In my October 17th Townhall column, I outlined—as if examples were needed—the ongoing left-leaning political bias in the mainstream media in general and the Associated Press in particular. AP writers apparently were given carte blanche prior to Election Day to slant alleged “news” articles against Donald Trump. No journalistic ethics, no fairness. Just “Stop Trump” no matter how slimey the effort. The old ends-justify-the-means excuse.
Anyone who was under the delusion that Trump’s stunning, 306 Electoral Vote margin which propelled him into the presidency might cause the AP to either turn over a new leaf or actually be ashamed of its conduct need look no further that a November 30th “news” article distributed to Associated Press clients (including my radio news network which serves over 1,700 affiliates nationwide) in the wake of President-elect Trump’s successful effort to save nearly 1,000 Carrier Corporation air conditioning jobs in Indianapolis, which had previously been slated to migrate to Mexico.
Mind you, Donald Trump has not even been sworn-in as our 45th president yet, but he already has exerted influence over Carrier to save the positions of men and women in Indiana. (That should be the job of the current occupant of the Oval Office…but let’s not go there.)
Rather than lauding the work of Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence (in whose state the Carrier jobs were rescued) the AP chose to portray the Carrier deal in starkly negative terms….stating that “the scant details that have emerged so far raise doubts about the extent of the victory.” AP noted that since 1,400 Carrier workers were originally to be laid off, “hundreds will still lose their jobs.” (This dopey observation is the linear equivalent of criticizing courageous firefighters in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for saving lives and property in recent forest fires because some other homes still burned to the ground.)
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For supposed context, they dug up some obscure Indiana state senator (surprise, a Democrat) who whined about not knowing what “wages” the saved workers will receive. Oh, and a United Steelworkers Union representative—you know, one of the unions which opposed Trump during the campaign—who complained that he was not “in the loop” as the president-elect was managing to save the jobs, mortgages, college tuitions and futures of 1,000 of his own members. Oddly, the article doesn’t quote one official, legislator or employee who has anything positive to say about Trump’s miraculous achievement as a private citizen. The only actual Carrier worker quoted by the AP feared the job-saving deal might be “a scam.”
The topping on the biased AP soufflé: their writing “team”—a total of five Associated Press writers contributed to this monstrosity of yellow journalism—without basis or attribution flatly suggested that “Trump may have had some leverage because United Technologies, Carrier’s parent company, also owns Pratt & Whitney, a big supplier of fighter jet engines that relies in part on U.S. military contracts.” Well, there you go: in “AP World, it’s the evil billionaire Donald J. Trump threatening defense contractors to cobble together a “public relations victory” by saving jobs in Indianapolis. Outrageous slander disguised as “news.”
Personally, if I were the AP I would thank my lucky stars that I do not have any input in the Trump transition team. If I did, it would be my strong recommendation that the White House pull any credentials issued to AP reporters until such time as they can demonstrate even a hint of fairness and balance.
Disgraceful and consistently wrong content-wise on so many ongoing levels, the outrageous editors and writers at the Associated Press richly deserve the words chief counsel Joseph Welch used to castigate Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s Army-McCarthy hearings: “Until this moment, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think I am a gentleman, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me…You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Wow. And it didn’t take a “team” of five writers to craft that indictment.
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