Associated Press

AP Report Cites Rising Jobless Claims as Evidence of 'Modest and Uneve
August 23rd, 2012 4:39 PM
In his coverage of the Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report at the Associated Press this morning, economics writer Christopher Rugaber stubbornly referenced a supposedly predictive benchmark the wire service has been using which has consistently failed in recent months.
Rugaber also claimed that today's seasonally adjusted increase from the previous week, which…

AP-GfK Presidential Poll Cooking Ends Hiatus, Naturally Oversamples De
August 22nd, 2012 11:17 PM
I was beginning to hold out hope that the Associated Press was tiring of its partnership with the polling firm GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications.
No such luck. The latest AP-GfK poll on the presidential race of 1,007 people of whom 878 are registered voters shows Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney 48% to 44%. That four-point lead is down from 10 points in May and six…

AP Politicizes AAA Labor Day Travel Press Release, Errs Obviously in t
August 21st, 2012 1:40 PM
An unbylined Associated Press item late this morning told us that, according to AAA, "Thirty three million people will travel 50 miles or more during Labor Day weekend," which will be "the highest level of travel for Labor Day since the start of the recession in late 2007."
But it won't be, as will be revealed in the AAA-sourced graphic found at Page 3 of its 36-page report (large PDF) seen…

AP's Kuhnhenn Leads Obama's First Presser in Five Months with Softball
August 20th, 2012 4:51 PM
Although the Obama/Biden campaign has plenty of gaffes and erroneous statements to answer for from the past five-and-a-half months -- the last presidential press conference was March 6 -- Associated Press White House correspondent Jeff Kuhnhenn opted to toss a softball to President Obama today as he was selected by the president to ask the first question at the chief executive's impromptu…

Hardly News: Democrat Corzine, Others at MF Global on Track to Avoid C
August 18th, 2012 10:41 PM
About a month ago, I joked in a column published elsewhere that the reason a certain New York Times column didn't resonate with anyone is because no one pays attention to the Old Gray Lady any more.
Unfortunately, that's not true. But the fact that almost no other establishment press outlet has mentioned the paper's disclosure late Wednesday (appearing in Thursday's print edition) that former…

3000-Pound Granite Marker Now Honors Obamas' First Kiss
August 17th, 2012 8:14 AM
From the Obama Adoration Department: AP reports the managers of a shopping center in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood installed a 3,000-pound granite marker this week complete with a plaque reading, "On this site President Barack Obama first kissed Michelle Obama."
They’ve said the first kiss came in 1989 and the Obamas will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in October.

Journolist Redux? AP's Peoples and Politico's Summers Write Oddly Simi
August 16th, 2012 11:51 AM
Earlier today (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted how the Associated Press's Steve Peoples and Politico's Juana Summers could only find hundreds of people attending GOP vice-presidential pick Paul Ryan's Wednesday appearance at Oxford, Ohio's Miami University. Perhaps even more troubling is how they somehow chose an odd angle for their coverage, namely that Ryan has supposedly avoiding…

AP, Politico Claim Ryan Rally Attended by 'Hundreds,' Local Reports Sa
August 16th, 2012 11:12 AM
UPDATE: In its video report, but not in its accompanying text, Cincinnati Local 12 News reported that the crowd was over 6,000, and that "a whole line of people were turned away, because there wasn't enough room."
It would appear that Politico's Juana Summers and the Associated Press's Steve Peoples have an unusual and nearly identical problem with math. Yesterday, they could have and should…

AP Again Treats Govt. Spending in GDP Report as Same as All Govt. Spen
August 15th, 2012 11:53 PM
There are so many holes in Paul Wiseman's Wednesday report at the Associated Press on the weakness of the current "recovery" that it would take a term paper to cover all of them. I'll just concentrate on a repeat error Wiseman made. It is one which AP colleagues Christopher Rugaber (with Wiseman, as demonstrated here) and Martin Crutsinger (as shown here) have also committed. All three…

Shooting at Family Research Council: First AP Report Brings Up Chick-f
August 15th, 2012 1:42 PM
(UPDATED: The Washington Post reports "A law enforcement official said at one point in the scuffle, the shooter expressed views that differed from those of the Family Research Council. The official also said the shooter was carrying a bag that had a Chick-Fil-A bag inside." NBC Washington identified the suspect as Floyd Corkins, 28.)
There was a shooting Wednesday morning at the Family…

UPDATE: AP Corrects Aug. 10 Claim on Timing of Obama’s Promise to Cu
August 14th, 2012 6:15 PM
Late this this afternoon, the Associated Press made a correction to Christopher Rugaber's August 10 story on July's federal budget results. His original claim, noted on August 11 by yours truly at NewsBusters and at BizzyBlog, was that Barack Obama's promise to cut the deficit in half was something "he pledged to do during his 2008 campaign."
As noted in my original post and its mirror, the…

AP's Writeup on Expiration of Facebook 'Lock-up' Period Fails to Note
August 14th, 2012 3:12 PM
In her story this aftermoon on the imminent expiration of the company's "lock-up" period during which certain employees and insiders must hold onto their company stock, Associated Press Technology writer Barbara Ortutay reports that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will be locked into his holdings until mid-November -- while omitting out of apparent ignorance the fact that he previously cashed…

AP Ties Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio to 'Convicted Drug Dealer
August 14th, 2012 11:38 AM
AP couldn’t let Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio hand out juice at a campaign event in Miami without connecting them to cocaine. What? David Fischer’s story was headlined “Host for Romney event is a convicted drug dealer.” It began: “Mitt Romney held a campaign event Monday evening at a Miami juice shop owned by a convicted cocaine trafficker.”
In 1995, cocaine trafficker Jorge Cabrera gained…
Heavy-Handed AP: 'Steel Mill Polluted Town as Romney Firm Profited
August 13th, 2012 4:31 PM
For months, the liberal media have viciously attacked Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital in every way imaginable. From calling him a job killer (or parroting Obama super PAC claims that the Republican is an actual killer) to a corporate raider, the left has gone to new lengths to smear Governor Romney’s past, something President Obama never endured during his 2008 campaign for president.…