. Didn't like "Free Speech."
https://newrepublic.com/article/158535/self-cancellation-bari-weiss
Avid reader here and this is my ONLY paid subscription on Substack. It was worth breaking my "free rider" pledge.
Matt Taibbi is also worth the subscription, especially as a defender of free speech/anti-censorship.
Michael Shellenberger is right up there with Matt Taibi and Bari Weiss. Great, honest journalists.
Yep. The holy trinity of good press. Those are the three I subscribe to.
I'm going to check out those two and see if I want to pay.
You do Dean, I promise. Matt Taibbi and Walter Kern on Friday mornings are excellent, plus lots of small articles during the week. Shellenberger with another person run Public and it publishes a lot of content daily, lots of writers. They’re exposing the truth on a daily basis and call out the censors. Also Sasha Stone & the 4th Turning.
Agreed. And worth EVERY CENT to listen to his podcast with walter kirn every week. I cant live without.
Love the typewriter at the beginning of the show.
100%
Lee Fang is also worth subscribing too. Great independent, investigative journalism usually on stories you don’t hear about. I flounder him when he published some articles defending Matt Taibbi.
Matt’s outstanding.
He was. Taibbi's become too uncritical of people who are influencers. He is doing more than a little of "follow my money". I couldn't stomach it anymore.
Please explain?
Agree. I don’t see that at all.
Yes, all information on the cross-sex ideation cult is so important and the main stream media is more like an arm of their indoctrination. I know it all quite well for 31 years, as my ex-husband went down this path starting in 1992. He's never seemed happy, satisfied or fulfilled since. Here's a clip of me reporting fraud of a "sexologist" who has uncertified "therapists" working under her, in NYC to do the 1 appointment "gender dysphoria" diagnoses. It's the "mail order gender affirmation degrees" now circulated which should shock everyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbnkYmyUGtY
thanks for linking. It's malpractice!
You're welcome. There's elephant in the room, preventing this utterly nonsensical, illogical diagnosis, with origins from child sexual molester and masochist Alfred Kinsey and it's preventing the exposure of this corruption. Men like my ex-husband, named Neddy in my memoir (In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow, iuniverse, 2022) have so much to lose. They are powerful, tech-oriented, wealthy men who express their sexual fetishes by adopting a "female persona." Well, lobotomies were debunked and countless women had been damaged by the practice. We just have to pick ourselves up and move on.
Very well said Alison. I also became a subscriber early on,, impressed that Bari flipped off the NYT and went on her own. American Dream stuff.
I'm encouraged she thinks: "By covering these hard topics in a sober, fair way, we force others to follow. And in doing so, slowly, we believe we are changing the conversation in the culture and the country."
I don't see it yet, but it took a long time to get where we are culturally, so it'll take a long time to turn it around.
I also was an early paid subscriber. They publish occasional nonsense that frustrates me and makes me question if my money has been well spent. The bizarre and condescending piece about the abortion vote in Kansas was one such article. But the truly groundbreaking news like those Bari mentioned and even the Sunday feature of Things Worth Remembering are such treasures, I know my subscription is well worth it.
SAME! ( Racket, FP, Public, Lee Fang and more)
I agree completely with Alison. I especially like TGIF, but also many of the articles about specific subjects that it's hard or impossible to get fair reporting on or discussions of elsewhere. I'm a happy subscriber from early on, and it's such a bargain.
Bari, Nellie--The Story is the Biden corruption machine. And it’s not being covered. Why not?
I think it’s fine to take a bow for the stories you have covered, but if aren’t willing or interested in covering what looks like massive corruption in the White House, do you really get to call yourself the antidote to the NYT?
This comment says it all...but not in the way it is phrased. What FP subscribers, readers and fans of you and your contributors are asking for is what FP provides consistently, a clear, objective but thoughtful and well researched look at the facts so that we as citizens can see a path forward on the issues of the day. It’s not Biden per se, it’s the desire for an objective, no “spin, no dictated catch phrase” review of what has happened to the political class. How can so many politicians and governmental “C Suite” level employees use public service as a path to wealth, using taxpayer’s money & “equity value” in access to the still greatest asset on earth- the US Constitutional Democracy and the vast opportunities that flow from it.
It’s asking a lot from the FP to take this on but if not you, who? If not now, when? As a FP supporter and happy reader I applaud and appreciate you.
Another topic is the two tiered justice system. It’s so blatant now, it begs attention.
I'll offer a suggestion: Perhaps it is the subconscious belief of "If not Biden, then Trump". The fear that attacking the Biden family will ensure Trump's re-ascendancy.
Is THAT a valid reason to avoid reporting on corruption and privilege in the highest office in the land? Or is it a vestigial artifact of a liberal/leftist past?
If you are congratulating yourself for doing cutting edge reporting that goes after stories the MSM won’t cover, but then not do stories laying out the evidence against the Bidens, I think the congratulations are a bit premature. If Greenwald can do it night after night, why can’t we expect it here too?
A big surprise for me in reading the FP since inception is just how very very conservative many are Commentators are, not just considered conservatives but actual “drink the right-wing Kool-Aid. Examples: Biden didn’t win without fraud; vaccines are experimental and unproven; supporting Ukraine helps only (pick any) the Democrats, the military money machine, or the dreadful EU; the ERA is a socialist/communist plot; Biden is ga-ga; Trump is not guilty of ANYTHING.
This is not the FP itself but the commenters. I think one has to glean the “truth”, elusive as it is, by looking at many news sources and hope some wisdom emerges. The FP is invaluable, especially by inviting me to look more critically at all sources. I still subscribe to the NYT, mainly for some of its columnists, just as I do to The Economist, The Atlantic, and the WSJ - none of them is the universal oracle.
Hi Will, Looks like you are inclined to read media on the left.
Here are a couple to add—Darkhorse Podcast, two PhD biologists on the left have been exclaiming practically from the start that mRNA vaccines are experimental, unproven and dangerous. The evidence continues to prove them right. Glenn Greenwald, also a noted lefty, is anti Ukraine war.
I enjoy listening to views like these three, plus other people on the left, like Taibbi and Shellenberger, who are challenging the narratives of their team and starting to sound, ahem, like conservatives. Amazing what a little critical thinking can do.
Hi Will
If you read on Substack then you know Biden won by information control, the FBI and cia in conjunction with a bunch of GONGOs conspired with the msm to supress information about Hunter’s laptop in particular.
If Americans had been told it was real millions would have either stayed home or voted Trump according to polls.
I think you need to go back to the start.
Lol. You think Hunter Biden paid 50k/ mo in rent to Joe Biden, don't you?
Will, your juvenile name calling is the practice of vapid ideas unable counter an argument. Saul Alinsky wrote the playbook, you are a beginner. Name calling means you have already lost the debate of ideas. I am a very Conservative American who finds the FP refreshing in it actually offers stimulating arguments. Biden won due to massive interference by media, Establishment, mail in voter fraud and Trump Derangement Syndrome. Glenn Greenwald has covered the issue, it would be nice to see Biden corruption finally be addressed on FP.
Lol. You think Hunter Biden paid 50k/ mo in rent to Joe Biden, don't you?
Yes, that was definitely a big surprise for me too, good to know I’m not alone. It’s the reason why while I find FP great, I rarely look into its comments section, because it’s not very useful. Interesting in comparison with another news web that I read regularly, where the reporting and journalism quality kinda sucks, but the comments are often insightful. One would expects those two aspects to correlate, but doesn’t seem so…
I'm a G.G. fan too.
One must pick and choose their battles. Bias may contribute to this choice, but also could be factors such as resource allocation, who is already fighting this battle, expertise about the topic, access to sources, etc.
In addition, going up against the DNC - Clinton, Biden, Obama machine is dangerous. My belief is that, for instance, that amazing primary win of Biden in his 1st election was election fraud and helped by classical Republicans. Flatly, as a scientist trained in statistics, that win was impossible. It displays the red flags that get science papers taken down. Picking battles. Yes, Greenwald does it.
Yeah, came here to say basically this but from a slightly different angle: reputable news sources that are just starting out and attempting to be neutral and establish credibility can't be out ahead of everyone else on every story. Investigating, fact-gathering, gaining access to credible sources to corroborate, and publishing actual news (rather than half-baked speculation and partisan hot takes) takes time. Even more so for young, independent news sources with paid subscribers numbering in the thousands rather than millions--i.e., having a small fraction of the resources of both legacy media and more well-established new media. So, just because TFP hasn't yet published results of such a process with respect to a particular topic doesn't mean they're not going to (or even need to, because they never purported to be a paper of record or a one-stop-shop for news). Any inference that they haven't covered the Biden mess or anything else because they are partisan in one direction or another is unsupported by any of their *actual* reporting. And it's not logically valid to say a political bias exists in one direction or the other simply because a publication has not yet reported on a situation people who *do* have political bias think they should. Their stated mission is to bring critical thinking and rigorous journalism back. We already have plenty of news outlets muddying the waters, pandering to one side or the other by rushing to press with unsubstantiated facts, conjecture, and innuendo. Anyone who wants their conspiracy theories of any type confirmed can find a publication that will do that for them. Just not necessarily this one. Which is exactly why I pay to subscribe to this one. Because the reason I read news is to educate and inform myself--and to have my opinions changed when warranted, based on new information. Anyone who's just looking to have their beliefs and biases validated can vote with their dollars and subscribe to a different publication. Complaining in the comments is pointless. You have to vote with your dollars to get the journalism you want. Which is why I subscribe to the Free Press.
What is the evidence?
they are showing their Bi-ass
I’ve been waiting for the Biden family expose, but I think it’s beyond Biden. IT’s Democrat party corruption beginning with Obama, mainstream media and Soros.
I agree. The only way Biden could get away with his grift for so long is that 'they' are all in on it. That included the Rs.
Definitely includes the Rs-not all though and some are fighting to expose the truth.
Scott, don’t leave out the Clintons!
LOL! The original Democrat crime family.
Lol. You think Hunter Biden paid 50k/ mo in rent to Joe Biden, don't you?
Not sure who this comment was aimed at, but the Biden’s are corrupt. And Joe had a free reign while “Obama the god” was in charge.
100% aimed at you, Scott
hUNter bIDen WaS paYING 50k A mONTH iN rENt to JOe bIDEn!
Derp!
Relax, dude....it's not like he Hunter got Billions from Saudi Arabia and China to influence
foreign policy while working in White House or something
What does Obama have to do with this?.....seems you have some "issues" with him, Scott. Let it go. America had a non-white POTUS. It's ok.
Uh....probably because there's nothing to report.
Except the Biden crime syndicate.
And it’s not pro Trump or Pro Republican to write critically and truthfully about a sitting President’s mental state or history of corruption. It’s good journalism.
Which is WHAT exactly, Bruce?
What's taking the GOP so long, Bruce?
Are you interested in any of the emails written under Biden's pseudonyms? The ones being withheld because of "executive priviledge"? What's taking Democrat party so long to call him out for using private emails and fake names to avoid FOIA?
The GOP promised that there would be evidence of money going to Joe Biden's bank account/financial instruments in a direct quid pro quo for him taking actions as a representative of the U.S. Government. So, that's the GOP's job to "call out," Marcia. Just like it was the Democrats to "call out" the Billions Kushner and Ivanka got from the Saudis and China.
Interested in pseudonyms? Not really, Marica. Unless it can be proven those pseudonyms were used to facilitate criminal activity....so, let me know when that happens. Fox News has reported on an email exchange where Hunter had the temerity to contact his Dad in order to see if he could get him an interview. GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh....look who suddenly has a problem with "Executive Privilege."
Wow....you don’t even consider that the Justice Department and the White House have custody of most of the documents that would prove the corruption. Its all so dirty, corrupted and wrong. With the help of some crooked federal Judges, the info stays suppressed in a litigious mess. The truth will emerge soon and many journalists will be sorry they let the people of this country down by ignoring the biggest scandal in US History.
So I guess you won’t be convinced until we find a cheque to Biden from Burisma, with the memo line reading “for firing the prosecutor.” Influence peddling doesn’t work that way. There are smoking guns everywhere and Dem ideologues just wave it away. Same thing with the laptop. The FBI, the CIA, the regime media and big tech all worked together to keep it hidden and elect Biden. Nothing to see here folks.
Trump is a narcissistic psychopath, but the Dems are so much more dangerous because they control all the institutions - the regime media, big tech, big finance, academia, NGOs, the bureaucracy, the culture. All of this is enabled by people like you who are willfully blind to the corruption of policy and people. But MAGA, MAGA, MAGA. We’re constantly told these fascists are a threat to democracy. Meanwhile, the Dems donate more than $10 mill to the most extreme candidates during Republican primaries.
Go ahead, keep deluding yourself, keep moaning about trans issues, keep whining about free speech, but most of all, keep supporting Joe Biden and carrying water for the people that bring you censorship and 13 year olds with chopped off body parts.
https://youtu.be/C_pT9KOjqaw?si=_ySO46oCKLA-o6jH to see reporting on the evidence Biden is crooked and linked to Hunter.
You do realize Hunter rented Daddy's (Joe's) house for $50,000 a month when Joe was VP? Do you see anything unusual about that? I guess you are a blind loyalist or uninformed. FP has not covered any of this issue. Greenwald has as has Matt Tailbi.
"What's taking the GOP so long, Bruce?"
1. Meaning What?
2. What would you have them do?
Find the evidence?
Well....I think a good start would be releasing all the incriminating evidence on the laptop.
They Have.
This is the laptop evidence feds could use in Hunter Biden tax fraud case
By Emily Crane
Published Oct. 7, 2022
https://nypost.com/2022/10/07/the-laptop-evidence-fbi-could-use-to-charge-hunter-biden/
Perhaps we can ask Jim Jordan what he's found out so far after months looking..
And here's Compost making a fool of himself once again on a national stage.
Good morning 234, Compost hasn't been rude. He's asked what's on the laptop. Legit question. No need to devolve into name calling.
I didn't say he's rude. I said he's a fool.
If you or anyone doesn't know what's on the laptop, you're not looking.
Just maybe the House Oversight Committee is working slowly & methodically before they make a major move, unlike Nancy Pelosi & House Democrats who impeached Trump for innocently doing the very thing Biden may be guilty of doing.
All Trump did in his phone call is inquire why and to what length the Bidens were involved with Burisma.
Why was there a threat to withhold foreign aid?
Why would any sitting Vice President insist his clearly inept son sitting as a board director of a major global energy company, accused of corruption, in a foreign country?
And why would that same sitting Vice President insist on a special prosecutor investigating corruption on the same energy company to be fired?
What possible business of this could be his?
Furthermore, how does a 50 yr. politician living on a government salary afford to buy the DuPont mansion, along with two other very expensive homes? Stock tips from Al Gore?
Shame on all of you ignoring this and looking the other way!
Yes 234! If I could add another question. Why would a sitting US President send his VP to clean up a political/law enforcement controversy involving that VP’s own son? And from that same President we get nary a word of explanation. If these people looking the other way chose to ignore this blatant conflict of interest, then let their naïveté deliver to them the consequences. I believe the truth will emerge and perhaps it wont be delivered by the GOP.
What's on the laptop, 234?
What's taking the GOP so long?
I was promised evidence that a senile, dementia-riddled man was currently running the world's largest crime syndicate.
It is online, go read it!
Can you just tell me? Maybe one little tiny bit of it? What's on the laptop?
Maybe the same FBI agents that took five years to find Hunter's tax problem are working on the laptop?
Or maybe....664 pages of material are already public...
Maybe if the GOP had anything they could hold a press conference or publish it in a report....
Hunter Biden has tax issues? Gasp!!! Well....he's certainly lost my vote for POTUS.
Are you being deliberately obtuse?
Why do you think the only evidence that exists is on the laptop? You might be surprised if you find out later that you have overlooked other potential sources. Try to think outside of your GOP obsessed box.
Because that's all everyone has been talking about for 2 years.
No, I will not be surprised. If they had anything, they would make it public. Every prediction I have made has come to pass.
Try to think outside your Fox News obsessed box.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go watch Tucker Carlson's interview with a man who claimed to have gay sex and smoked crack with Obama.
Because the Hunter Biden laptop and all the incriminating evidence on it was “Russian Disinformation,” right?
Actually....I don't know if it's disinformation or not, as I have yet to have anyone cogently explain what exactly is suppossed to be on this laptop. Wire transfers? Encoded files, screenshots of handing over satchesl full of money, etc.?
I know there's videos of him with women and cocaine, cause MTG was showing the pics.
But hasn't the GOP had the contents of this laptop for a long time? What EXACTLY is suppossed to be on there?
Morning Comprof, It's sometimes hard to remember all the details. But in one particular email Hunter was talking about "10% to the big guy". Please Google that phrase and see what comes up. Then there was the fact that Hunter was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company being paid A LOT even though he self admittedly knew nothing about gas. Why would they hire Hunter Biden?? Joe Biden went to Ukraine to have a prosecutor who was investing the company for corruption fired. JB said if they didn't fire him he would withhold a billion dollars of aide. Got him on tape saying this. Guess what! They fired the prosecutor. The laptop has evidence of money payments to.Hunter. Anyway, I'm going down a rabbit hole here. If you want to know more, please Google it.
https://bidenlaptopreport.marcopolousa.org/report_viewer/index.html#p=1
The real scandal, in my view, is how the intelligence community has directly operated upon elections.
They invented and ran an intelligence operation against the last president, then censored Americans on a stupendous scale, and buried this factual information from the public by lying to them and censoring them still more, before an election.
Oh....I thought the real scandal was Hunter Biden getting a job/paid because his last name is "Biden."
Arizona girl, please don’t feed the troll, or waste your time supplying facts! He can’t or won’t hear you!
people that use factcheck dot org , politifact dot org etc. etc. as proof of their positions are intellectually corrupt.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/trump-revives-false-narrative-on-biden-and-ukraine/
Who is "The Big Guy?"
Yep. Hunter got a job because of his last name/nepotism. Shocking.
Payments to Hunter?!!! Uh...he's a private citizen, who cares if he got payments from a foreign company?
Now, if someone were to...say get Billions from Saudi Arabia for real estate while they were a government official to influence foreign policy, etc. THAT would be interesting
No. The Giuliani "fired prosecutor" stuff has been debunked.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/trump-revives-false-narrative-on-biden-and-ukraine/
Your stupidity is truly striking. You've been beating that dead horse of "NO EVIDENCE" for quite a while now. Really do love to display your idiocy, don't you?
and google prof shows up
Yeah. I prefer sharing actual, factual data rather than hyperbolic, unhinged conspiracy.
You are not a serious people.
"Bari, Nellie--The Story is the Biden corruption machine. And it’s not being covered. Why not?"
I think we all know the answer to that!
I would also say while it is A Big Story, it is Not the Only Story. Most of them are not being covered by Cooperate Media either, IMO.
Perhaps it's such a massive story, that it would suck up too much time and energy to properly cover it. Taibbi and Shellenberger and doing a great job of it, but I wish they would also publish here so TFB would be a bit more balanced. Especially since Shellenberger is listed as writer for TFP, but hasn't had anything here!
I don't know, maybe there's not much there, NC. The GOP in Congress has had a committee for the last eight months or so looking into all the smoke and fog involving Joe and Hunter and so far, not too much. And they've got hundreds of staffers. Where's the fire? There might be an impeachment inquiry coming soon - something more official and serious. With even more researchers looking for proof. I wish them luck. Perhaps the FP can write something about how something looks really bad, but not provably so. Like the 2020 elections..
Not much there?
As soon as evidence is produced a “special prosecutor “ is appointed. Not even an independent prosecutor. If there’s no there there, why so much covering up?
Where's Jim Jordan when you need him? He's been at this for months. No press reveals. No exposes like the Dem committee covering Jan 6. Nothing. Where are all the subpoenas? Only a couple.
McCarthy isn't even so sure an impeachment inquiry is coming. It looks like he's being pushed by his MAGA wing to have one. But he's worried that not all GOP members of Congress will sign on. If there's so much evidence being thrown around, why the reluctance?
I think bc it exposes too much deep corruption across DC, both parties (Dems more but R yes) would falter. Obama has to be a factor, this would destroy his legacy of “no scandals on my watch”🤣, he’s still very powerful. Threats are being made .
Watergate was just a story about a 3rd rate burglary, until 2 years later, it wasn’t. The evidence for something of this (possible) magnitude does not spring up in a couple of weeks, neatly wrapped with a big bow.
This one might be the hardest of all for "transitioning" progressives, as exposing Joe Biden for what he has always been undercuts almost every argument Democrats have been putting forth since 2017. Biden's corruption is not just an unusually blatant example of inside-the-Beltway greed and sleaze. If what appears to be emerging about his multimillion-dollar indebtedness to our country's most dangerous enemies is true, it explains many of his otherwise incomprehensible policies: stubbornly refusing to control the border, lifting all the hard-won sanctions on Iran, attacking and promising to end our lifeblood oil and gas industry, mandating EV's whose manufacture depends on China's good graces.
Hopefully, with our support and a bit more time, they'll get all the way to the truth. Meanwhile, they are a breath of fresh air.
Uh....that's probably because they're is nothing to report?
Let me guess.....you think Hunter Biden was paying his dad 50k/mo for rent, don't you?
I subscribed to the Free Press because the Free Press searches for Truth. And, yes, there is a Truth out there, not just my truth or your truth but a real truth.
Bari, ever since Jordan told you to always speak truth, I think that is what pushed you out of the New York Times. Of course, I could be very wrong. It probably was festering for a long time. There is only so much propaganda one can stomach.
* I hope the Free Press (and others) displace the New York Times.
* I hope University of Austin displaces those propaganda and accreditation mills that are so called Universities.
* I hope your success wakes up Journalism schools where they MUST cover you instead of trying to bury you in their devotion to the New York Times and Washington Post. If they do that, some college students might be saved.
TFP keeps a human face on the news. Reports on real people caught in the real consequences of these crazy times. This is a nation built on rights of the individual. As proven in the horrors of the 20th century, the fate of the one can easily become the fate of the many.
Pardon my soap box, but there is a brutal and avaricious psyop/lie screaming over the top of human worth and dignity. Subscription journalism is building a new national fact/truth narrative. To repeat: Without Substack, Elon Musk would have had no place to turn and no voice to expose the illegal surveillance state manipulation of Twitter. There would have been no Twitter Files. The Congressional Taibbi/Shellenberger hearing was a clear message that independent journalism hits home.
💯💯💯
Well said, 100% right on the money.
The corporate media is a corrupt cabal and the true enemy of the people. Its a shame so many are completely captured by these organizations. Thank goodness we have The Free Press, Public, Racket News and others or we'd continue to be manipulated and misled by the lies and deceit peddled today at CNN, MSNBC, Fox, NY Times, WaPo and others. Lets hope that platforms like Substack, Rumble and Spotify don't cave.....it seems we may have already lost X (Twitter). Keep up the great work Bari!
I was thinking about this today. It's not unreasonable to call Trump mean, but he always speaks the truth as he sees it. Over and over and over people make the nastiest, most baseless, vile accusations--while publicly wishing him dead--and if he responds directly and honestly to them, he is castigated as a monster for a small FRACTION of what they were dishing out.
Leftism is simply not consistent with fairness, a sense of proportion, or the capacity for self awareness. Their mirror is a funhouse mirror which always contorts itself to make them into the beautiful people their narcissism has always told them they are. As long as no honest mirror exists--and that would in theory and historical practice be the job of responsible and ethical media--they will never, ever have any cause to doubt themselves, even if they throw the world into a nuclear catastrophe, which many seem to almost openly be wishing for.
Once Elon got involved, we knew it was game over for twitter. Everyone loves Elon, but looking closely at his family ties and he’s actions, he talks a good game but is NOT for the people:
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-great-spacex-deception
Are you seriously saying that before Elon there was some game going on with Twitter? The same people that were blocking world-renowned experts because their views didn't align with the prevalent progressive orthodoxy of the moment? That Twitter?
I have to say that I was almost sold that Elon might hold true to his absolute free speech position (or as close as humanly possible), but that all went in the sh*tter when he hired Linda Yaccarino.
Evans, although X isn’t perfect, it’s a far cry from the original Twitter! It’s a lot like what some commentators are saying here, today. They want, and are pleading with Bari for more/something/anything to be reported about the Biden Crime Family Regime, yet aren’t getting it. That does not take away from what TFP is giving us!
Elon, like Bari, was once a darling of the Democrats. Once he went against their WOKE Left narrative and dared speak out for Free Speech for all, he was vilified. The same for Taibbi and Shellenberger.
Here's a good watch on Elon if you have the time:
https://www.corbettreport.com/musk/
From his mom, to his money, like why is Elon always everywhere but no where? Once you see the support behind big names, we get a picture who's side are they really on.
Hoping that makes sense.
great a site that believes we live on a flat earth great site , not ! yes Elon is a modern day rasputan have said that for 15 years but really flat earth people ?
yep! check me out though! i like that you mentioned "rasputan"! I wrote an article on the phenomena known as "MAGIC" and why we need to take it seriously because time and time again, influenctial people in high places are associated with this phenomena (i.e., rasputan, british advisor John Dee).
Here's an article on Reality of Magic and John Dee
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-reality-of-magic
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-man-behind-the-british-empire
So when you take the concept of "magic" seriously, you begin to wonder, what if the physics of our reality is different? this goes back to the geocentric model of Ptolemy (before Socrates and Plato).
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-spirituality-of-flat-earth
It's not just about a flat earth, but its more so on a spiritual side.
let me know if that makes sense.
Keep hoping.
I am a subscriber and on balance am gratified that somebody is still trying to do their effing job, as I put it. I was raised to do my job--whatever it was, and it would not matter even now--ethically, as well as I could, and to take pride in those facts.
What I will suggest is that Bari and others read two books: The Fatal Conceit, by Friedrich Hayek, and "Intellectuals", by Paul Johnson. There are certain aspects of your world view, as I see it, that will not stand those shocks, but will nonetheless be better for it.
By today's standards I am extremely right wing. But I see myself as a middle of the road moderate, in a world that has lost its effing mind. There is so much crowding at the far left that people's brains seem to be popping from the congestion.
In my own view, the "right wing" is monarchism and theocracy. It is kings, and compulsary membership in one church or another. The Iranian theocracy, for example, is right wing, as are most Arab governments.
And the left wing is dictatorship, and utopianism, which are equally oppressive, but which, rather than point to a religious text or history, simply decide each and every day what reality is going to be that day for the world, and it punishes anyone stubborn enough or who lacks agility, for the "crime" of momentarily getting out of step with their Dance of the Dead.
Everything in between is Liberal. Functionally, Liberalism in our world is the CAPACITY to engage in honest and open conversation, knowing at the outset that the ending will likely remain disagreement, but with understanding added on both sides, and the implicit promise that we will both think about it, and possibly move closer over time.
My particular liberalism is rooted in the work of Hayek, Thomas Sowell, Paul Johnson, Murray Rothbard, and a few others. And my views on science are rooted in SCIENCE. The Global Warming Cult is not science at its political roots. And the COVIDIan madness was not science either. If you understand the scientific method, you understand that data speaks, and anyone who does not listen is not practicing science. And anyone saying they are scientists but not adhering to data based positions is corrupt. Fauci is not stupid: he is corrupt. He is a paid liar, for whom mass death was not even a factor. Just not something that was going to cause him to lose sleep.
But I will say again that, while I wish this place would go farther on stories like the Biden family corruption, you all are still doing vastly better than most of your competition. In some respects, you have a niche that has no competition. Kudos for that.
Intellectuals and Society, by Thomas Sowell.
Brilliant. Like The Road to Serfdom, this book made the scales fall from my eyes.
I have read Hayek and Sowell at length. Hayek is challenging but powerful and worth the effort. A good beginning is The Road to Serfdom. For those who might not know Hayek is a Nobel Laureate in economics.
WE ARE SERFS , most work to pay off debt be it a house with a death-gage or a car ++++++
But we still can choose our intellectual pursuit shown by the TFP. Even Dave Ramsey has a way out of debt.
I wish I knew you. It gets pretty lonely out here.
I don't know where here is, but loneliness is definitely a defining trait of our culture and nation. Our wealth means most of us live alone. I certainly do.
I don't know what to say, other than hang in there, and take social risks. Wherever you are you could probably find a pickleball league or trivia or something.
Bravo. Great comment.
Hear! Hear!
Well said, Barry!
I'm with you except that climate science is sound, and Fauci is anything but corrupt. Fauci is aspie enough to be tone deaf politically. I know him a bit. Every decision he made was understandable. Perfect? No. Hell no. But... Fauci wasn't really the guy who was supposed to play that role. Trump's nitwits had shot the CDC pandemic response team in the head because, "Hey, we haven't had one.!" So, the knowledge of things like how lockdowns really work was gone.
This cut it all! Mantra of the silly "right" is wrong. Government is the only thing that can maintain a military or a public health crisis system over the generations of time that might pass in between. There's a reason past generations bequeathed to us military rank to the Surgeon General. They had seen it. Even over a century of time, more Americans die of diseases than in any wars. Doesn't matter which century.
I am going to publicly acknowledge you said those things, and that I profoundly disagree. I am trying to wean myself from political, and in this case scientific, argument, so I won't respond further today.
I am going to permit myself to link a commentary I did 15 years ago, the basis of which remains untouched. None of this passes muster scientifically, but if you have not figured that out, I won't convince you here.
If you do want to take the time to read something that even then was the product of hundreds of hours of study and debate, and comment on it, I will respond substantively.
https://moderatesunitedblog.com/2008/01/
You had me with your NYT resignation letter. I haven’t been disappointed.
Same
not happy at all , you cannot sit on the fence forever report ALL the stories or you are no better than the NYT WHICH i CANCELED 12 YEARS AGO
I am a staunch red-blooded white male (with a penis) conservative. I subscribed knowing BW is a liberal/progressive. BW shows that even liberals can tell the truth, especially when they have been stomped on themselves. Show us where it hurts, Bari.
Bari, who started at the Wall Street Journal, is far from a liberal/progressive
In what respect is Liberalism not rooted in an ability to tolerate difference, to engage with it honestly, and to remain open in a meaningful way to genuine diversity?
I think Bari IS a liberal, and as such progressive, since dialogue and emotional honesty are at the root of all genuine and lasting progress. I disagree with many of her positions, to the extent I understand them, but grant her sincerity.
YOU are not a liberal. You are not sincere. You don't change your mind when confronted with facts. You do not seem to honestly want to improve the world, but rather to defend a quasi-religious faith that is based on relentless lies.
Like racist, all the -phobes, justice, tolerance, diversity and even truth, liberal no longer means anything. As I think Lewis Carroll had his Red Queen say, words for you mean only what you want them to mean, which is to say whatever suits your momentary whim and political--which is to say power hungry--purpose.
I will leave it there, and leave you to whatever disingenuous follow up suits you today.
Barry, I appreciate your response, but you realize (I know) you are feeding the troll. Facts and common sense don’t matter.
Yes. But I like a few hits at the line before I let the troll run its route.
Lol. Sure, Barry....you're doing great, sweetie.
Have you noticed that, even though you and many others think 2.0 is a troll, he's had a lot of likes lately?
No, I haven't noticed that. Define "a lot" please.
Four likes when there used to be zero. You have to start somewhere..
Barry, I think you should just write nonsense, like Alice in Wonderland. It would make more sense that what I just read
What I hear you saying is that you disagree strongly, but on the basis of a childish emotionality that cannot communicate using adult language, and thus want to compare it to the first seemingly absurd analogy you can come up with.
But it's a bit ironic that you would choose Alice in Wonderland, which in many respects is a satire of how genuinely puerile minds do what they call "thinking".
Good examples would be how the Red Queen tries to believe two impossible things before breakfast every morning, and how words mean exactly what she says they mean, nothing more, nothing less.
That is the leftist mindset in a nutshell, which is very certainly an apt analogy.
Bari does not tolerate difference, engage honestly, nor remain open in a meaningful way to "genuine diversity" (whatever the hell that means)
She has a long history of trying to cancel people and consistently engages in selective moral outrage and rehabilitation attempts of bad people.
Yep. Not a liberal. That is correct. However, am exceptionally sincere in not falling for hyperbolic moral panics and people minding their own damn business if it doesn't effect you.
You, nor anyone on here, have provided any "facts" on anything. Just more Satanic Panic 2.0
I've never had a comment pulled, and I have said what I think. That is not true of HuffPo. Media Matters, the Daily Kos, my local newspaper, or a host of other sites, where I am banned for saying the sorts of things I say here, in the same way, using the same words. I am very consistent. It's not hard to be consistent, when your views are based on extensive reading, logical analysis, firm principles, and emotional maturity.
Although, I suppose being a consistent Leftist is not hard either. You just say what you are told to say each day, and hit the reset button every night, just in case you need to have believed firmly all your life what you were attacking the day before.
Barry---For myself, some of the problem we're all facing is that the narrative no longer fits the reality and that is making our attempts to separate the disease from the symptom ever more difficult. The human landscape inside us doesn't match the inhuman landscape our eyes are witnessing.
It has ever been "..rules for thee not for me..." but the sudden expansion of consciousness and the transparency brought on by the leap in tech has frightened and exposed the rigged gamers of the political/financial realm and they're scrambling to put a lid on it. This new age is rapidly outstripping "ism's" and labels of every kind. The European, Australian and Canadian peoples have already entered the dystopian world of the EU/Davos CCP styled re-education center, thought/speech crime arrest, and the travel permitted 15 minute city where euthanasia for the troubled citizen is encouraged and available to all. In America, the natural chaos and social disintegration resulting from rigged game economic looting and a collapsing infrastructure, all contributed to and supported the planned destruction of the necessary middle class, that held the extreme politics of criminal finance in check.
We live inside a lie and the perps have already tripled down. "We the people.." and our every institution is compromised, surveilled and managed. In my view our only engine of survival is the Republic and the Constitution. It is the only human frame of reference standing. As in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia and Mao's China the forces controlling finance and politics exist squarely in the realm of the pathological. Even more frightening is the growing belief in violence and cataclysm as the way forward. It amounts to what primitive peoples term a "loss of Soul". Subsumed by a lie, anomie and hopelessness and the propagandist shadow "othering" being encouraged by the psyop, America is becoming a tinderbox. We all see it and feel it. To paraphrase Leonard Cohen: "it's coming from a feel..that it ain't exactly real..or it's real but it ain't exactly there..".
This little fire in the darkness we call subscription journalism is important. Truth and facts are powerful weapons. As I've said before, it isn't metaphor to say that truth is light because it literally is. Its palpable emotional impact on individual human reality proves the existence of the Psyche. This "Tower of Babel" reality we inhabit is demanding a redefinition of everything.
Wish I could upvote this many more times.
I'm not talking about the FP discussion board. So, what you claim to have "pulled" or not is actually irrelevant. Was that suppossed to be another "hit at the line?"
Talking about Bari's long history of trying to cancel people, engaging in selective outrage and attempt to rehabilitate bad people.
Not a "Leftists" dude. I think you're being told to call anyone who does not agree with you or this ideological echo-chamber a "Leftists" and you just hit the reset button every night. That's the only thing you're consistent on, which is pretty pathetic.
But hey if you want to claim it's based on your "extensive reading" and "logical analysis"...lol...go right ahead.
I have been consistent since day one:
1. 95% of this discussion board and FP articles are Satanic Panic 2.0
2. Trump finally revealed the GOP base for who they are/have been since 1965. Which is why he will win the nomination.
https://1428elm.com/2023/04/30/satanic-panic-2-0-second-coming/
Anyone who would WANT to work at the NY Times is a liberal. Other than guest editorials (conservative) why would anyone want to read the NYT? I mean really. If you don't think the NYT is working with the Biden admin then you are not only a liberal, you're an idiot liberal
Well....maybe one day Conservative/GOP will develop newspapers, TV Networks, magazines, think tanks, etc. that will "work" with them as well and help even the playing field.
OG Common Sense subscriber. I have spent a lifetime reputation as a conservative, a Christian, a devotee of thinkers like WFB, Thomas Sowell, Hayek. My right-of-center priors are well-established, in other words. I tell people that my favorite media is led by a woman who, as laid up against all of those priors, is just about my polar opposite. And yet, she exemplifies everything that I admire in our world, and she leads a team that produces the most deeply thoughtful, utterly respectful and fiercely courageous journalism extant. I was inspired to happily pay in the early days in hopes the stated purpose would hold fast. My faith in Bari, and the people around her, is weekly justified. They operate on the leading edge of the news, as the editorial above notes.
David, you captured many of my thoughts. I started following Bari when she and her team launched “Common Sense”. I didn’t get on their bandwagon until recently. Over the years I have been deceived by publications that have implied one thing and did another. Like many, they played to the crowd, dodging anything not “political correct”. Before I coughed up my hard earned cash I wanted to feel sure that they “walked the talk”. While I sometimes sense a political bent, for the most part I believe they are fair and open minded. As an “old foggy” born in the dust-bowl depression era I feel no one cares what those of my generation have to say. The same can be said by the younger generations. What has inspired and invigorated me the most about Free Press is that voices are being heard and stories being told that are touching the hearts and minds of grassroots Americans. In this malaise our country as drifted into, it’s refreshing and inspiring to see and feel there is still goodness and hope that the American Dream is still alive.
Well said, David!
I’m usually a very late adopter, but proud to be an early one with independent journalism on Substack. With Bari, Taibi, Berenson, and a couple of others -even if I don’t read every article I am proud to sponsor it all --I see it as an investment in the future of the USA. I also find it funny that I as a conservative have paid for journalism from 3 liberals (who realize what has happened to journalism) --I do not want journalism that feeds my beliefs --I want stuff that makes me think. Congrats to you all!!
"I do not want journalism that feeds my beliefs --I want stuff that makes me think."
Actually, my needs are even simpler. I want journalism that's HONEST. That doesn't root for one side or the other, but just reports where the facts lead. If it makes me think as well... that's a bonus.
But in today's America, the one thing lacking most of all is journalism that is just freaking honest. And that's why I subscribe to TFP.
I have found that there's nothing like a convert.
My Free Press subscription is money well spent. I am a right leaning independent from a bi-racial family who has become outspoken on issues of race and the transgender assault on children. The work of the Free Press has proven to be extremely valuable in my fight for normalcy. I don’t agree with everything that is written, but I am not supposed to. Common Sense, as this started, is so critically important in today’s world. Thank you Bari and all for taking the difficult path but the open and honest path.
People crave truth over deception. Mainstream media deals in deception and is too arrogant to acknowledge we know it
Yet, David, so many people drink the daily dose of cool aid that MSM (the propaganda arm of the WOKE Left Democrats) passes out! They have no clue they are being lied to & manipulated, else they would not continuously vote in the same politicians time after time. (This hold true for both Right & Left.)
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over & over while expecting different results.
Or, perhaps, they do know. Perhaps they despise the other side so much they are willing to follow lockstep the voices sowing hate & division, not wanting to help bridge the divide.
At a time when the modern hysteria seemed to be at its peak, Bari published this:
Lincoln Isn't Evil. Neither Is the West. Stand Up to the Woke Lies (https://www.thefp.com/p/lincoln-isnt-evil-neither-is-the)
There it was, in all the darkness, a ray of light. A sane voice from a mainstream news outlet, and one with real authority. If Bari speaks up, I thought, surely more mainstream media actors will wake up from their collective insanity.
Not nearly as many have woken up as I'd hoped, but as this article points out, the work often comes with far more jeers than cheers at first but the impact is eventually there.
Keep up the great work, our great country is lost without it!
A fan here from the first day. Thank you for all this, thank you for real journalism.
On 7/11/22, my dental hygienist told me about Bari and sent me the link to her address to the students at The University of Austin and everything changed. Reading it was like a cool pool on a blistering hot day. I was refreshed and energized... I was full of hope. I never looked back. Thank you, Bari, for opening doors and uncovering windows.
How eloquent--you read my mind.
The Free Press often speaks for me. It also often doesn't. This is ultimately what keeps me coming back. Whereas almost every major news outlet tolerates almost no dissent from the chosen narrative, the Free Press's narrative is that the truth is almost always somewhere outside the narratives you hear most often.
The FP will provide many stories I find enlightening, sometimes even exhilerating to read (recent example being A Church Grows in Brooklyn) while at the same time posting articles that frustrate me while still providing new perspectives on subjects I don't know nearly enough about (What Happened When One Illinois Town Passed Reparations).
Every week, I look forward to the next article and the further insights the commentors will provide. It's a community I'm proud and thankful to be a part of.
Nicely said. We all keep coming back for more, whether we agree with what we're reading or not. With the comment board the cherry on the cake..
I find it regularly challenging, which I appreciate. I don't need to be in an echo chamber (but if I DO want that...I just go to the comments, who usually agree with me. Ha!)
I find the comments lean conservative and very often repeat themselves. I’d love to hear from the more liberal subscribers and see less vitriol directed at them when it happens. I say that as a conservative.
I posit that the left has gone so far left that old school liberals and conservatives are now sitting here looking the same in these comments!
As far as I can tell there are no liberal subscribers to TFP, it’s mostly just MAGA republicans who liked the idea that a progressive NYT reporter got fed up with the NYT and publicly resigned, promising to be a traitor to the cause and publish her own less-biased news. As a center-left RINO turned Democrat, I also liked the idea that Bari gave the NYT the middle finger, but I find the volume of MAGA vitriol in these comments, well, surprising doesn’t really describe it. Problematic? Weird? Anyway, that’s my theory about the comments. There are no liberal subscribers of the TFP, and that’s why they’re not in the comments.
I wish it spoke for me less often, TBQH. I am always on alert when I agree too much with any person, In my Army days we said "Get in front of your battle position", meaning to look at what you've constructed to see how you'd attack it. I don't like being comfortable in any belief but then again, as a social/political/theological conservative, I'm used to feeling "under attack" more often than not.
I am a conservative Republican who can’t stomach either the current POTUS or Trump. I joined in the Common Sense days and was drawn to Bari when I saw that a left, progressive journalist like her was canceled by the NYT. I have not regretted subscribing because of her willingness to go for the facts, the truth, without worrying about any predetermined narrative. There is one hot-button issue that I wish Bari and company would pursue with an open debate about facts, science, philosophy and theology—abortion. Bari has made it quite clear that she and her partner are pro-abortion, but the lens of abortion usually presented here is strictly political, I.e., what abortion restrictions, or lack thereof, and what political groups, or the average American, willing to accept in our current political landscape and modern culture. What I would like to see/hear instead is an honest, civil discussion of the emerging science of what exactly is an “aborted 12-week” fetus? Is it a person, a genetically unique human being, a glob of biological matter w/o any dignity of its own! Hard issues I know, but let’s have a science-based debate before politics,
You know, I never thought of it like that. But you are correct. Almost no one actually talks about it from a biological standpoint. It is always about the politics and the rights of the mother. Never from the standpoint of what exactly the thing/being/person being aborted is.
To me that is the stunning thing - that the fetus is not a concern at all for a lot of people. They do not even reach the question of competing concerns, they just dismiss the fetus outright.
Rehumanize International does this. Rehumanizeintl.org. Interview Aimee Murphy and the idea of “Consistent Life Ethic”.
Hear, hear.