UPDATE: AP Responds Non-Responsively to Saturday Night’s Martin-Zimmerman Headlines Post
Last night (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), yours truly questioned how the Associated Press could have two identically worded stories with different headlines -- "Cache of evidence in shooting, still huge gaps" and "Amid evidence cache in Martin case, questions nag" -- posted at its national site.
This morning, Paul Colford, Director of AP Media Relations posted a comment at BizzyBlog which included a request that I note his communication with me at NewsBusters. Mr. Colford's note and my response follow the jump:
Colford's comment:
Mr. Blumer,
The motives you ascribe to the AP in the case of the two headlines and stories are ridiculous.
The earlier version (“Cache of evidence in shooting, still huge gaps”) was revised to clarify which shooting was being referenced.
Furthermore, not all AP stories update automatically online among the thousands of websites and other outlets that carry AP news.
I trust you will also transport this clarification to the version of your column that appears on Newsbusters. Thank you.
Paul Colford
Director of AP Media Relations
Mr. Colford:
Thank you for your comment. Though it is non-responsive, I have nonetheless created additional NewsBusters and BizzyBlog posts which carry it.
Unfortunately, your comment "clarifies" nothing.
Every one of the 1,547 words in each story is the same. Just to be absolutely sure, I copied the text of each into separate MS Word documents at about 10:00 a.m. Word "found no differences between the documents." So where is this "revision" to which you refer?
Or, if I am to understand that the "huge gaps"-headlined story was revised to become identical to the "questions nag" story, why didn't the "huge gaps" version go away?
The fundamental question remains: Why are two identical stories, one with a headline which clearly mischaracterizes the Martin-Zimmerman situation, and another which doesn't, still up at the AP's national site with different URLs?
Further, your point that "not all AP stories update automatically online among the thousands of websites and other outlets that carry AP news" references the substance of my theory, which was clearly presented as a theory.
The "revised" story ("questions nag") has a different URL from the "huge gaps" story, meaning that, as I understand the mechanics, it won't ordinarily update the "huge gaps" stories already posted. This would seem to mean that there are more "huge gaps" stories hanging around at the web sites of subscribing AP NewsBusters.org outlets than would ordinarily be the case.
Ordinarily, when I do a Google News search on an AP story using an older headline and click on the link, I will often (not always, but quite often) be taken to one with an updated headline (and updated content, if applicable). This morning at about 10 a.m., I tested the first twenty of the "huge gaps" headlines as listed in this Google News search on that headline (in quotes, sorted by date with duplicates). The headlines at all but one link were unchanged. Only one "questions nag" headline was located in this effort.
I ascribed no motive to AP. That would have been ridiculous. But I didn't, so it's not. I noted that "The 'huge gaps' headline's continued existence is pretty convenient for those who desperately want to keep portraying Trayvon Martin as an innocent, harmless victim while continuing to fan racial animosities." I did not say that AP was among them. I resent your careless or deliberate misreading of that very clear statement.
At the end of my original post, I wrote: "If there's a better explanation for what AP has done, I'd like to see it." That statement referenced what was from all appearances AP's unusual retention of identical but differently headlined stories at its national site. You have not provided a better explanation.
As of 1 p.m. today, both identical stories with differing headlines were still at AP's national site.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Comments
AP?...
Submitted by BBallleaper on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 2:19pm.
It's something I wipe with. TP, AP, what's the difference?
Broken News
Submitted by CJohnson on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 2:36pm.
Once you break news, it could take several attempts to glue all the pieces back together.
Blumer rules.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 4:57pm.
Yes, it's just that simple.
Yep, 'tis ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 5:03pm.
true.
MD
indeed
Submitted by Free Stinker on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 5:11pm.
The AP has been PWNed.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Tyler Clementi and Trayvon Martin: Justice Gone Awry?
Submitted by berlet98 on Mon, 05/21/2012 - 12:22pm.
Tyler Clementi and Trayvon Martin: Justice Gone Awry?
There are tragedies soon forgotten and there are tragedies which become iconic moments in American life because pressure groups and the media want them to be. The suicide of Tyler Clementi on September 22nd, 2010 and the shooting death of Trayvon Martin on February 26th, 2012 are two such moments.
Both resulted in miscarriages of justice due not to the incidents themselves but due to gay and black agitators and the media campaigning for unjust punishments of those deemed responsible for Clementi’s and Martin’s untimely deaths.
Eighteen year old Tyler Clementi hurled himself 250 feet off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River after discovering his Rutgers University roommate, Dharun Revi, and a hallmate, Molly Wei, had videotaped two of his homosexual encounters in the college room he shared with Revi.
Following endless demonstrations staged by sympathizers in the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgendered (LGBT) Movement, Ravi was indicted, tried, and convicted on 15 counts of invading Clementi’s privacy, bias intimidation, tampering with evidence and witnesses, and interfering with his apprehension and prosecution.
Ravi chose to stand trial. Wei copped a plea, testified against him, and was rewarded with a slap on her wrist.
Now 20, at sentencing on May 21st, Ravi faces ten years in prison on the bias-hate crime charge alone and deportation to the land of his birth, India, upon his release.
Few would dispute that what Dahrun Ravi did, particularly Twittering for his friends to view his webcam recording of Clementi’s graphic second tryst, was reprehensible. However, alleging his spying and advertising the tryst constituted a ”hate crime” meriting extended prison time and deportation is ridiculous.
Dahrun Ravi is clearly guilty only of gross indiscretion–and of acting like a college freshman.
No substantive evidence was ever introduced to demonstrate hatred toward Tyler Clementi because he was gay, which nowadays is a widely-accepted lifestyle especially on collegiate campuses, and Ravi was never even accused of contributing to Clementi’s decision to end his life.
Aside from the absurdity of the whole concept of a hate/thought crime, various gay rights groups contend the prosecution went way “overboard” in going after Ravi. The admittedly “self-absorbed” Ravi refuses to accept responsibility for Clementi’s suicide and believes his roomie “had bigger problems in his life.”
He’s absolutely correct. A talented, young, gay violinist with virtually his entire future ahead of him was undoubtedly struggling with more significant issues than a webcam exhibition in order to motivate him to dive into the Hudson.
Should Ravi be sentenced to prison for what was essentially a stupid, teenage prank, it will be a major victory not for justice but for the power of fringe groups and the media to dictate American justice.
A more recent instance of agitators and the MSM falsely determining what’s right and what’s wrong in America is the tragedy that occurred in Sanford, Florida on February 26th, 2012.
The media and black agitators seized upon and made that tragedy a national farce. Fortunately, the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case should finally be nearing an end with Zimmerman exonerated.
As detailed here in various articles, the reporting of and reactions to George Zimmerman shooting and killing Trayvon Martin on a darkened, rainy street in Sanford have developed into a racial travesty unrivaled for decades. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=24309.)
Dahrun Ravi is clearly guilty only of gross indiscretion
Submitted by Vandamage2000 on Wed, 05/23/2012 - 12:29pm.
Oh, and invasion of privacy. That too.