Why I don't give a damn about the AP: [View all]

[hedgehog]

The purpose of the search of phone records is to locate the leaker, not prosecute the reporters.

There is no law stating the AP must be informed when the phone records are searched, only a Justice Department courtesy policy.

Leakers sometimes are honest whistle blowers; more often they are people with an agenda.

There has been a long pattern of Woodward/Berstein wannabees allowing themselves to be used by leakers to get one side of a story out.

But the main reason I don't give a damn about the AP is that the AP and most media today are utterly incompetent journalists. Consider the other scandal de jour: the IRS investigation of Tea Party organizations. Political groups were applying for tax exemptions declaring themselves to be social welfare organizations. The IRS properly noted that certain names seemed to indicate that these were political groups, and investigated a bit more closely to determine if they actually qualified for 501(c)(4) status. The real scandal was that these groups were trying to bend the law. Any competent journalist should be able to convey this simple story:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2013/05/irs_tea_party_scrutiny_do_conservative_501_c_4_groups_do_social_welfare.html

Indeed, some get at a deeper scandal:

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/13/odonnell-the-real-irs-scandal-happened-in-1959/

My Dad is a real news junkie, always has been. He watches a lot of MSNBC and reads the Nation. Still, I can't tell you how many times I read a story here on DU that he had no notion of.

What we have are a bunch of people running around pretending to be journalists when in reality they are mere mouthpieces for anonymous people with agendas. They are failing in their duty to give the American people an accurate picture of what is happening today to our country.

And that's why I don't give a damn about the AP!


Here are some more stunning examples of stories the media is missing/ignoring:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022857272

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022857291