#ncpol: The AP has AProblem
North Carolina governor Pat McCrory can probably relate to former Ferguson, MO. police officer Darren Wilson. In both men’s cases, the drive-bys strongly suggested crimes were committed. But when you actually look beyond the screaming headlines, and check the facts, there’s not much there to support the claims of the drive-by media and the leftist lynch mob.
Both Gov. Pat McCrory (R-NC) and former governor / cuirrent congressman Mark Sanford (R-SC) were 
slimed with an AP hit piece insinuating they took bribes from Lending Tree — a Charlotte based financial firm where both men served on the corporate board. I have to stand up and applaud the North Carolina governor’s staff for firing back with gems like THIS and THIS.
When I was a drive-by, I had some dealings with the AP’s Raleigh bureau. I regularly crossed paths with one of their writers — who shall go nameless here. This guy would regularly call me up and ask me about what happened at press briefings he missed. I would recount it for him. The next thing I knew — there would be a story out on the wire under this guy’s byline regurgitating what I said. The story would read like this guy was actually there when events transpired. My name is nowhere to be found in the story. If I was a dishonest person, I certainly could have used this AP guy to spin something my way statewide, nationally, and internationally.
The m
edia outlet I worked for was a subscriber to the AP’s wire service. As a result, the AP was entitled to take copy generated by our newsroom staff, strip the bylines from it, and run it as original AP product. There was no fact-checking. They’d simply stick it out there on the wire for statewide, national, and international consumption. There is a huge potential here for another Stephen Glass episode.
In this age of The Internet, and social media like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, how truly relevant are the newswire services? Their widespread use in papers across America make them a useful tool for politicos pushing an agenda. Spin a reporter for The Fayetteville Observer and you’ve got a story in ONE paper in ONE town. But successfully spin an AP reporter, and you’ve got statewide, national and international reach for your version of events.
Drive-bys like WRAL’s Binky are indignant at Gov, Pat’s calling-out of the AP reporters in question. Reporters — 
just like bloggers — need to be able to take it as well as they dish it out. (Especially when you are dishing out something that doesn’t come close to meeting the sensational flavor of its headlines.) There are way too many reporters out there with visions of becoming the next Woodward or Bernstein. Take down a president, a congressman, or governor. Though, If you’re going to hit someone, make sure you’re not firing blanks.
I read a few years ago about a culture change at AP, where they were pushing more advocacy reporting (propagandizing) and less objective reporting on actual facts. The change is noticible for those who have seen their material change in character. AP is no longer a source I have much trust in, and this partisan hatchet job is just another reason not to trust them.
This is precisely why I visit sites like yours, American Thinker and Breitbart on a frequent basis. You seem to operate on a higher level of integrity than the New York Times (Jayson Blair) or CBS News (Dan Rather). I value your judgment and place a higher level of trust in what you put out.
Thanks!
Just about every “news” article you read now in the newspapers is biased to advance the liberal agenda. The NC daily newspapers are the worst. AP is just more of the same. The N&O is nothing more than a newsletter for the Democrat Party.
As I understand what was recently revealed with McCrory and Sanford is that they held some position with Tree and that position was paid the “six figure” amount at the end of the term they agreed to serve. With their respective government positions they left before their term was over which normally would mean they do not get the pay. BUT they did get the big payout anyway.
. . . which seems to have been done routinely at this company, and involved no improprieties in their government roles. It would be interesting to go through Democrat office holders to see how many had very similar circumstances when they left corporate boards upon election to public office.
” . . which seems to have been done routinely at this company,” Where do you get that information?
Did you read the earlier article on the subject on this site? ”It was standard practice at the company”, and not only there but in business, generally.
McCrory just wrote a textbook on how to deal with drive-by media. Love it!
So Rolling Stone like journalism is all we can expect from the AP too?
Perhaps “Journalists” should be licensed, after all, considering how much property damage occurred at Ferguson, the drive-by’s collective “burn it down” was much to blame, and they should be held responsible.
McCrory as Mayor of Charlotte took on the media every time they attacked him.The government and business does the exact same thing, accelerating benefits as Lending Tree when a town manager or police chief for example, retires early if you check in quite a few cases.I have been on the board of a few companies and this is not uncommon as some would have you believe.The one thing that irked me more than anything was a column by what I thought was conservative Carter Wrenn.He stated McCrory had stated was ,’Not a crook,” and he,Carter had not heard that in over 40 years.I suppose implying McCrory would have been better off to have said nothing at all. And secondly that Lending Tree was just a wrung above a “Pay Day Lender.’Lending Tree is only a broker which finds multiple lenders and lets the customer choose the best rate and provider that suits them.Hardly a “pay day lender” or something nefarious.In my opinion McCrory has done exactly what he should do with a media that is populated with weasels who think they are above reproach.