The Associated Press issued a somewhat peculiar story this afternoon. The story? Rush Limbaugh made an error. Yup. Rush apparently mistook the fact that Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is a white man and not black, as he had announced on the air. According to the story, Limbaugh received e-mails from listeners correcting him. "Uh, Sherrod Brown's a white guy? Then I'm confusing him with somebody. OK, I'm sorry," Limbaugh is quoted as saying.

And ... this ... is ... news? I'm ... confused. That the Associated Press would find this episode newsworthy is almost weird.

Many posters at Free Republic are equally bewildered. "Must be a slow news day for the AP?" wondered one.  My favorite: "The AP finds the speck in Rush's eye but ignores the log in theirs."

I haven't researched this; but did the AP ever issue stories about:

These errors from Michael Moore? (also here and here)

These distortions from the New York Times? (see also TimesWatch.org)

These errors of Al Franken? (also here)

These errors of ABC News?

This error from the Los Angeles Times?

This doozie from the New York Daily News?

Just wondering ...

Oh, yeah. The story is only around 200 words long (which is almost puny), but the AP could not resist ending the piece without a totally irrelevant, gratuitous cheap shot:

"In 2003, Limbaugh was pushed off ESPN's NFL preview show after he said quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed."

C'mon. Was that really necessary?

—Dave Pierre is the creator of TheMediaReport.com and a contributor to NewsBusters.