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The AP Stylebook Is Getting Crazy
cnsnews.com ^ | 7/19/2017 | L. Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham

Posted on 07/19/2017 7:17:39 AM PDT by rktman

Back in those ancient days when teletypes gave us the sound effects for news, the Associated Press was esteemed as the gold standard of objective news coverage. Inside a liberal media bubble, that pretense continues.

But for decades now, AP has tacked hard to port along with the rest of the media establishment. They'll deny it, of course, because that's what they do.

But the evidence is there, emblazoned in the AP Stylebook, which sets the rules for the language of news reporting. It also sets the tone of the media elite's daily composition in every format — print, online or broadcast. They say it "defines clear news writing" and call it "the journalist's bible," which is a fairly damning phrase, since it rejects the Bible.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: lyineyes
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To: Terry L Smith

I stil have mine but haven’t looked at it for years...


21 posted on 07/19/2017 8:07:52 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: Terry L Smith

I’m a 1971 J school grad.
The year I graduated, the school lost its accreditation...


22 posted on 07/19/2017 8:10:42 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: rktman

Dog whistle. Skittles come in various colors, sometimes referred to as “colored” candy. The use of “colored” is racist. Also, skittles are used in purple drank, another observation only made by racists.


23 posted on 07/19/2017 8:14:17 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: rktman

Any “economy” of delivering news by the AP cooperative has been offset by the loss of freedom and independence to report with impartiality. AP forces dependency and partiality. Equality, neutrality, justice, and fairness are sacred on the altar of the AP. I believe the AP has been the driving force to subvert the revered Fourth Estate into the Fifth Column that Goebbels would be proud of.


24 posted on 07/19/2017 8:20:53 AM PDT by pack29172 (Enforce 18 U.S. Code 2101. Sentence to the Max!)
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To: rktman
But for decades now, AP has tacked hard to port along with the rest of the media establishment.
The AP, along with its "member” outlets is the Establishment:
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
The AP “wire” is a continuous virtual meeting of all major American journalism outlets. It has been going on since the middle of the Nineteenth Century. To whatever extent the interests of journalists diverge from the interest of the public, to that same extent the AP must by now be a conspiracy against the public. The AP Stylebook "sets the rules for the language of news reporting” and it is a mechanism of collusion among journalists.

The interest of the public is outlined in the preamble to the Constitution, in the Declaration of Independence, and also in the first two paragraphs of of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense:

SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others. (1776)

Any failure of the government to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity makes great copy and is a boon to the journalist. This alone is proof positive that journalism’s interest and the public interest are not congruent. Journalism loves bad news because it interests the public; the public is “interested” in bad news precisely because the events (more or less accurately) chronicled by journalism run counter to the public interest.

25 posted on 07/19/2017 9:08:01 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (A press can be “associated,” or a press can be independent. Demand independent presses.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

“Any failure of the government to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity....” So, I don’t see any mention of a level playing field or equality there. What’s up with that? ;-) Must be in the daffynition of the general welfare (state) clause huh?


26 posted on 07/19/2017 9:24:56 AM PDT by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Preach it! End the AP, Now!


27 posted on 07/19/2017 9:25:11 AM PDT by pack29172 (Enforce 18 U.S. Code 2101. Sentence to the Max!)
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To: rktman
...the term "gender," AP's gurus now instruct, is "not synonymous with sex." Rather, the term "refers to a person's social identity while sex refers to biological characteristics."

That would be understandable if they actually adhered to that rule, but they don't. How many times does one have to be asked about one's "gender" and given the two choices "male" and "female", which if we are to believe the ridiculous gender activists is only two-fifty-sevenths (or whatever the fashionable number has become by now) of the correct answer.

There is a 19th-century philosophical hypothesis that has grown, through the offices of modern propaganda, to the status of received truth, that language control is thought control. This first because the shapers of language like to perceive themselves as far more influential than they actually are, and second because the shapers of politics are in the same state. It is a hypothesis that has never really received sufficient re-examination, and it should. One thing we learned from the experience of the Soviet Union is that real names for real things tend to be remarkably resilient in the face of this idiot linguistic St. Vitus' Dance and that people tend to adhere to them stubbornly in the face of arrest, imprisonment, torture, and execution. The Spanish Inquisition failed, after all, and so did the Soviet Inquisition and for precisely the same reasons.

It's crumbling now if the observer is candid. Transgenderism has hit the rock of biological fact and is foundering in a sea of verbiage. State mandated games of "let's pretend" turn out to be no more effective than a five-year-old's, and although a great deal more may be done with costume these days - let's face it, hormone treatments and surgery are nothing more than costume - the basic composition of the human body remains stubbornly on the male-female axis because there's more involved than costume. Pretending otherwise is demonstrably a road to depression and suicide, not happiness. And yet we are enjoined to treat the victims as happy if the AP says they are. Anyone who does not see the pure human folly of this is kidding xemself.

28 posted on 07/19/2017 9:57:03 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: All

And NOW the gender bullies are saying their wild claims are backed up by Science....


29 posted on 07/19/2017 11:11:21 AM PDT by Maverick68 (T)
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To: rktman

Are there still any “underground” newspapers? Seems like this might be what’s needed nowadays if they could establish some kind of reputation for honesty.


30 posted on 07/19/2017 12:48:00 PM PDT by oldtech
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To: rktman

Even Trad Catholic sites and conservative sites are saying THEY/THEM/THEIR.

I have seen this: “Suppose your son comes home and tells you that THEY...”

Line-in-the-sand time.


31 posted on 07/19/2017 2:36:01 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan (https://youtu.be/IYUYya6bPGw)
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To: Terry L Smith

AP = Turning the Fourth Estate into the Fifth Column. I believe the AP is the enabler of The Swamp. The Swamp is able to exist because the enabler keeps The Swamp from public view.


32 posted on 07/19/2017 5:07:59 PM PDT by pack29172 (Enforce 18 U.S. Code 2101. Sentence to the Max!)
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To: Texas Fossil

Thank you for your service as a city councilman and observer. Too bad there aren’t more like you, serving out of a giving spirit instead of for pay and benefits.


33 posted on 07/19/2017 5:35:21 PM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: ViLaLuz

Actually we had a good crew when I was on the city council. The mayor was the only political hack. He honestly was a pretty decent guy, except he was a ComDem. Western NM was full of them. Registration in that county was 5 Dems to 1 Republican. Rabid mine union country. But in spite of that, some Republican won. The crazies were only 5-10% of the population. They were continually stirring in the crap.

The mayor lost his rabbits foot, got caught in his secretary’s bed, by her husband. He did not come to council meetings for a while, black eye. The local POL king maker dumped him quickly. He was being groomed for high public office.

Some asked me to run for Mayor. I said no very quickly. Did not run for Re-election. Would have been no problem, but my life was complicated enough. I was a wholesale distributor salesman and gone a lot.


34 posted on 07/19/2017 7:55:49 PM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: pack29172
I believe the AP has been the driving force to subvert the revered Fourth Estate into the Fifth Column that Goebbels would be proud of.

Bingo We Have a Winner! Great truism statement.

35 posted on 07/19/2017 7:59:06 PM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: Texas Fossil

Lol lol lol, you should write a book!!


36 posted on 07/19/2017 8:20:23 PM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: ViLaLuz

hee hee hee

Tip of the iceberg my friend. I traveled for a living for 30 of 35 years in the distribution business. Lots of miles among incredible people. (lumber yards, home centers, hardware stores, farm stores, sporting good stores and others.)

At one time, I planned stores in 11 states. Did that for 5 years. Remodels and new stores. Every aspect & the set up.

Had a friend in the town I was on the council who knew everyone in town. One of her friends was once the local “maddam”. I was told she was planning to write a book about her life, story was, she was asked by some powerful people not to do it. They paid her to not have it happen. When they closed her brothel they sold the bricks, furnishing and memorabilia for big bucks. Her name was Millie.

I was in the local lumber yard one day and an older woman came to where I was busy writing my order as I did every week, and she put her arm around my neck. I blushed. Everyone in the place knew who she was, except me. She paid me a complement and left. There were lots of laughs.

Life of a traveling salesman? smile.

I’ve been married 46 years. No other women in my life. Not much of a salesman? hee hee hee


37 posted on 07/19/2017 8:32:58 PM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: Texas Fossil

Another great story. You’re a natural storyteller, Texas Fossil. May God continue to bless you and your wife of 46 years!!


38 posted on 07/19/2017 9:09:04 PM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: ViLaLuz

They were real. Nothing made up.

I wished I could explain to you the number of seemingly impossible things I have seen happen. Life is an amazing journey.

So many times in my almost 70 years I have been involved in things that could not possibly happen, but did none the less.

There are things in this world that cannot possibly be explained by science or logic, that are none the less real.

I’ve just learned to accept that. I know many amazing people and marveled many times about how could those friendships have ever come about, but they did.

smile.


39 posted on 07/19/2017 9:16:23 PM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: pack29172

re: “AP = Turning the Fourth Estate into the Fifth Column. I believe the AP is the enabler of The Swamp. The Swamp is able to exist because the enabler keeps The Swamp from public view.”

try cogitating on this. The OTHER major style of writing is the Chicago style manual!!


40 posted on 07/20/2017 4:16:58 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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