Posted on 10/26/2008 7:33:16 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
Any young journalist covering a presidential campaign is likely to have read Timothy Crouse's classic book on the 1972 election, "The Boys on the Bus." In the first chapter, the author describes the pecking order of print journalists. At the top of the food chain are the wire-service reporters, particularly the reporters from the Associated Press, the oldest of news organizations -- those hard-bitten, vigilant correspondents who set the agenda for everybody else.
"Wire stories are usually bland, dry and overly cautious," Crouse wrote. "There is always an inverse proportion between the number of persons a reporter reaches and the amount he can say. The larger the audience the more inoffensive and inconclusive the article must be..."
Some of the most eyebrow-raising stories this presidential-election cycle have come from a surprising source: the stodgy old AP. And this new boldness is threatening not only the AP's standing as a neutral arbiter of the news but also challenging its relationship with its owners, thousands of struggling U.S. newspapers that are coming to see the AP as a monster of their own creation: a competitor that could hasten their demise...Just as the Internet is changing newspapers, so it is also changing the AP. In its efforts to survive the tectonic shifts destabilizing most daily newspapers and to brand itself online -- many of the above articles ran only on the Web as part of the new, edgier AP -- the wire service is evolving into the world's largest virtual newspaper and a direct competitor to the papers that own it. When the news organization entrusted with calling elections sets off down the slippery slope of news analysis...
Ron Fournier, the AP's new Washington bureau chief and author of many of the above headlines, describes the organization's new track as "accountability journalism."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2115506/posts
AP neutral?....This is a joke right?
Let’s see, an article in the Washington Post about how unbiased the AP is? I don;t believe it. I’m waiting for Pravda to get a right-winged opinion...
As a whole, 'journalists' are a group of self idolizing elitists who do not want 'to make a difference' in the world that is positive. The difference they seek is the result of the constant erosion of the original tenets of their profession - to be honest and to report news events honestly without bias. The difference is they seek is self promotion, promotion of the educationally diseased beliefs they have been taught, and adulation from the leftist communists to which they pander.
You know, lawyers, the butt of many jokes are getting a bad rap. They should be third, with Journalists and leftist politians as the top two.
LOL
Makes me wonder how we will get unbiased information, especially from outside the US if regional newspapers do not subscribe to the AP for their wire service. As very few papers will have the resources to have people over seas
As the industry has retracted, Curley has inked lucrative deals to distribute content directly to online news aggregators Google and Yahoo. But that move essentially cut out the newspaper Web sites as middlemen -- at the very moment when growing those sites is critical to the papers' survival.
One more nail in the coffin of the paper media
Yes, they are breaking wind!
The public must never see this tape
American Thinker ^ | 25 Oct 08 | Thomas Lifson
Posted on Sunday, October 26, 2008 2:22:15 AM by elhombrelibre
Gateway Pundit avers that Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times confirmed to him in a telephone call that his newspaper has a videotape of Barack Obama at an event with Rashid Khalidi at which Israel-bashing takes place.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2115506/posts
Theat reminds me of Spinal Tap’s album, “Break Like The Wind.”
News? Nil... AP harasses Sarah Palin, Swen.
Baghdad Bob had an excuse - there was a boot on his neck. What's AP's excuse?
I think this is extremely interesting, especially coming from the Washington Post, which has long (if unsucessfully) fought with the NY Times to be considered America’s most prestigious newspaper.
What it says, putting aside a bit of the drivel, is that newspapers are abandoning AP not because it is too leftist or too biased (although some parts of this article give that impression), and also not because it is too expensive, but because it is threatening to morph from a helpful, dependent servant into a RIVAL.
They see AP as a threat to their very existence, because it seems to be setting up a new business model where it stands on its own and no longer needs woodpulp newspapers as outlets. AP is becoming an internet news service, and they fear that as their newspapers go down the drain, AP will move in to take their place as the premier internet news dispenser. Which is more dominant already as a news provider, the Washington Post on the web, or AP on the web?
I think they are right to be fearful of this danger to their future existence. When the big ship goes down, it’s every man for himself, and sauve qui peut! AP is positioning itself to abandon the newspapers that gave it birth, and to take their place.
Very interesting.
Indeed!!!! However, “mark my words,” she will be investigated and target with all kind of malicious attacks.
AP is cutting out the middleman and wholeselling it’s wares on the internet.
Makes sense.
It would also make sense for a competitor to arise.
Look for the liberals to pass laws to protect their AP.
The “fairness Doctrine” would be a good start.
Hey Ron, Tom, Pete, Beth, Liz and Seth, and so many more at ap..
Just Report the news.. straight up, no frills, no bows ..
Don’t try and sex it up to your taste and to meet your obvious agenda.
“The AP Is Breaking More Than News”
Are they farting?
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