Oct. 13 at At AP: Lech Walesa, ‘Legendary Freedom Leader’; Now: 'L

Tom Blumer
October 23rd, 2011 2:15 PM
On October 13, Monika Scislowska of the Associated Press reported that a "legendary freedom leader ... says he supports the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York that protests corporate greed," and that "that he is planning either a visit or a letter to the protesters." That leader would be Poland's former President Lech Walesa. On Friday, October 21, at 5:01 p.m., Adam Andrzejewski at…
 

AP Whitewashes Chavez's Planned Island Property Expropriation, Waters

Tom Blumer
October 9th, 2011 11:17 PM
In a report carried at the Washington Post on Thursday and updated early Friday, the Associated Press's Christopher Toothaker wrote a lengthy report about how Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chavez plans to "expropriate homes on the Caribbean resort islands of Los Roques, saying the structures were built on plots bought in shadowy business deals." By the end of the day Friday, the report turned into four…
 

WaPo Carries AP Obit of Anti-Communist Fighter, Insists He's 'Still Co

Ken Shepherd
August 16th, 2011 12:40 PM
A daring Czech anti-Communist freedom who escaped to West Berlin in 1953 and later served in the U.S. Army died on August 13 "of an undisclosed illness in a war veterans residence in Cleveland." When it came to noting his passing, the Washington Post ran a slightly-edited version of an AP story by Karl Janicek that Post editors headlined "Czech who fought communism still controversial."* By…
 

AP Headline: 'One-child policy a surprising boon for China girls

Tom Blumer
August 14th, 2011 4:08 PM
Sunday, Alexa Olesen at the Associated Press wrote an item headlined "One-child policy a surprising boon for China girls." My immediate comeback: "43-60 million Chinese girls aborted because they were of the 'wrong' gender or would have violated the one-child policy were not available for comment." While nowhere near as odious as Nick Kristof's "Mao Tse-tung wasn't all that bad; look what he…
 

AP's Writeup on Castro's 85th Birthday Tags Him As 'Revolutionary Icon

Tom Blumer
August 13th, 2011 10:59 PM
Tuesday (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), yours truly noted an email from the Associated Press's Images Group which encouraged subscribing outlets to use its "iconic images and videos" to promote the 85th birthday of Fidel Castro, the "Legendary Cuban revolutionary and longtime leader." Today, writing what may be the wire service's last calendar-driven excuse to heap praise on him while he is…
 

AP's Images Group Promotes 'Iconic' Castro, Ché Photos Commemorating

Tom Blumer
August 9th, 2011 1:28 PM
Communist Cuba's Castro brothers may be asking themselves why they need to engage in any propaganda on their own when they have Associated Press's Images Division promoting photos of Dear Leader Fidel Castro as "iconic" and the brutal Ché Guevera as a "revolutionary hero." What follows is the text of an email NewsBusters and BizzyBlog commenter/correspondent Gary received from AP Images on…
 

Reporting How Cubans May Finally Be Able to Own Their Houses, NY Times

Ken Shepherd
August 3rd, 2011 5:58 PM
Leave it to the New York Times to worry about income disparity and gentrification… in Cuba. In his August 3 story “Cubans Set for Big Change: Right to Buy Homes,” correspondent Damien Cave reported on how Cubans will finally be able – albeit doubtless with numerous restrictions – to own their own houses come legislative changes expected to be enacted later this year. “[E]ven with some state…
 

NYT Regales Readers With Popularity Myths of Leftist Dictators

Clay Waters
June 29th, 2011 1:40 PM
On Wednesday, the New York Times's Caracas-based reporter Simon Romero drew a favorable sketch of two anti-American strongmen, Cuba’s Communist dictator Fidel Castro and leftist autocrat and ideological sibling Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, in “Venezuelan, Like Castro, Has Brother At the Ready.” Romero led off with left-wing flattery of the two nations: To the many comparisons that can been…