UPDATE, 11 p.m.: See this new post: "Unreal: Language in Offensive AP Tweet on Israel-Gaza-Congress Led Its Actual Story Early Tuesday"
It would appear that the Associated Press is branching out into new avenues of bias and submission.
Since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, its journalists have worked feverishly to earn the wire service its U.S.-based nickname as the Administration's Press. Now a still-present tweet early this morning (HT Twitchy) from AP's official Twitter account demonstrates a desire to be seen as Hamas's Press:
So how do you really feel, anonymous but official AP tweeter?
The tweet is particularly offensive because, even if one acknowledges the tragedy of civilian casualties in Gaza, the AP and other establishment press outlets have rarely acknowledged that they are occurring because Hamas uses the Palestinian population as human shields. Why this lack of disclosure? Because of Hamas-imposed censorship, which in the vast majority of instances goes undisclosed in press accounts. Additionally, the press has in its daily dispatches and photos almost completely failed to show the horrors of Hamas's multimillion-dollar terror tunnel projects, or even photos of terrorists in their paramilitary garb.
As I noted overnight, two Wall Street Journal reporters withdrew tweets relating to a Gaza hospital hit by an errant Hamas rocket. Why? The default assumption has to be that the reporters involved either were told to delete them, or thought better of what they had done and zapped them on their own to maintain their precious "access."
The tweet above links to a brief dispatch by Bradley Klapper, whose coverage, to be fair (but only if he's not the tweeter), doesn't reflect the sentiments expressed in the tweet (produced in full because of its brevity, and for fair use and discussion purposes; bolds are mine):
LAWMAKERS TRY TO SEAL $225M AID PACKAGE FOR ISRAEL
Democratic and Republican members of Congress are scrambling to seal a $225 million boost to Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system before they break this week for a month-long recess.
But the House and Senate are at odds over process.
Jennifer Hing, a spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee, says no money for Israel will be included in a larger spending bill focused on border security. She says Israel could be addressed separately, or in September.
That approach is at odds with the Senate, which wants the Iron Dome money combined with border security and wildfire assistance.
As the Gaza war escalates, Israel is proving to be among the few subjects uniting lawmakers. Members of both parties have introduced legislation backing Israel, condemning Hamas and seeking a tougher Iran policy.
The big problem with Klapper's narrative is that there is actually very little "border security" spending in the $3.7 billion bill the Obama administration wants to see Congress pass.
Back to the tweet: It seems that the self-described "Essential Global News Network" would be well-advised to tighten up its Twitter policies. As I noted yesterday, the AP's Matt Lee tweeted the following joke from his official AP account:
Looks like phase one of new US Mideast peace strategy to piss everyone off so much they stop fighting each other & turn on Kerry is working.
Ha ha, Matt.
After my post, Lee replied, as if this somehow absolves him, that it's all good because his profile says "the snark is all mine." Not if you do it on your company's dime and time, pal.
In July of last year, an AP reporter tweeted her take on the George Zimmerman-Travyon Martin verdict: "So we Can all kill teenagers now? Just checking."
Please, AP: Is it too much to ask that a wire service's Twitter feed contain only news and not hare-brained progressive-inspired snark and prattle, or de facto Hamas press releases?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
