Associated Press
Split Personality: One Hour After Cheerleading, AP's Aversa Goes Dour
December 22nd, 2009 4:18 PM
In an item time-stamped at 1:16 p.m. today (in case updated, here is a graphic capture of the first six paragraphs as they then appeared) covered by yours truly a short time ago (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), the Associated Press's Jeannine Aversa discounted today's weaker than expected economic growth report from Uncle Sam showing that gross domestic product only grew by an annualized 2.2%…
Economy Not Impressing? Never Fear, the AP's Jeannine Aversa Is Here
December 22nd, 2009 2:55 PM
Uncle Sam's Bureau of Economic Analysis today revised economic growth in the third quarter downward a second time. After originally estimating annualized growth of 3.5% in October and then reducing it to 2.8% in November, the bureau's "third estimate" issued today came in at 2.2%. If that "third estimate" term seems odd, it's because this is only the second quarter the BEA has labeled its…
AP Word Games: 'Pork' and 'Earmarks' Transformed Into 'Local Projects
December 22nd, 2009 12:07 PM
In connection with the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending monstrosity signed into law last week, an unbylined AP report on December 16 told us the following (bolds are mine throughout this post): Most Republicans opposed the bill, citing runaway federal spending. They also pointed to an estimated $3.9 billion for more than 5,000 local projects sought by lawmakers from both parties. The AP writer…
AP, Ohio Media, Gov. Strickland and Dems Call Double-Digit Retroactive
December 19th, 2009 9:37 AM
On January 1, 2009, the final 4.2% stage of a four-year, 21% cut in individual income taxes took effect in Ohio. State tax withholding tables reflecting the lower rates went into effect. Ohio employees began seeing a bit more net pay in each paycheck. This past week, the state legislature, faced with an $850 million shortfall and threats of immediate school funding cuts by Governor Ted…
AP Reporter: Global Warming Skepticism Explained by Psychology
December 18th, 2009 9:57 AM
Global warming? Case closed. Consensus achieved. There can be no debate about it. ClimateGate? Never happened. I refuse to even acknowledge its existence. Must hang on to the global warming belief at all costs even against evidence to to the contrary. That dogmatic stance pretty much sums up the attitude of Associated Press writer Malcolm Ritter in his story about how global warming skepticism…
Tiger Woods Named AP's Athlete of the Decade Despite Sex Scandal
December 16th, 2009 5:18 PM
Despite a growing sex scandal, golfer Tiger Woods has been named by members of the Associated Press as Athlete of the Decade.According to AP Sports Enterprise Editor John Affleck:The Tiger Woods scandal if you will, the, all of the, all of the personal turmoil that Tiger has been through in the past few weeks really had very little effect on the voting. Voting began a few days before his accident…
AP Readers' Rule: Quickly Skip to the Final Paragraphs; Article Cites
December 16th, 2009 12:01 AM
Longtime readers of Associated Press dispatches have long since learned that many of the most important facts of a story -- especially facts that put the government, bureaucrats, and leftists in a bad light -- are often found in its final paragraphs. This is a way for the wire service to boast that it really did report all important facts while usually ensuring that harried broadcasters and other…
Poll Shows Support for Cap and Trade, Until Consequences are Considere
December 15th, 2009 4:52 PM
The Associated Press today reported on an AP-GfK poll showing that a majority of Americans believe, in the words of the AP headline "action on climate will heat up economy, jobs." The headline was misleading, however, in that it gave readers the impression that the public is firmly behind the creation of what the Obama administration has dubbed the "green economy."When asked what effect they…
Weak: Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart Attack Inhofe's Climate Skepticism
December 15th, 2009 3:18 PM
The exposure of ClimateGate and the impending failure of the Copenhagen climate summit have the global warming community on the ropes. And to add insult to their injury, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., has taken his one-man truth squad to Copenhagen, to continue to underscore just how absurd the idea of anthropogenic global warming is. That has drawn the ire of the left, which knows it's losing…
Journalists Freeze Waiting To Get Into Global Warming Conference
December 15th, 2009 3:14 PM
A group of journalists stood for many hours in near-freezing temperatures Monday waiting to get into the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen.Marvelously among them was Associated Press science writer Seth Borenstein who regularly reports on the dire consequences of -- wait for it! -- global warming.Ironically, his articles are so filled with inflammatory hyperbole concerning…
Pittsburgh Mayor's Ultimatum to Universities: Pay City Millions, or Se
December 15th, 2009 1:47 PM
A breaking dispatch from the Associated Press sure makes it look like Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (picture at top right is from his Wikipedia entry) is engaging in extortion directed at the institutions of higher education that happen to be within the city's borders. The ostensible reason for the stickup is to shore up the city's foundering pension system. It will be interesting to see how…
WH 'Command and Control' EPA Threat Confirms C of C Head's Prediction
December 12th, 2009 10:10 AM
Has anyone else noticed how chilling it has been during the past few days? Not chilly (though it's been that too). Chilling. On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared, in the Associated Press's words, that "greenhouse gas emissions are a danger and must be regulated." The AP, in the item just linked, and many other news outlets carried U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and…
Hmm -- AP Report on Uncle Sam's Monthly Budget Statement Acts As If We
December 12th, 2009 12:06 AM
In his coverage of Uncle Sam's November Monthly Treasury Statement released yesterday, the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger reached the wire service's usual quota of errors and misstatements. But what's remarkable is that the AP reporter's article seems to betray a belief that the country is still in a recession. Fascinating. Along the way, Crutsinger omitted the fact that November's deficit…
Obama Snubs Kids Event In Oslo, Cardboard Cutout Put In His Place
December 10th, 2009 11:44 PM
Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama skipped a "Save the Children" benefit concert in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, and a cardboard cutout of the American president was placed on stage in his absence.In Oslo to receive an award that most people believe he didn't deserve, Obama claimed, "I still have a lot of work to do back in Washington, D.C., before the year is done."According to the Associated…