1 Yes, Mary Steyn is on target. They probably are dupes and semi-treasonous. But one factor that’s been overlooked is the AP’s “culture.” Indeed, the AP’s main undoing in Iraq – its heavy reliance on local stringers and “fixers” – is also being done in its foreign bureaus all over the world; and I say that based on a stint with the AP as a correspondent in one of those bureaus.

Just as in Iraq, the AP’s stringers and “fixers” elsewhere in the world are not on salary. They are paid per article or per assignment. Those stringers may submit rough copy, but it gets cleaned up in the bureau that processes news for a particular region or country. (And you’d be surprised at what a “finished product” may look like in comparison to what was originally submitted from a local stringer.)

Ironically, more than a few of the AP’s foreign “local hires” lack the experience to even be considered for an AP job in the states. Yet they play major roles in shaping foreign news that – via the AP’s wires – provides most Americans with their view of the world, and of Iraq. Along with issues of competence and training and ethics, there’s the issue of ideological sympathies of the AP’s Iraq stringers. Those sympathies obviously are open to question – more so than in other countries.

Back to the issue of “culture”: In the AP foreign bureaus that process the work of local stringers, the ambitious and salaried U.S.-hired desk editors have (I always thought) one thing in mind: pleasing their editors in New York and making themselves look good – even if it means covering up their own mistakes and oversights. Stories, for instance, are inevitably “tweaked” to make it look like the AP filed the story first – and hide the fact that it was late with the story, either because a local paper reported it first or because the local stringer just dropped the ball. Once, for instance, I filed a story about a police shooting that resulted in the death of an innocent bystander (a young school boy). The shooting triggered significant rioting. Somehow, the story I filed was overlooked by the editors at a regional office. We all make mistakes.

The next day, when I queried the bureau chief as to why the story failed to run, she went into a panic. She had me file another story that was written up so as to, essentially, disguise the fact that the AP’s bureau editor’s dropped the ball on the original story I submitted.

If such a shooting and rioting occurred in Chicago, on the other hand, the AP could not get away with covering their behinds in this way. They can, on the other hand, get away with this abroad because of a lack of oversight and accountability.

In Iraq, however, the AP’s institutional shortcomings have become obvious thanks to bloggers who are scrutinizing the AP’s coverage. I am not surprised at all by the defense coming from the AP’s top news executives in New York: “We stand by our story…blah, blah, blah.”

Apart from this “cover-your-behind” culture and the use of “local hires,” there’s the issue of how the AP defines news: “If it bleeds, it leads.” One thing that struck me about its stories during the early part of the war, when things were going much better than they are now, was how they made it seem like the entire country was in chaos. Yet the daily casualties being reported, at the top of nearly every AP story, were often no worse than what’s found in high-crime countries like Columbia, Jamaica, or Venezuela.

In 2005 in Venezuela, for instance, there were 9,402 homicides – or the daily equivalent, in other words, of one of Iraq’s suicide bombings that kill 25 or so people. Yet not every story out of Venezuela refers to this horrific murder rate, which, incidentally, has soared under Hugo Chavez. Iraq and Venezuela have roughly the same sized populations, about 25 million people.

Incidentally, in two other fields with which I am somewhat familiar – aviation and medicine – I have witnessed cultures in which pilots and physicians constantly second-guess themselves. They constantly ask how they could have done better, and they honestly review their mistakes with the aim of figuring out how to avoid repeating them. Such a culture does not seem to exist in journalism.

All in all, the AP has a lot of explaining to do.

2 David, nice article, but AP has nothing to explain, because we all know
the truth already. Besides, I'd rather they explain to the hangman
while he's fitting the noose on their necks.

3 Interesting David. But why the swipe at "Mary" Steyn?

4 I'm sure it is a typo, Randman. You're no ball of fire.

5 15% does not constitute a board or steward position at Reuters

6 John Ryan: facts on Reuters stockholders, http://about.reuters.com/investors/
 
So if I own stock in sesame street does this mean I get to be a puppeteer? John Ryan fallacies never win an argument.

7 John ryan,

what exactly is your point?  That Rupert Murdoch only cares about profits?  Great, we agree.  So what's the AP's excuse?  They'd make more money by NOT being traitorous Leftards.

8 The news  media is a business that is driven by profits, not by any political agenda.

John ryan,

so if Mark Steyn and Rush Limbaugh are only motivated by "profits", then why are you Libs such haters towards them?  They're just trying to feed their families.

9 Jesusland Carlos is right. The news media are losing a fortune by slanting their news to the far left and lying through their asses. Their political agenda is very expensive for them. Nobody subscribes to newspapers anymore, and the minute Fox News goes to broadcast TV, all the other "news" outlets will lose what viewers they have. Only nitwits and die-hard moonbats like John Lyin will patronize them.


John Lyin is full of shit, like always. (This is great. I get to rip him a new one, but I didn't have to read his mealy mouthed drivel because it's been mercifully deleted.)

10 Why was john ryan deleted? 

11 John Ryan was deleted cause he does not formulate his argument in a logical manner but in a condescending manner with major fallacies. His fallacy was "hasty generalization". Reason and logic in a argument no matter your political leaning always lends credence to your argument and validity, hence your post not being deleted.

12 Conservatives should resist the temptation to delete dissenting comments, unless they are intentional insulting.  I wouldn't put mere condescension in that category.

13 John Lyin's comments should be instantly deleted in any event because
simply briefly glancing at them makes one a little stupid. Lefturds
don't breed, so they reproduce by parasitically enstupidating
others.  

14 I'm an anti-deletionist.

John Ryan is no more annoying than PuddleDuck, and he provides the context that establishes how screwed up the left really is. Since I haven't seen Puddle for awhile, I say we need to take care of the moonbats that are left here. Think of it as an enviromental issue ;p

Anyway, I actually get value out of at least reading, and deconstructing the leftist attitude. I can use their material, as a method of sharpening my own knife.

Hopefully we haven't seen the last of No Fear, Puddle, and the others. But not the spam.

USA all the way!

15 Nice
---
fast food, fast food restaurant

16 Keep up! electric toothbrush