mentiras
Originally uploaded by Donmatas1.
Some of you have been following the story about AP's attempt to invent a scandal involving Harry Reid and some free credentials (not tickets) for a boxing match. (If not, it's worth reading all of Paul Kiel's reporting on it; it's a textbook example of an established media outlet passing on opposition research talking points without subjecting them to scrutiny.) The punch line to the story, of course, was that the author--John Solomon--was awarded a $500 prize by AP for being the "most talked-about, blogged-about political story of the week". Never mind the errors and distortions in Solomon's article; what matters is that it was blogged about.
Media Matters provided contact information for Associated Press, but it won't do any good. As Atrios pointed out, they have no reason to listen to us because we aren't their customers. The newspapers are their customers. We're just...not on their radar.
Fine. What that means, then, is that we have to put enough pressure on AP's customers that they put some pressure on AP.
Being a San Franciscan, I suggest we start with the Chronicle. They rely heavily on Associated Press for their national news, so AP's cavalier attitude toward accuracy has an enormous (potential) impact on perceptions of the Chronicle's reliability. Their 'reader representative' is Dick Rogers, and I'm sure he'd be happy to hear from as many of us as are willing to write him. After outlining the facts for him (he's probably a busy man, and may not be familiar with this yet...although I'm sure he will be), I plan to ask him whether the Chronicle plans to a) demand that AP take concrete measures to improve the factual accuracy of their product, or b) stop using AP altogether. After all, those are the only two acceptable alternatives for a newspaper as deeply concerned about accuracy as I'm sure the Chronicle is.
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