Free Republic

Aha! ...Aha! Aha! Aha!Associated Press writer Jesse Washington has investigated the March 20 incident in Washington, D.C. at which members of the Tea Party supposedly hurled the N-word at black Congressmen. Well, no recording of that word being used could be found but that hasn't stopped Washington from blaming the Tea Partiers...for posting the "wrong" video of that incident on YouTube. I kid you not: Three Democratic congressmen — all black — say they heard racial slurs as they walked through thousands of angry protesters outside the U.S. Capitol. A white lawmaker says he heard the epithets too. Conservative activists...

Taking aim at the way news is spread across the Internet, The Associated Press said on Monday that Web sites that used the work of news organizations must obtain permission and share revenue with them, and that it would take legal action against those that did not. A.P. executives said they were concerned about a variety of news forums around the Web, including major search engines like Google and Yahoo and aggregators like the Drudge Report that link to news articles, smaller sites that sometimes reproduce articles whole, and companies that sell packaged news feeds. They said they did not...

I know we have had several calls for boycotts of papers and of MSM stations, and those calls have extended to boycotting of advertisers. I am wondering if we had a place to post those advertisers we are targeting in an organized way, as well as a place to post an alternative to the product/company being advertised, it might have more impact on the advertisers and be easier for us remain in an active boycott of a product. I don't post many vanities, this may be my second on in 3 years. Sorry if it's annoying.

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...

Link is to Yahoo search with relevant article coming up first.

An unbylined Associated Press report yesterday, at least as carried at MSNBC, acknowledges improvement, and then explains why it's not going to get much future coverage from the wire service as long as things stay that way: BAGHDAD - Signs are emerging that Iraq has reached a turning point. Violence is down, armed extremists are in disarray, government confidence is rising and sectarian communities are gearing up for a battle at the polls rather than slaughter in the streets. Those positive signs are attracting little attention in the United States, where the war-weary public is focused on the American presidential...

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report. Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

Our list of sites that must be excerpted due to copyright concerns continues to grow, but now the Associated Press is upping the ante. Not only are they not allowing full text postings, they're threatening to sue bloggers who allow the posting of AP titles and brief excerpts or even if their posters post brief quotes from AP articles within a discussion thread. AP is now developing their own rules for fair use and will decide when, how and what they will allow the public to quote from their articles. And their rules are much more restrictive than is commonly...