AP Throws Pity Party for Dems In Illinois Lt. Gov. Nominee Stories
In stories currently carrying Friday afternoon and early Saturday time stamps, the Associated Press weighed in with supportive articles about Illinois Democrats who are desperately trying to convince Scott Lee Cohen (pictured at right; image is captured from his web site), who won the party's nomination for Lieutenant Governor, to step aside. In the Friday afternoon's report ("Embattled Dem Ill…
AFP Asks: 'Is US Bullying Toyota on Recall?' Rest of Media Indifferent
In a post late Thursday afternoon (at NewBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that the half of the teases (6 of 12) for the Associated Press's short videos in business stories at its web site were about Toyota, specifically its recent product quality issues and falling sales.In that post, I noted a conflict of interest in the relationship between the U.S. government and Toyota, and wondered when…
Piling On: 6 of 12 Vids in AP's Web Site Rotation are About Toyota
Why are the Associated Press's video people piling on Toyota? Moments ago, in going to business-related stories at hosted.ap.org (example here), I found that the rotation of video teases the AP is presenting to readers has 12 items. Six of them, presented consecutively, relate to Toyota. Each is negative. No doubt the situations in which the company is involved are newsworthy, but is one…
AP Plays 'Hide the Numbers' In Its Unemployment Claims Report
You would think that someone going to the trouble of reporting on something would at least provide the most basic of relevant numbers so that readers could understand what they're telling us.That isn't the case with the 11:51 a.m. version of Uncle Sam's report on unemployment claims by the Associated Press's Stephen Bernard and Tim Paradis. Their report failed to specifically state what analysts…
Calculating Jobs a Muddled Mess – Press Presents it as Fact
The White House continues to throw out random numbers in their quest to convince the public that their behemoth stimulus bill is saving jobs at a massive rate. The confusion has even seeped into the President's biggest support group - the media. CNN recently announced how the stimulus plan funded nearly 600,000 jobs this past quarter. In their article, which parrots the numbers provided by the…
AP Headline Tells Readers DOJ Lawyers Approved Torture; Article Conten
Well if you can't win the propaganda war by twisting the content of something you don't like, you can at least plant a presumptive seed in the heads of those who will only see a story's headline. That seems to be the logic behind an unbylined Associated Press report this morning. Its headline ("Report: No sanctions for lawyers who OK'd torture") would tend cause anyone not reading further to…
AP Bashes Obama: 'Can He Get Any Other Democrats Elected
If the folks at the Associated Press lose their loving feeling for Barack Obama, his presidency could be in a lot of trouble.Consider if you will an article the wire service published Thursday shockingly titled "Can Obama Get Any Other Democrats Elected?" "Barack Obama built a powerful campaign organization and got himself to the White House," Liz Sidoti's piece began. "Now, as head of the…
Media Worried Corruption In N. Carolina Might Cost Democrats Votes
"Never before have you seen an allegation of corruption going that close to the governor's office in modern history." So said a Democratic consultant in North Carolina reacting to the latest casualty in the ongoing investigation of former governor Mike Easley. The scandal has brought down Easley's wife, bankrupted his coffers, disgraced a state university, and now, most recently, set federal…
AP Video Teases Give Away Attitude Toward Tony Blair's UK Iraq War Inq
Based on the two pictures seen at the right, it doesn't exactly take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the people at the Associated Press who decide on what pictures to use to tease the wire service's assorted video clips are not all favorably inclined towards Tony Blair. Rather than show a picture of the former UK Prime Minister, the AP chose pics of a demonstrator outside where the inquiry…
James O'Keefe Accuses Media of 'Journalistic Malpractice
James O'Keefe, the man that helped bring down ACORN and is now embroiled in a controversy involving Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), has accused the media of journalistic malpractice.In a statement released at Big Government moments ago, O'Keefe specifically pointed fingers at the Associated Press, MSNBC, and the Washington Post as a "few examples" of press outlets guilty of "inaccurate and false…
AP Lede on O'Keefe Raises Watergate Specter: 'What Did the Right Wing
The Associated Press on Wednesday insinuated there might be a wider conservative plot behind James O’Keefe’s alleged misdeeds at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office, and invoked the Watergate scandal in their lede: “Was it an attempt at political espionage? Or just a third-rate prank? How high did it go? And what did the right wing know and when did they know it?”AP writers Michael Kunzelman and Brett…
'Women's Groups' Pressuring CBS to Scrap Tebow Super Bowl Ad
The story behind Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow's arrival into this world is remarkable.So-called "women's groups" would seem to prefer that as many Americans as possible not know the story about the courageous and faith-based decision Tebow's mother made to carry her pregnancy to term. That's the only plausible reason why they are opposing a 30-second Focus on the Family (FOTF) ad scheduled to…
AP: Both Brown Win and Obama Anti-Bank Attacks Examples of 'Populism
It's amazing how Bernard Condon and Tim Paradis of the Associated Press managed to hang the same label on totally opposite political positions in their report on the situation in the stock market late this afternoon.According to the AP pair, Scott Brown's U.S. Senate win in Massachusetts was due to a "wave of populism," at the same time as President Obama is supposedly planning to use "populist…
AP Writer Worries Scott Brown Election Imperils Obama's 'Audacious Pla
Associated Press writers haven’t overcome their tendency to describe President Obama’s plans as "audacious" – like they'd just finished leafing through their well-worn copy of Obama’s campaign book The Audacity of Hope. On Friday, a Charles Babington political analysis began: President Barack Obama's bid to overhaul the U.S. health care system was in doubt Thursday as lawmakers rejected the…
