August 15, 2008

A Reverse ‘Name That Party’ on Ted Stevens: You Don’t Fool Me, AP

Filed under: MSM Biz/Other Bias, MSM Biz/Other Ignorance, Taxes & Government — TBlumer @ 3:28 pm

DemOrGOPgraphic0708.jpgI’m sorry, this is too obvious.

Matt Apuzzo’s 750-plus word story on Ted Stevens’s situation (saved at host for future reference) doesn’t contain these words:

  • GOP.
  • Republican.
  • Conservative.
  • (R-AK).

This is the case even though he notes that Stevens “is in the midst of an unusually contentious re-election campaign.”

I mean to tell you, Matt Apuzzo bends over backwards to make sure Stevens’s party affiliation is not named. His wordsmithing gymnastics rival anything we’ve seen from 14- and 15-year-old Chinese girls this past week.

C’mon, stop it, Matt.

I’m thinking that this is AP’s lame, isolated attempt to say, “See, we treat everyone the same.”

No, Matt. No, AP.

The point is that you should ALWAYS name a troubled politician’s party — Democrat, Republican, or whatever — not hide it.

Your own stylebook from 2000 (I’d gladly accept a new one) says on Page 192 that you should:

….. include party affiliation if readers need it for understanding or are likely to be curious about what it is.

If it’s a crime or corruption story, readers are curious — by definition.

And you guys in the press are dreaming if you think this makes up for:

You can do it, Matt and AP. Name that party when it matters — always.

2 Comments

  1. Here’s my challenge to the AP:

    The truly sad state of journalism is that the standards of the MSM have dropped so low that the National Enquirer in effect is now a higher standard and therefore more credible. People are tired of this foolishness and the MSM should realize that they can no longer foist the lie that they are unbiased. If they want to get back to that place where the public can actually trust what they say or not feel they are being snookered due to an agenda by omission of the facts, do the following:

    1. Apologize to the public for your crappy biased reporting and display of poor judgement by editors allowing agenda based reporting of the news.

    2. Pledge to report the facts, all the facts on a story, not opinion. Opinions are for editorials not news stories.

    3. Do not report a story unless you have more than one side of it, if it exists, represented fairly and reasonably.

    4. You will attribute properly immediately after the name of any politician what their party affiliation is, without exception.

    5. You will promptly make corrections of factual errors when they are pointed out and then rerun the story with the correction in it’s entirety in order to counteract the false or misleading conclusions due to said factual errors whether intentional or not.

    6. You will give equal coverage of all candidates running for office during an election. No more excuses of popularity as determined by your arbitrary standards. You may chose not to cover any and that’s fine but you will not show favoritism to any candidate using air time or political party. Your job is not to chose our candidates overtly or via deselection.

    7. As more standards are articulated you will adopt them and pledge to the public your job is to report the news, not make the news, not spin the news, period.

    8. Appoint an Omnibudsman editor to review all stories before they are published, including any stories you purchase from the other sources. The Omnibudsman will have the responsibility to cancel any story that in their opinion does not meet the standard of journalism cited previously or any other new standards. And demand said information be added before the story is released.

    9. If neither the editors or reporters can comply with the previous points, fire them, they are a huge hole on your company’s bottom line and what good does it do you to have all your so called journalists unemployed???

    Comment by dscott — August 15, 2008 @ 4:38 pm

  2. [...] A Reverse ‘Name That Party’ on Ted Stevens By TBlumer Matt Apuzzo’s 750-plus word story on Ted Stevens’s situation (saved at host for future reference) doesn’t contain these words:. GOP. Republican. Conservative. (R-AK). This is the case even though he notes that Stevens “is in the midst … BizzyBlog – http://www.bizzyblog.com [...]

    Pingback by IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO READ THE NEWS ABOUT TED STEVENS AND ALASKA « To The Republic For Which It Stands — August 16, 2008 @ 8:10 am

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