Thread: AP Doublespeak

Associated Press reporters seem to report without question "facts" proffered by State Dept, Office of Management and Budget, and other government sources. For example, the AP continues to insist that Hamas took power in Gaza through a coup, despite the fact that it convincingly won control of parliament in elections endorsed by George Bush and Condoleezza Rice in both Gaza and the West Bank, although its wiinners were forcibly prevented from taking their seats in the West Bank, and had to force themselves into office in Gaza. The Bush admininistrations' calling the successful taking of their seats in Gaza a "coup" is a classic example of Orwellian Doublespeak, which the Associated Press has continued to repeat without question.

Another example is a syndicated AP article today by Jim Kuhnhenn and Andrew Taylor. They reported, regarding the federal budget process, that "Republicans passed legislation through the House calling for $61 billion in cuts...The GOP measure blended dramatic cuts from almost every domestic agency." The implication was that Republican efforts if enacted into law would actually cut the federal budget from one year to the next, while in fact there would still be a great budget increase. It now seems to be politically correct government policy to call a cut in projected spending over any number of years a "budget cut", and the AP duly reports it that way.

This is not to imply a conspiracy, but only to suggest that reporters who question the information provided to them by the powers that be too often, or neglect to publish it, may risk getting future "iniside information", thus jeopardizing their reporting abilities and possible promotions.

McClatchy News seems to provide coverage which jibes more closely with actual events, as do some Canadian reporters such as Eric Margolis of the Toronto Sun, and reporters at BBC News, and PBS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak