Recently, the AP has been failing to uphold its standards of journalistic integrity. Josh Marshall at TPM has been documenting this carefully, even stating semi-facetiously that the AP has "endorsed" McCain. He has even charged the AP with bamboozlement over its distortion of Obama's Iraq stance.
In particular, AP writer Liz Sidoti (of McCain donut sprinkles fame: see first link) has written that: "On Iraq, he has gone from hard-line opposition to the war to more nuanced rhetoric that calls for a troop drawdown process that could last 16 months." Of course, this is patently false for Obama has always talked about a 16 month withdrawal. She also writes of Obama's Iraq stance: "a potentially flexible formulation that has troubled liberals."
However, this is also patently false. The uniform response from the liberal blogosphere has been condemnation of the media for distortion, not Obama.
Below I describe how you can take action. Please rec this diary to encourage others to do likewise.
(An example of liberal reaction: Matt Yglesias writes: "the media really earned itself an invitation to John McCain's next BBQ with their performance.")
Given the AP's massive distribution, these falsehoods are spreading into articles on Time as well as into the HuffPo. So Kossacks, please send an email to info@ap.org asking the AP to issue a correction. PLEASE BE POLITE. WE ARE ONLY ASKING FOR A CORRECTION. A BITING E-MAIL WILL LIKELY ONLY BACKFIRE. I post my email below.
UPDATES: In the comments, julimac provides info on more precisely targeting the AP (and those who distribute its articles) depending on your location.
Also Lava20 provides numbers: Phone: 212-621-1500
Fax: 212-621-7523.
Also TDreamer reminds me of TPM's detailing of the long history of AP bad behavior going back at least to 2004: link
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Dear Ms. Sidoti,
In your recent articles you state that Obama’s plan of withdrawal in 16 months is something new, which it is not. Furthermore, you state that the left is angry about Obama’s recent statements on Iraq. However, I don’t see any evidence for that. If you persuse the left-wing blogs, websites, etc., they uniformly are upset not at Obama but at the press for what they perceive to be a raw deal for falsely claiming that Obama "flip flopped" on Iraq. They are, however, very upset about Obama’s stance on FISA. But I just haven’t seen any evidence of left-wing anger at Obama over Iraq.
Your work is being spread far and wide, in Time, on the HuffPo etc., but you have yet to issue a correction.
Thanks for your time.
Respectfully,
XXXXXX
Update: I mistakenly wrote that the AP had "endorsed" Obama. I meant McCain and have corrected this.