Did the AP's Ben Feller Let His Bias Slip in Early Version of Story Fo

September 8th, 2012 8:19 PM
A NewsBusters tipster found a perfect example of why those who monitor journalists' original news coverage should look at all iterations of stories they file. Doing so reveals whether coverage of a story improves or degrades over time. It also occasionally exposes biases reporters otherwise try to cover up. The Associated Press's Ben Feller, tasked with writing a story immediately following…

AP: Obama Tells Celebrities They're the 'Ultimate Arbiter' of America

June 15th, 2012 6:09 AM
Does Middle America really want their country run by celebrities, a kitchen cabinet of divas and Clooneys and Snookis? That’s what was implied in an AP story by Ben Feller titled "Obama to Celebrities: 'You're the Ultimate Arbiter of Which Direction This Country Goes.'" "President Barack Obama soaked in the support — and the campaign cash — of Manhattan's elite entertainers Thursday as his re…

AP's Terse Report on Obama and Expelled 'Occupy' Participants Ignores

November 15th, 2011 8:17 PM
At the Associated Press this afternoon, White House Correspondent Ben Feller relayed the essence of a statement by Obama administration spokesman Jay Carney about how the President believes that, in Feller's words, "it's up to New York and other municipalities to decide how much force to use in dealing with Occupy Wall Street demonstrations." Feller failed to mention both the President's…

'Scandal-Free' Admin Update: 80% of DOE 'Green' Loan $ Went to Obama B

November 14th, 2011 7:32 PM
In Hawaii today, according to an Associated Press dispatch filed by Ben Feller, President Barack Obama is reported to have told supporters that, in Feller's words, "everything they worked for and that the country stands for is on the line in his 2012 re-election bid." Well, if what those donors have "worked" for is an inside track to government money, and if what the country stands for is…

Media Softballs to Obama: Why Won't Republicans 'Budge' on Tax Increas

July 11th, 2011 5:10 PM
Six out of seven reporters, called on by Barack Obama at today's press conference, asked a question of the President that came from the left and/or blamed Speaker John Boehner and the Republicans for standing in the way of a deal on the debt ceiling. Ben Feller of the AP, began the trend of questioning when he asked how Obama was going to deal with Republicans who were "adamantly" opposed to…

AP's Feller Asks Obama About Thursday 'Third World' Comment the Wire S

April 17th, 2011 7:15 PM
The Associated Press's Ben Feller interviewed President Obama on Friday. In the transcript, Feller interrupts Obama's long-winded response to his previous softball question ("Are the Republican leaders lacking compassion and they're pessimistic?") by beginning another question, which is shown as having been stopped before completion: Q. You said they might lead us to third world - It's…

As Obama Bizarrely Walks Away From Presser, AP's Feller Waxes Nostalgi

December 11th, 2010 7:46 AM
Not that he legitimately deserves our pity, but imagine the difficulty of being Ben Feller at the Associated Press yesterday. You've just attended a suddenly announced joint press conference with President Barack Obama and former president Bill Clinton to announce the latter's support for the former's tax- and spending-related legislative proposals worked out with Republicans. You witness the…

Reporters Visiting WH for Off-the-Record Lunch Work For Pubs That Dema

August 13th, 2010 9:59 PM
File the news in this report filed late yesterday afternoon by Michael Calderone and John Cook at Yahoo's Upshot Blog under "D" for Double Standards: White House reporters mum on Obama lunch, even as papers back transparency White House reporters are keeping quiet about an off-the-record lunch today with President Obama — even those at news organizations who've advocated in the past for the…

AP's Cooked Poll Claims 53% Obama Approval Rating Not Found Elsewhere

March 12th, 2010 12:55 PM
One thing you can say about the Apparatchik Press -- er, the Associated Press -- is that it's leaving no stone unturned in its attempt to prop up their guy Barack Obama. In the tenth paragraph of an AP report today by Ben Feller on President Obama's stack of priorities ("For Obama, big agenda and small window for results"), the wire service's Ben Feller bitterly clings to an AP-GfK Roper poll…

Oops! AP's Ben Feller Claims Obama Voted Against Iraq War In

February 28th, 2009 11:19 AM

AP's Snow Funeral Story Holds on for 20 Grafs, Then Goes Classless

July 18th, 2008 1:26 AM
After the firestorm that erupted Saturday over the Associated Press's classless story on the death of former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, I was hoping that the possibly-chastened wire service could get through its coverage of his funeral without getting in any gratuitous digs. In that horrid Saturday story (blogged at NewsBusters and BizzyBlog), the AP's Douglass K. Daniel, with the…