The AP's shift isn't sloppy, it's deliberate
By Steve Benen Friday Jul 18, 2008 12:00pmThe Associated Press hasn't been having a good year. It’s been striking, in part because it’s unexpected — the AP has not exactly earned a reputation of being the Fox News of wire services. For the AP to do so many poor reports in such a short time made it seem as if the outlet had undergone some kind of deliberate shift.
As it happens, it has.
[Ron Fournier, the new head of The Associated Press’s Washington bureau] is a main engine in a high-stakes experiment at the 162-year old wire to move from its signature neutral and detached tone to an aggressive, plain-spoken style of writing that Fournier often describes as “cutting through the clutter.”
Fournier calls the trend “accountability journalism” and “liberating ... the truth.”
In principle, I couldn’t be more pleased. If the AP wants to bring accountability to campaign coverage, I’d be thrilled.
But I’ve seen the results of Fournier’s experiment. The AP is failing badly.
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Unbiased, fact-based MSM journalism no longer exists. It has been replaced with "infotainment".
The AP has become the ABC of wire services, desperately screeching the fear-based rhetoric of the far right.
In other words -they're professional liars.
The readers have all left for the internet, since even good reporting gets the bad flavor of bad editorial direction at so many top readership newspapers. And each instance of downgraded news provides further impetus.
I don't mind cutting through the specialized vernaculars, the gibberish, the bureaucraticese
But this sounds like dumbing down for us hicks in the peanut galleries.
It's too bad because so many media outlets use AP's stuff because it's supposedly objective and cheap to buy. IMO this means 90% of the "journalism" in this country is biased. Hopefully citizen journalists on the web can bring truthful reporting back in this age of new media.
3 Ruth
I used to go directly to the wire service online, nost AP, the other one who's name I forgot.
Damn hangover.
Nice, just what we need, another version of "fair and balanced"....
So much for the AP.
I guess we've reached the point when plain facts simply aren't interesting enough. Having said that with AP and Fox driving media news it's pushing more people to find the true news out on the web.
"Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories" - President George W. Bush at the United Nations - November 10, 2001
We're now a one newspaper town and that's Dallas Morning News. But I remember when the Dallas Morning News was driving the Dallas Times Herald out of business by swiping all their features from the syndicates, including popular comics.
I couldn't believe it when the Dallas Times Herald would even consider looking at mine, but I wasn't counting on anything.
They told me they couldn't figure out my humor; I use a simpler form on this site. They even mentioned one in particular I actually thought was a no-brainer. A guru figure is holding a phone saying, "You know you have a problem with your mind wondering, when it starts calling you collect."
Even if they get their act together...one issue I see here in my local paper is that they take an AP press release and change it to suit their needs by leaving key pieces out of the story. Eliminating some of the article to lessen the impact of the story. I have verified this on many occasions by going to other papers around the country to read DIFFERENT VERSIONS of the same AP release...so the problem goes deeper than just the AP and their reporting, as the rest of the media outlets also play a role in less than accurate reporting on AP reports...I have asked my local paper why they do this and the answer I always get is..."it is do to a lack of print space why we cut some of the article out" ..and so many people I know rely on the mainstream media for their news sources...and it is so easy to tell who they are when they open their mouth and spew out the talking points of the day...totally lacking any factual information...Aljazerra actual does a better job than our mainstream press of telling what is really going on both here in American and abroad without slanting the issue...
“cutting through the clutter.” like:
facts
ethics
professionalism
Filthy Harry @ 12:
Begets more readership. Lies and distortions, readership declines.
The AP has been sh@t for over a quarter-century, and it wasn't that much better beforehand.
Now, it's just sh@ttier.
Ron Fournier was not available for comment about just how sh@tty the AP has become (so he must not want to discuss it).
I kind of welcome this. At least we know where the bastards lie.
"Professionalism" was one of the worst things that could have happened to journalism. True, it was all shit before the turn of the 20th century, but like I said - at least we know where the bastards lie.
The problem is developing a counterforce that can reach the strength of the right-wing (professional!) journalism machines.
AP = Associated Pawns
This is the Fourniercation of news reporting. Screwing over the facts to impregnate feeble minds.
"Fournier calls the trend “accountability journalism” and “liberating … the truth.”"
Personally, I call it catapulting the propaganda.
The MSM is all corporate controlled, and the reporting does nothing more now than what benefits the corporations of this country.
Didn't ThinkProgress say that Rupert Murdoch is on the AP's board of directors? This shouldn't be too suprising...
The AP has no longer has any news integrity left. They've been bought and given a receipt. You will no longer read any balanced reporting from this news publication. It is now a elitist neocon media organization. Another news outlet that has been instructed to misinform and entertain the American people.
This is the same Ron Fournier who told Karl Rove to "Keep up the good work."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/14/aps-ron-fournier-to-karl_n_1126...
The AP under Fournier's direction is not failing, he's succeeding in doing what he was tasked to do, slant the news in favor of the Republican party.
Rusty @ 11:
I used to work for a press clipping agency and often saw this done. Critical parts of news stories are routinely edited out to suit the ideological preferences of the editor.
I used to have a lot of respect for th AP but not any more. They should turn the clock back to what they know. Now when I hear AP I think the right hand of Fox News.
ferrarimanf355 @ 19:
That is a fact! Rupert Murdoch IS on the Associate Press board of directors.
Here is a link showing the board members.
http://www.ap.org/pages/about/board.html
This is all accurate. The AP is no longer creditable as a news organization. That is gone. They traded on the old reputation as they changed what they offered up - and for some reason they thought the reputation was enough even while the reporting tanked to partisan garbage and propoganda.
It didn't.
They are now seen for exactly what they have chosen to be -- Another repiclic-run corporate media mouthpiece.
I can't believe they think people are actually that stupid.
*
flamethrower @ 17:
Well put.
*
I look at the comments here and smile: The mainstream media is on its way OUT. Active, engaged, netroots coverage is HERE TO STAY.
Can our democracy's rescue be far behind? Looks like good news - for a change - to my eyes.
Eric
www.changeany1thing.com
There is no news media in the US anymore. It's all corporate, all worthless. When you're down to the Daily Show asking the hard questions for most of Bush's presidency, it's over.
If you read between the lines, what Ron Fournier really means is the AP will start writing pieces that will have more bias than they already have. This concept of neutrality in journalism is old news, according to Fournier, and they need to "spice up" their stories. The real journalists of the bygone eras are spinning in their graves.
I wish I could share in the optimism, but are there any netroots entities that are on track to fill the void left behind by a politicized AP? Most of the political sites I read (like C&L) seem to me to fall in the category of opinion journalism, which is fine. However, I don't know of many bloggers who actually go out and collect the news, instead of just commenting on it, and it seems that the former is a prerequisite for the latter. I'm genuinely interested to know if there are any "citizen journalist" type of organizations that could eventually serve as an alternative to the wire services.
anonymous coward @ 31:
That's a really fair and important point. For that I'd turn to sites/shows like Democracy Now! - the best independent news show in existence. And it's daily. As for the rest of it - honestly, we would all do better by just shutting the noise out anyway. Unplug the TV et al. It's pretty liberating.
Eric
changeany1thing.com
From my news source, I'd prefer "just the facts". I can take it from there. Infotainment sucks.
C&L delivers some entertainment, along with the facts. I can discern the two. As some one posted here, a while back, C&L is "a big liberal circle jerk", and I'm pround of that!!!! I am a "flaming liberal". We need to get news that isn't FAUX spin, like 90% of it is these days.
Sorry. I just now see it's been covered above. I take it back!
I just saw this today (back from April 14th of this year) -
Today, the Associated Press announced at its annual meeting that Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer of News Corp., is joining its board of directors. Three other media moguls are also joining the board, including Sam Zell, who recently “took control of Tribune Co. after leading a buyout that resulted in the publicly traded company becoming private.”
A 162 year old wire service dies, just to accomodate Rupert Murdoch's desire to revive the "yellow press" and bring it into the 21st century. George Orwell was right!
ruppert murdicKKK is on the board of AP.
it has not sunk in yet with some that it might explain a few things.
Another venerable institution has fallen to the dark side.
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