Associated+Press

Anti-Americanism - Associated Press - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Entitlements - Ethics - Financial Reform - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Politicians - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Assoc. Press: Stop Whining About Soc. Sec., America. It Isn’t as Expensive as Europe’s!

August 15, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Social Security is as close to insolvency as you can get and not be completely belly up. Government watchdogs warn that Social Security will see a $7 trillion shortfall by 2086. But the Associated Press says, don’t worry about all that, America. Why, the Social Security system isn’t as bad as Europe’s public pension mess, so everything’s just fine. Move along. Nothing to see here.

In the article, AP sets about comparing Europe’s public pension systems to Social Security. In so doing AP is apparently trying to quell fears that Social Security is in crisis. Why, Europe’s is in worse shape, so Social Security is “downright frugal,” The AP says.

Not only is the AP apparently trying to make Americans forget all about the mess that our entitlements are in, but the venerable wire service goes on to note that Europe’s benefits are far more generous than our miserly Social Security.

AP points out that those lucky Europeans can retire earlier than Americans and also informs readers that this Nirvana was created by high taxes. See, Europe is better.
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Assoc. Press: Stop Whining About Soc. Sec., America. It Isn’t as Expensive as Europe’s!”

Associated Press - Barack Obama - Elections - GOP - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Mitt Romney - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AP Misleads: Perry Did NOT Call for Romney to Release Tax Returns

July 19, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press does it again, falsely reporting something that might tend to make Mitt Romney look bad. This time, with a headline that screams, “Perry calls on Mitt Romney to release tax returns,” the AP garbles the story of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s comments about Romney’s tax returns. Contrary to the AP, Perry made no such call on Romney, however.

We should be suspicious of the initial AP report right off because it doesn’t contain a single, actual quote from Gov. Perry. Here is how the AP report begins:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is calling on fellow Republican and former rival Mitt Romney to release his tax returns.

Perry said anyone running for office should make public as much personal information as possible to help voters decide.

The report goes on with a bit of padding but also notes that “Romney has come under increasing pressure” for not releasing more tax return information, a demand that itself is nonsense.
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AP Misleads: Perry Did NOT Call for Romney to Release Tax Returns”

Anti-Americanism - Associated Press - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - GOP - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Assoc. Press Now Pushing Anti-Scott Walker Story About… Beer?

June 13, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press seems to be still on the lookout for stories about how Wisconsinites (especially “unions”) hate Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker — yes, even after he beat a recall attempt getting even more votes than he did during his first run for the Guv’s manse. This time AP is pushing the tale that Carrie Nation’s alcohol prohibition “union” is mad at Walker for wanting to serve beer at his unity picnic. Yeah, the same 140-year-old group chiefly responsible for passing the ill-fated Prohibition Act on the country in the 1920s.

So now, the AP has its headlined, “Walker Angers Temperance Union by Serving Beer,” and is seriously trying to get the nation all ginned up over the fact that the beer hating Women’s Christian Temperance Union is upset at the Governor.

What is the Women’s Christian Temperance Union? The WCTU started way back in 1873 ultimately becoming a major political force when its most well-known advocate, Carrie Nation, helped lead the way for the 18th Amendment, the one that banned alcohol in the United States. Of course, Ms. Nation died 8 years before the Amendment succeeded in becoming law, but that doesn’t stop her from being one of the main reasons for giving rise to the exciting career of our most honored Chicago citizen, Al Capone. Thanks, Carrie.

So, who cares much about what the WCTU is doing now some 90 years after their main premise was proven an abject failure? The AP apparently.
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Assoc. Press Now Pushing Anti-Scott Walker Story About… Beer?”

Associated Press - Conservatives - Dick Cheney - GOP - Health - Journalism - Media Bias - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

AP Asks Cheney’s Doctors if They Stopped Beating Their Wives Yet

March 26, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like Jerry Seinfeld, the Associated Press did a masterful job of making a story out of nothing this weekend after news broke that former Vice President Dick Cheney was the recipient of a heart transplant.

In fact, APs first paragraph is one of those masterful bits of psychological manipulation along the lines of the old rhetorical trick that goes: “when did you stop beating your wife?”

With its first paragraph the AP cast doubt on the propriety of Cheney getting a heart transplant, raised the specter of Cheney getting “special treatment” (even while denying he did) and played the age card to boot pointing out that many “thousands of younger people” are still waiting while Cheney is now walking around with a new heart.

The nerve of that guy.
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AP Asks Cheney’s Doctors if They Stopped Beating Their Wives Yet”

Associated Press - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AP Editorializing in the ‘News’ Again

September 7, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a recent article on the dissatisfaction of Big Labor once again we see making its way into what is otherwise supposed to be a normal, everyday “news” story, the Associated Press indulging its penchant for using biased labels and left-wing “definitions” in order to push a left-wing agenda on its readers. Even while presenting straight “news” the AP can’t resist swinging all terms and discussions to the liberal side of the fence, a tactic that it employs to push every story to the left.

In an article headlined, “Labor Unions Adjust to New Reality Under Obama,” AP writer Sam Hannanel reports the dissatisfaction that Big Labor leaders are increasingly expressing about their Obammessiah. Even though he’s been the most union-friendly president in American history their grumbling is rising as they see Obama “failing” them.

The complaint is that Obama hasn’t done enough for unions — an astounding claim for what he has done for them in comparison to what past presidents have done.
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AP Editorializing in the ‘News’ Again”

Associated Press - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

Old Media Gets Rolled on Hoax Story

April 14, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press was very excited to learn that General Electric was going to return its $3.2 billion tax refund to the U.S. Treasury because the company was so embarrassed that it got such a giant refund this year. Why, it was so selfless of GE to be that public minded, AP thought. Only one problem. The story was a hoax and AP fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Early on Thursday a press release came from GE… or at least AP assumed it came from GE… that announced that the corporate giant was giving back its $3.2 billion tax refund. Saying that the company was “facing criticism over the amount of taxes it pays,” AP assumed that GE wanted to reverse the bad reputation it had earned for having skipped out on paying taxes for 2010.
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Old Media Gets Rolled on Hoax Story”

Associated Press - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

Top Ten most Left-Biased American Journalists – #9: Liz Sidoti, Associated Press

July 15, 2010 by 6 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Do you get paid to sleep on the job? The union employees of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority apparently do. And if caught sleeping on the job, the punishment seems to be just a slap on the wrist, a wink and a nod, and business as usual afterward. All at $33 dollars an hour of the taxpayer’s money.

The Associated Press has been increasingly disappointing at least since Ron Fournier, one of its former bureau chiefs, decided in 2008 to change the APs editorial policy and allow more emotive language and opinion to become an official part of its newswire copy. Not every AP reporter has taken Fournier’s challenge, but boy has Liz Sidoti claimed that policy as her own.

Liz isn’t the only AP reporter to indulge her inner Olbermann, of course, as there are many AP writers that have been caught using emotive wording, hyperbole, and straight out opinion to damn conservatives and Republicans. But Liz is particularly good at the off-handed sleight and the surreptitious slam.
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Top Ten most Left-Biased American Journalists – #9: Liz Sidoti, Associated Press“

Associated Press - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Republicans - State Government - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

The AP: Using Emotional Descriptives to Demean the GOP

June 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the best ways to cajole a reader into accepting a point of view is to use emotional descriptives in writing. It is the difference between opinion style editorials — like what I write — and straight news — like what a wire service like the Associated Press is supposed to be writing. Unfortunately, the AP has been adding ever larger amounts of emotional language to its news and, not surprisingly, that emotion is used to give support to the American left and to denigrate the right. A recent AP story about the rise of the new conservative movement in Wisconsin is a perfect example of that emotional language used to attack Republicans.

The story, “Wisconsin’s Democrats have got the blues” by Scott Bauer, ostensibly describes how conservatives in Wisconsin are on the rise, finding great success in organizing and fielding candidates. But the main emotional response one comes away with from reading the negative rhetoric of the story is a distaste over the conservative’s success.

The first sentence that casts the right in a negative light is directed against Wisconsin’s Tea Party groups.
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The AP: Using Emotional Descriptives to Demean the GOP”

Associated Press - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

AP Bias: Name That Party Blasts Repubs, Leaves Dems Unnamed in Stories

June 17, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the many ways that the Associated Press lends its support to Democrats and leftists in its political reporting is often evident in its stories on political scandals. The most common assist the AP gives to Democrats is to somehow forget to mention that a politician in the news because of criminal activity or other scandals is a Democrat. Yet when any pol in the news for scandal is a Republican his party affiliation often leads the story, if it isn’t in the headline, even. Oh, it’s all accidental I’m sure, but it happens so often as to give the suspicion of a concerted effort. And today we have a great example of the AP’s penchant for covering for Democrats.

The writer is AP’s Colleen Long and on June 14 she penned two stories on separate political scandals, both of them occurring in New York. These criminal cases concern political operatives and how Long treated them is telling.
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AP Bias: Name That Party Blasts Repubs, Leaves Dems Unnamed in Stories”

Associated Press - Democrats/Leftists - Islam - Islamofascism - Lobbyists - Religion - Terrorism - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

AP Pushes Muslims Into Story Where They Don’t Belong

April 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The AP recently posted one of its many daily short news stories, reports usually of only three or four paragraphs in length, this one about the possible Nazi connotations of a vanity license plate issued by the Virginia Dept. of Motor Vehicles. But at the last second, this report suddenly became a propaganda tool for the radical Islamist group CAIR.

As it happens, the Virginia DMV revoked a vanity plate issued in 2009 with “14CV88” embossed upon it. Supposedly the numbers “88” and “14” are connected to Hitler in some way or another, but what makes the AP report appalling is the last line in the AP report.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations applauded the DMV’s action.

Um, why did the AP feel it necessary to add that CAIR was happy that the Nazi influenced vanity plate was pulled? What do Muslims have to do with opposing anti-Jewish sentiment? In fact, isn’t it rather the opposite more often than not? More outrageously, Islamism was an offshoot of Nazism as Hitler’s Nazi system served as the model for radical Islam as practiced today. Yet the AP is allowing radical Islamists to claim the mantle of anti-racists?
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AP Pushes Muslims Into Story Where They Don’t Belong”

Education - History - Media - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

La Amistad: How the AP Commonly Muffs American History

March 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press has a famous book on grammar and style that its news writers use to govern their work, a book that is also popular with the whole American news industry. It has served as a standard for many years. The AP, however, seems to have no style or rule for reporting history. Or rather, perhaps it does and the rule is to purposefully garble American history, always skewing it. The APs recent report on a re-creation of the famous 19th century, two-masted schooner La Amistad, famous for its connection to America’s slave trade history, is a case in point.

As it happens a replica of the famous ship was built to highlight history of the slave trade as part of UNESCO’s Slave Route Project, “to remind the world of the consequences of slavery and to promote cultural exchanges.” The problem with APs coverage, though, is that it does not mention the facts about La Amistad leaving the impression that the ship was an American slave trader. In truth it was not an American slaver, though. On top of that the AP seems to think the ship was “made famous in a Stephen Spielberg movie” instead of made famous by the trial that resulted in its seizure by U.S. authorities in 1839.
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La Amistad: How the AP Commonly Muffs American History”

Barack Obama - Budget - Christianity - Democrats/Leftists - Health - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Religion - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AP Conflates Fake ‘Catholic’ Group With Catholic Church

March 15, 2010 by 6 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is one of the sneaky tricks that the Old Media plays in order to support a cause. In this case it’s the Associated Press coming to the aid of Obamacare with “news” that a “Catholic” hospital group is coming out in support of Obamacare. Of course, the AP does not inform the reader that this purported Catholic group is not associated with the Church and is not authorized to speak for Catholics but it conflates this “Catholic” group with Catholics as if they do anyway.

With a headline that screams, “Catholic Hospitals Support Health Care Bill,” the AP’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar reports that the Catholic Health Association has come out in support of Obamacare despite the federal funding of abortion.

Naturally this report of Catholics in support of Obamacare is meant to fool readers into thinking that the Catholic Church itself, or some important segment of Catholics, are in support of Obamacare. If all you read is the headline and the first two paragraphs you might come away thinking that “Catholic Hospitals” support Obamacare.
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AP Conflates Fake ‘Catholic’ Group With Catholic Church”

Africa - Christianity - Crime - Economy/Finances - Education - Foreign Countries - Government - Health - History - Islam - Media - Media Bias - Race - Religion - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

AP Slips in ‘Poverty’ As Reason For Nigerian Massacres

March 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

True to its fealty to left-wing, western pop psychology, the Associated Press thinks it knows one of the principle reasons why roving gangs of Muslims are hacking Christians to death and burning their villages to the ground in Nigeria: It’s “poverty.”

Liberals that struggle to understand why man is often so cruel to his fellows seem always to have assumed that poverty is a key factor in violence and crime, but rarely it is the factor that liberals assume it to be. Poverty is no picnic, but it is not the cause of crime and violence. It is more likely a symptom itself rather than a catalyst.

It’s a chicken and egg question, of course. What came first, the poverty or the crime? But the simple fact of the matter is that poverty is seen in every corner of the Earth, yet crime rates vary wildly from area to area and era to era. So, if poverty is constant and is the catalyst for crime, why doesn’t crime hold at a fairly constant rate? It seems pretty obvious that crime is not directly caused by poverty.
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AP Slips in ‘Poverty’ As Reason For Nigerian Massacres”

Barack Obama - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP Misses That Michelle’s White House Veggies Weren’t Used on TV

January 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press had an extensive story reporting on First Lady Michelle Obama’s White House garden on Jan 13. The story included the tidbit that her veggies were the main ingredients during a recent Iron Chef TV show episode. The AP happily reported that the crops “inspired a culinary showdown” on the TV show and reported that the challenge to the chefs was to “whip up five dishes using anything from the garden.” But the AP did not report the truth that none of the produce used on the show actually came from the White House garden at all.

The AP reported about the taping of the show and said that the chefs used the White House veggies.

The garden also inspired a culinary showdown on an episode of “Iron Chef America,” a television series patterned on the Japanese “Iron Chef.” Filmed partly at the White House, the contest paired White House chef Cristeta Comerford and Bobby Flay against another duo of top American chefs, Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse.

Their challenge? Whip up five dishes using anything from the garden. The chefs harvested everything from fennel and collard greens to purple cauliflower and Japanese eggplant. Flay and Comerford, a Philippine-born naturalized American, won the cook-off.

Unfortunately for the AP, the truth is that even though the TV show filmed the White House garden and showed some of the crops that were picked from it, they did not actually use any of the produce during the cook-off because the taping of the cooking part of the show was held a week after the produce was picked at the White House.
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AP Misses That Michelle’s White House Veggies Weren’t Used on TV”

Democrats/Leftists - Humor - Military - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Associated Press Spelling Patrol, Or APs Lack of Military Knowledge?

November 8, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Looks like the Associated Press has fired all its editors… or at least all the editors that can spell. Either that, or the good folks at the AP are so unfamiliar with matters military that they don’t know that the name for the beginning of the day’s activities in the military is “reveille.” As you can see below, the AP misspelled it “Revile.”



Anyway, I just found it amusing. Probably because I “revile” the Old Media so often.

Afghanistan - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Islam - Islamofascism - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Military - President - Security/Safety - Terrorism - Warner Todd Huston

Associated Press and Misleading Rhetoric on Afghanistan

October 8, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press employed some interesting rhetoric in its recent wire story on Obama’s coming decisions on the war in Afghanistan. It is rhetoric that might mislead a casual reader as to how many casualties the U.S. has incurred in Afghanistan and just when they’ve occurred as well as both Obama’s and the Bush administration’s stance on the war.

Perhaps it is just clumsy writing, but it is hard not to wonder if the AP meant to give Obama a bit of cover on the worsening situation there. And what is that cover? It’s another attempt at the “it’s Bush’s fault” media group think.

Obama, who inherited the war when he took office last January, is examining how to proceed with a worsening combat situation that has claimed nearly 800 U.S. lives and sapped American patience. Launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to defeat the Taliban and rid al-Qaida of a home base, the war has lasted longer than ever envisioned.

There are three problems with this AP paragraph. First it ignores that Obama campaigned on the concept that Afghanistan was “the good war,” second it misleads the reader into imagining that all these 800 casualties were lost in this current phase of a “worsening combat situation,” and third no one in the Bush administration ever said that the effort in Afghanistan would be short lived.
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Associated Press and Misleading Rhetoric on Afghanistan”

Democrats/Leftists - Dick Cheney - Education - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP Lauds Story of Big Anti-Cheney Petition Drive… of 150 Signatures?

September 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press must have thought that it had quite a story on its hands when it published “Protest brews over Cheney center at Univ. of Wyo.” After all, it had Dearth Cheney, protesters, a university and a petition drive to keep the evil VP at bay. It was all the makings of a good story of “controversy” of the Bush/Cheney years. Apreantly the era of hope-n-change has not quite depleted the APs desire to rehash the Bush years.

As it happens, the Cheney family is donating $3.2 million to the University of Wyoming for the new Cheney International Center that is being built on the Laramie campus. This donation was a result of several installments that Mr. Cheney made while he was vice president.

The AP starts out with its strongest shot over the former vps bow.
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AP Lauds Story of Big Anti-Cheney Petition Drive… of 150 Signatures?”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

A Tortured Headline

August 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I had to laugh at an Associated Press headline that is so tortured as to be beyond belief. Naturally, the purpose of the twisted headline is so that the AP could get a Palin reference into its headline in order gain attention for its story, even though the story has little to do with the Palins.

OK, so without dallying further, here is the tortured headline: “Mom of Bristol Palin’s former fiance pleads guilty.”

So, a story about a person only loosely connected at this time to Governor Palin doesn’t even get named in the headline but Palin does? We couldn’t see a more tortured headline if AP had written: “Governor Palin’s hairdresser’s friend’s dog bites child.”
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A Tortured Headline”

Barack Obama - Business - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Entertainment - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP Doesn’t Report Whole Fox News Success Story

August 20, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On August 16 the Associated Press published a story on the growing ratings success that Fox News is enjoying in this age of Obama. While all the facts that the AP reported are completely accurate, one key aspect of the Fox News ratings story was left out and it is an aspect that can materially affect the reader’s understanding of the story.

The headline sets the tone for the slight misinformation that can easily mislead: “With Obama in office, Fox News finds its stride.” The piece goes on to reveal that Fox is having a “strong year” in the ratings and quotes a former Fox News host as saying, “Fox is much more firmly established than it has ever been.”

Throughout the article, though, the AP continually pegs Fox’s ratings to Obama and healthcare and if one weren’t well informed of the history of Fox News one could easily get the impression that the cable newser was only having success because of opposition to Obama.
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AP Doesn’t Report Whole Fox News Success Story”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Assoc. Press Downplays Townhall Anger

August 19, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In an August 17 piece on former DNC Chair Howard Dean’s appearance on a morning news show, the Associated Press did its best to downplay the high passions and anger showed by thousands of average citizens at townhall meetings across the country.

Dean was heard insisting that Obama not back down from including the “public option” in any healthcare bill, saying that such a feature is “indispensable” to its success at reforming our healthcare system. After the opening paragraphs, the AP characterized the possible removal of the public option by emphasizing Republicans and downplaying the outrage seen by citizens themselves.

Dean appeared on morning news shows Monday amid increasing indications the Obama White House is retreating from the public option in the face of vocal opposition from Republicans and some vocal participants at a town-hall-style meetings around the country.

“Some vocal participants at town-hall style meetings,” AP? Anyone watching the news accounts of the townhall meetings over the last three weeks will see far more than merely “some vocal participants” displaying their disagreement with Obamacare policies. The outrage being seen at these meetings has been the hottest news item around for weeks. There is far more than “some” vocal participants.
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Assoc. Press Downplays Townhall Anger”

Barack Obama - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Police - President - Race - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

APs Babington Misleads That Gates Arrested Because He’s Black

July 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In an “analysis” on how President Obama is dealing with the race issue, AP writer Charles Babington seems to have based his take on what happened to Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on the assumption that Gates was arrested for being black in his home, not that he was arrested for disorderly conduct and for his outrageous disrespect for a police officer — something to which other police officers involved attest, officers that are themselves minorities.

Babington so soft peddles Obama’s gaffe against the police officers, leaving out so many details that, after reading the story, one finds it difficult to understand why Obama’s words were so controversial. And it’s all in a seeming effort to cover for the president and try to help him reclaim the high ground on race in America. The whole Babington piece appears to be far more of an effort to smooth the waters for Obama instead of provide any actual analysis of the incident.

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APs Babington Misleads That Gates Arrested Because He’s Black”

2nd Amendment - Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Guns - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP’s Hyperbole Masquerades as Journalism

July 6, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the Associated Press, Tim Klass shows that taking liberties with facts by enveloping them in wild hyperbole can sex up a boring story into something much more alarming. Unfortunately, what one ends up with is not a presentation of news, but a promulgation of a narrative that befits a particular political agenda. And this time writer Klass uses his hyperbolic style to advance the guns-are-evil story line.

The headline startles the reader by screaming out “Powerful weapons found in Northwest drug raids.” One immediately imagines an image of dozens of high powered and dangerous guns, those above and beyond the norm, in the hands of these felonious drug dealers. One imagines enough guns to arm an army with the police sorely out numbered. But, when the story is read in its entirety, it becomes obvious that “powerful weapons” turns into one high powered pistol, the rest being your average, everyday firearms seen all over the place.

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AP’s Hyperbole Masquerades as Journalism”

Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP Slips Bush Derangement Syndrome Into Farrow Death Notice?

June 19, 2009 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mia Farrow’s brother, artist Patrick Farrow, committed suicide Tuesday, June 16. As expected, on the following day the Associated Press released a wire story about the incident. But, the odd thing about the short recount of the Farrows’s lives and the account of the discovery of Patrick’s lifeless body is that that the AP found some reason to slip in an attack on George W. Bush into the story. Worse, the AP used the fact of a U.S. soldier’s death in Iraq as a vehicle to slam the past president. What did BDS have to do with the Farrows, Patrick’s death, and a report on the same?

The customary information about Patrick Farrow’s death was duly reported, of course. We were informed of the laundry list of facts. We got Farow’s relation to actress Mia Farrow; a bit about her life; some on Patrick’s life’s work in sculpture and art; and some of the initial findings surrounding his death also appear. All good and proper reporting, of course. But then, at the very end, we get to the anomaly of the story, a lapsing into Bush Derangement Syndrome that is completely out of place with the rest of the tale.

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AP Slips Bush Derangement Syndrome Into Farrow Death Notice?”

Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP Brands GOP Opposition as Built on ‘Buzz Words’

June 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press posted an “analysis” piece by writer Tom Raum on June 15 to address the GOP strategy against Obamacare and other administration policies but the APs characterization of the GOPs efforts almost seem meant to belittle and de-legitimize that opposition as opposed to describing it. The entire GOP argument against Obama is boiled down to a use of “buzz words” as far as APs Raum is concerned. Apparently, no political truth or ideological disagreement really enters into it. Only “tactic,” and “strategy” built on “buzz words” and “fear” is offered by the GOP instead of real issues according to the AP.

In “GOP using buzz words to taunt Democrats,” with a subhead of “Republicans claim Obama embraces ‘socialism,'” Raum never once admits that Republicans just might have a principled ideological opposition to Obama’s policies leaving readers to get the vague feeling that the GOP is trying just anything to find a winning issue. Further, the entire article is premised as if the Democrats are correct and the GOP is just trying to chip away at their essentially correct stand on the issues. AP even presents a lefty professor to shore up the AP point of view — naturally the professor’s propensities are not divulged.

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AP Brands GOP Opposition as Built on ‘Buzz Words’”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - Race - Warner Todd Huston

AP Alarmism:’Some Say’ an ‘Increase in Violence from Whites’ on the Way

June 13, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier, Brent Baker reported that ABC’s Pierre Thomas went off the deep end with a story claiming that America’s white population was increasingly prone to a “wave of domestic terror.” Now the Associated Press also wades into the same murky waters with a June 11 piece claiming that the “potential for an increase in violence from whites who feel they are slipping from power is high.” Naturally, the AP employed the Old Media’s favorite source for the claims. It’s “some say,” and “others believe.”

Worse than the “some say” line of proof employed, this tale also relies on some experts that end up being expectedly biased sources. The AP asks a white supremacist what he thinks — as if there is any doubt that he would be for increased racism — and a university professor hawking a book on racism — as if there would be any doubt that she’d see racism everywhere. There is also all sorts of claims and worries by authorities, but no proof of any real “growing racist movement” is presented.

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AP Alarmism:’Some Say’ an ‘Increase in Violence from Whites’ on the Way”

Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

AP Picks Up Huff-Po Blogger’s Lame Smear Alleging Palin Plagiarism

June 10, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you would like a great example of how the Old Media takes a story that has no legitimacy at all and uses it as the basis for a smear job, the Associated Press offered a wonderful sampling of the tactic for you on June 8. From a headline that makes the issue seem more weighty than it is, to the lack of competent reporting from both sides of the matter, AP employed this favorite Old Media tactic by taking another swipe at Governor Sarah Palin with little by way of substantive evidence. It’s another “seriousness of the charge” story despite the complete lack of evidence as well as a lack of any gravitas on the part of the original source of the charge.

At issue is the false charge leveled by a Huffington Post blogger that Governor Palin “plagiarized” a section of her speech as she introduced talk show host Michael Reagan in Anchorage, Alaska on Wednesday, June 3. The HuffPo blogger charged that Palin lifted several sections of Newt Gingrinch’s work without attribution, and AP gleefully repeats the blogger’s claims despite that the truth turns out to be a far different case.

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AP Picks Up Huff-Po Blogger’s Lame Smear Alleging Palin Plagiarism”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AP: Know What All These Job Losses Mean? ‘Brightest Hope,’ of Course!

June 8, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is happy-talk and then there is delusion. The Associated Press has just approached the delusional stage with its recent assessment of what the unemployment numbers mean. Absurdly, the AP seems to imagine that the continued job losses under Obama means that job hunters are experiencing “raising hopes”! It’s like sitting on the Titanic pleased that taking on water raises hopes that a nice, relaxing bath is will soon be at hand.

The first paragraph of the story claims that since last month saw a few less layoffs, why, that is saying that what we have here is “the brightest hope yet that an economic recovery” will take hold later this year. What does the AP offer as proof? Not a whole lot, sadly. In fact, the very next paragraph sort of torpedoes the first. After this “brightest hope” business, the AP gives us this:

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AP: Know What All These Job Losses Mean? ‘Brightest Hope,’ of Course!”

Democrats/Leftists - Dick Cheney - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

APs Cheney Analysis: We Read His Mind And Decided What He Really Means

May 14, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Did you know that former vice president Dick Cheney is speaking out only because he is trying to protect his legacy? Well just in case you wondered about it Steven Hurst for the Associated Press wants to assure that he has read Cheney’s mind and it’s all settled. This is what passes for “analysis” at the AP.

The AP has also decided that Cheney speaking out causes “chagrin” in a GOP trying to “rebuild the tattered party.” Additionally, he AP throws out that much bandied liberal canard that Cheney is dishonoring “protocol” by speaking out because, you see, former chief executives always remain silent about presidents that follow them. Right Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore? Riiiight?

Oh, and one more thing: did you know that Cheney was “unpopular”? Well, just in case you forgot, the AP kindly reminds you. After reading this anti-Cheney attack piece, one wonders if the AP is now just letting White House flacks write its copy for it. It probably saves the AP some time, anyway.

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APs Cheney Analysis: We Read His Mind And Decided What He Really Means”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP Barf Alert: Obama Has no ‘Rookie Jitters,’ is ‘Extraordinarily at Ease’ as President

April 26, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I am not a doctor, but I play one on the Internet. So, take the following as a prescription for what ails you. Now, if for some unexplainable reason you have been feeling queasy since November of last year, if you have felt like you want to throw up but just can’t seem to get that bile to overflow, well I have a little something here that will surely cause that gag reflex to result in a healthy expulsion of bubbling acids. The Associated Press would call it a “news story,” but it serves a far better purpose as syrup of ipecac than anything else.

Anyway, if you need a ready emetic, try giving a read to our pal Liz Sidoti’s doting portrayal of President Obama as a “no jitters” expert that is “extraordinarily at ease” sitting in the big chair. He’s a fellow that has mastered the office even though he has “youth and inexperience,” and he’s Confident almost to a fault.” Obama is the greatest story ever told as far as Liz is concerned… and after only four short months in office to boot.

But, wait. There’s more puke inspiring sycophancies yet to come… read on if you dare.

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AP Barf Alert: Obama Has no ‘Rookie Jitters,’ is ‘Extraordinarily at Ease’ as President”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP Analysis: Good for Obama for Knocking Down Arrogant U.S.A.

April 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

…and Once again, the AP trots out Mikhail Gorbachev and sets him up as the ideal world leader.

The Associated Press has for years been good for inventing the news out of its own vivid imagination. But now, not only is the AP inventing news it is inventing an entire national self-image, then batting it down all in an effort to prop up the feckless foreign policy of its messiah Barrack Obama. Obama’s “The U.S. Sucks” tour isn’t over yet and the AP is loving it.

Did you know that everyone in the U.S. has a “deeply held belief” that this country “does not make mistakes in dealings with either friends or foes”? Well, neither did anyone else, but the Associated Press sure does. And what’s more the AP is praising Obama for “goring the ox” of this obviously “deeply held belief” in which we stupid Americans are prone to believe.

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AP Analysis: Good for Obama for Knocking Down Arrogant U.S.A.”