On December 24, in a unbylined report on the reaction of Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (you know, Time' Magazine's "Champion of the dispossessed") to United Nations sanctions, The Associated Press told us:

Ahmadinejad: U.N. Will Regret Move

..... On Saturday, the Security Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, increasing international pressure on the government to prove that it is not trying to make nuclear weapons.

..... Iran insists its nuclear program is intended to produce energy, but the U.S. and European nations suspect its ultimate goal is the production of weapons.

That's "funny." Here's an AP story from December 11 by Alicia Chang, AP Science writer, about potential global cooling that might occur as the result of a nuclear war that says:

Small Nuclear War Could Lead to Cooldown

..... In October, North Korea announced that it had tested a nuclear bomb. Iran is also pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. Other members or presumed members of the nuclear club include India, Pakistan and Israel.

So AP's editors will allow an admission, I would suppose in the spirit of "responsible journalism," that Iran is trying to make ("pursuing the development") of nukes in an article that is essentially a mini-rehash of Carl Sagan's "nuclear winter," but won't acknowledge the same in a current-events story about the potential threat that Iran may pose.

Does AP's Science writer know something those involved in the Ahmadinejad-UN sanctions story have "somehow" missed?

Oh -- And what about this unbylined story from Christmas Day?

Egypt slams Iranian president

..... Iran has consistently denied it seeks to build nuclear weapons, saying it aims to use its nuclear technology only to produce electrical power. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ambiguous statement stirred fears about its nuclear ambitions.

Maybe Alicia Chang deserves a promotion for scooping her colleagues.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.

—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters