Exposing the Associated Press

World Net Daily ^ | Mar 7, 2007 | Joseph Farah

[John Jorsett]

The New York Times gets its fair share of criticism.

So does CNN.

So do the major broadcast networks.

The Washington Post and L.A. Times have their own detractors.

In fact, these days, nearly everyone recognizes press bias, incompetence and arrogance when they see it in the major media.

Yet, it is my considered opinion that one news agency gets off nearly scot-free from criticism despite being the worst purveyor of political propaganda and distortion.

I refer to the largest news-gathering organization in the world – the Associated Press.

For the life of me, I don't understand why there haven't been books written about this pervasive information virus in our midst. Where are the exposes on the AP? Why does the New York Times get so much more attention than a news organization far more powerful and, in its own way, deceitful?

Let me give you a few recent examples from my own observations:

• Last month, AP staff writer Jennifer Dobner filed this report from Salt Lake City: "While Mitt Romney condemns polygamy and its prior practice by his Mormon church, the Republican presidential candidate's great-grandfather had five wives and at least one of his great-great grandfathers had 12."

  Now, I don't have any use for Romney as a presidential candidate, but is it fair to blame a son for the sins of the father – or, in this case, the great-grandfather? Of what relevance is this to life in these United States in 2007?

  As if to underscore the point, here's the second paragraph of the story: "Polygamy was not just a historical footnote, but a prominent element in the family tree of the former Massachusetts governor now seeking to become the first Mormon president."

  Are the family trees of other presidential candidates going to be fair game now, too? I just wonder.

  This is what I call an error of commission. It's a non-story. It should simply not have been written. There's no news or public policy justification for it. On the same weekend it was being reported, AP decided not to publish a story of huge national interest. I call this an error of omission.

• A day before releasing that Romney non-story, AP refused to pick up this one from one of its clients – the Washington Times: "Federal authorities yesterday charged the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, who serves as a leader of youth sports organizations in the state, with receiving and possessing child pornography."

  Here is an actual living person doing something – as opposed to news about grandfathers and great-grandfathers – and AP shows no interest. Charles Rust-Tierney, a former public defender in the nation's capital and local leader of the ACLU busted for kiddie porn.

  Now, why is it so significant that AP did not "pick up the story"? Because AP is the major disseminator of news throughout our country and our world. Even with the Internet, if it doesn't make the AP wire, a story is going to have limited readership. Someone in AP's Washington bureau made a conscious decision to "spike" the ACLU kiddie porn connection.

• AP has many activists on its 30,000-member staff. They don't call themselves activists. They call themselves journalists. But activism is their real calling. It's where their hearts are. How sick and twisted can this activism get? Try this on for size.

  "He has a gaggle of bodyguards and a silver Mercedes, but to the people of this refugee camp, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas is still just 'Abul Abed,' the neighbor who shares electricity from his generator during power cuts and attends their wedding and funerals."

  If it sounds like AP writer Karin Laub has fallen in love, brace yourself. The object of her affections is a cold, calculating killing machine of a terrorist.

  "Haniyeh's down-home style – he walked home through Sahti's alleys after Friday prayers – has helped to make him one of the most popular Palestinian politicians, despite Hamas' strife-ridden and lackluster year in power."

  More adjectives: "folksy, modest, nice." Those are not likely words to be associated with Republicans in the U.S. by the AP, but terrorists in the Middle East are another story.

There is something seriously wrong at the AP. There are other newspapers besides the New York Times. But there are no other wire services of any consequence besides the AP. It is a virtual monopoly and insulated from accountability to the public because of its nonprofit status and the fact that it answers only to its "members" – newspapers that pay a fortune for its content.

[P-40]

I refer to the largest news-gathering organization in the world – the Associated Press.

I thought they just provided the filler to go in the otherwise empty space between the ads.

[RebelBanker]

The AP tends to slip under the radar like Reuters - they gather and write the stories and others publish them. We see the blatant bias from the NYT and the alphabet soup TV networks but often do not notice the SOURCE.

[kjo]

Agreed. The AP is terrible. They can't be trusted in their choices of stories. What is even at times funny are the headlines that seem to emphasize a liberal opinion.

They are simply terrible.

[Liberty Valance]

And we all post the crAPweasels stories here as well.
Get ready for more of the same...
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/01-97/01-29-97/a01wn009.htm

[SampleMan]

I beg to differ with the article on one small point. The media should not be said to be biased. They used to be biased, but about 15 years ago they moved beyond bias to partisan. There is nothing subtle about it.

[YOUGOTIT]

You Got It: The AP is totally anti-American and tells more lies than any other organization except for the New York Times.

[kjo]

Exactly. The MSM doesn't even pretend an even-handedness anymore. Take a look at any of the Sunday Talk shows all run by Democrats; when the guest is a liberal, it's nothing but a love fest. Russert and Stepawhatshisface, however, can always be counted on to give a conservative, as rare as they appear, a hard time.

[theDentist]

The AP doesn't have an ombudsman (professional apologist, IMO), and if so, they don't advertise it. Finding an address to write them to correct a story or comment upon it is difficult to find on their web page, but I found it: info@ap.org . They have a board of directors chosen out of some 1700 participating newspapers or news services.

[kidd]

Reuters is the worst.

If the source of an article is Reuters, I often do not read it.

When I do read a "Reuticle", I take the time to review:

- how each phrase is worded,
- what alternate phrases could have been used,
- what sources (if any) were named,
- what facts were left out, and
- the hidden intent of the article
- etc

Its usually too much work to read a Reuticle, and its usually wasted effort, because Reuticles are usually thin on news and heavy on propaganda.

The AP is bad, but not consistently, like Reuters.

[Brad from Tennessee]

The AP has been totally one-sided in Iraq. They constantly focus on the negative and ignore any positive trends. The seem to cheer on the terrorists and they rely on low-wage Iraqi "reporters" to cover any event that is physically dangerous. These local "reporters" have been responsible for fabricated atrocity stories and one of them is in a military prison for his terrorist ties.

In the story below, published this week, AP writer Robert Reid serves the terrorist strategy of 20 percent violent action 80 percent news media hype:

[Analysis: Sunnis on Warpath in Baghdad


Tuesday March 6, 2007 10:31 PM

AP Photo BAG104

By ROBERT H. REID

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Sunni insurgents are striking back with attention-grabbing bombings in Baghdad and gruesome killings posted on the Internet, in an apparent effort to shore up their positions around the Iraqi capital as the U.S. struggles to secure the city.

That is changing the nature of the conflict in Iraq, at least temporarily - shifting the main focus from the Sunni-Shiite ``civil war'' of recent months to a renewed attention on Sunni insurgents as the root of the crisis.

The shift could be temporary if Shiite death squads once again become active in Baghdad. But for now, the change indicates how all sides opposed to the U.S. presence show surprising resilience and ability to switch strategies to survive.] If Robert Reid were armed with an RPG he would be less dangerous to the U.S. than he is as an AP reporter.

[Garvin]

(AP)= Pimps of Political Porn™.