The Dis-Associated Press

The AP -- international, institutionalized bias

Tilting Leftward (and Often at Windmills)

The Associated Press (AP) is the Hulking Monster of the news syndication business. 

Formed in May of 1846, The Syndicate has risen to currently consist of 243 news bureaus in 97 countries.  They have over 3,000 journalists on staff.  121 countries avail themselves of what they have to offer.  Their content appears in 1,700 newspapers worldwide.  

But the AP is now far more than merely "Press".  There are additionally 850 AP Radio News audio affiliates, with 5,000 radio and television outlets spanning the globe taking them for and at their word.

Beyond just the majors, it is from where a great many small town American newspapers get most or all of their national and international news stories.  They are a deeply and tremendously dominant and influential force. 

Back in 1919, Upton Sinclair -- in his Leftist classic "Brass Check" -- excoriated the AP for what he alleged to be their ultra-conservatism and corporatism.  We here at the Media Research Center do not possess archives going back quite that far, so we will not speak to the accuracy of Sinclair's scathing of the AP as a bastion of turn of the 20^th Century Rightism.                                                                                             

But if the Socialist Sinclair was correct then, we can say with virtual certitude that he would be far more pleased with the AP product of today.  There are large swaths of liberal bias rife throughout the organization and its presentations of the news, and it in many ways blazes the trail for its many lesser Liberal journalistic cohorts to follow.

This past week was most certainly an active and activist one for The Syndicate. 

The polling booths for Tuesday's Michigan presidential primaries were barely closed before the AP's Ron Fournier, unable to contain any longer his anti-Romneyism, came bursting apart at the seams and in print with "On Deadline: Mitt Won, Authenticity Lost".

Reporter Fournier begins, "The former Massachusetts governor pandered to voters, distorted his opponents' record and continued to show why he's the most malleable - and least credible - major presidential candidate.  And it worked."

Clearly Fournier is not a Romney fan.  Does this unbiased journalist from this paragon of the news firmament have a horse in this race?  Meet Arizona Senator John McCain.

"The man who spoke hard truths to Michigan lost. Of all the reasons John McCain deserved a better result Tuesday night, his gamble on the economy stands out. The Arizona senator had the temerity to tell voters that a candidate who says traditional auto manufacturing jobs ‘are coming back is either naive or is not talking straight with the people of Michigan and America.  Instead of pandering, McCain said political leaders must ‘embrace green technologies,' adding: ‘That's the future. That's what we want.'

... "Judging by the brief campaign in Michigan, one candidate (Romney) would flail away at the problem with empty rhetoric while the other (McCain) would ask Americans to come to grips with the harsh realities of global competition, a tech-based economy and the urgent need to retrain a generation of workers. ... Romney didn't talk about any of that.  Instead, he told voters what he thought they wanted to hear." 

Apparently, McCain purchased his economic cataclysm and climate change snake oil at the same store at which Fournier shops, which makes him the best Republican for the job.  Not just in Fournier's opinion, you see, but because it is his opinion it is also and therefore an immutable fact.  

Monday morning on C-Span's "Washington Journal", AP Political Reporter Beth "Hong Kong" Fouhy provided the planet and the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign with twenty-five uninterrupted minutes of communications work and political spin. 

Fouhy repeatedly defended Senator Clinton and her husband.  Against the charges of racism that have been levied after each made questionable statements regarding (black) Democrat opponent Barack Obama and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.  Against charges that Senator Clinton had feigned her Campaign Trail of Tears moment. 

Fouhy excused every Clinton self-contradiction as little more than an "understandable" part of the campaign process.  She stood up for the Senator in referencing the debate in which Obama and Best in Show candidate John Edwards allegedly ganged up on her.  She even went so far as to question the veracity of an Obama statement or two, to turn the tables on behalf of the Clintons.

All of this sober, impartial analysis from the lead Syndicate reporter charged with delivering us the Democrat campaign goods.

A shorter burst of bias was on proffer in "Judge may let Rather's lawsuit proceed".

In which there is absolutely no mention of former CBS anchor Dan "The Stand" Rather's use of forged documents in an attempt to besmirch the Air National Guard service of one President George W. Bush just prior to his eventual narrow reelection in 2004.  Rather is suing to contest his premature forced retirement and acquire back monies he claims he is owed. 

The closest The Syndicate gets to mentioning the titanic scandal is, "Rather, whose last months at CBS were clouded by a disputed story on President Bush's Vietnam-era military service..."

Disputed, indeed.  It reminds us of Rather's own words on the subject, "(T)he facts of the story were correct. One supporting pillar of the story, albeit an important one, one supporting pillar was brought into question".

"'With my last breath, I spit at thee; for hate's sake, I stab at thee."  Eerily reminiscent of another Captain, in search of his Great White Whale, going down with the ship. 

There is far more bias to mined in just these last seven days, but we have already far exceeded our word count quota.

Suffice to say that this Week in the Life of the AP is not atypical, but just another days at the office for the undisputed Colossus of News (Bias).