I recalled some issues back in Nov. following the election--and remembered that AP was involved with the polling/vote tally issues. Here's a clip from an old story:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/102304Landes/102304landes.html<<snip>>
Could the Associated Press rig the election?
By Lynn Landes
Online Journal Contributing Writer
October 23, 2004—The Associated Press (AP) will be the sole source of raw vote totals for the major news broadcasters on Election Night.
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Who is the AP? The Associated Press was founded in 1848. It is a not-for-profit news cooperative, some would say ‘monopoly,’ that rakes in about $500 million dollars a year. The AP is owned by its 1,500 U.S. daily newspaper members. Their board of directors is elected by voting ‘bonds.’ However, it is not clear who controls the bonds. AP spokespeople would not give out information on who sits on their board, however AP leadership appears quite conservative.
Burl Osborne, chairman of the AP board of directors, is also publisher emeritus of the conservative The Dallas Morning News, a newspaper that endorsed George W. Bush in the last election. Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive editor of AP, was a reporter at The Dallas Morning News before joining AP. Carroll is also on the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME)’s 7-member executive committee. The APME "works in partnership with AP to improve the wire service's performance," according to their website. APME vice president, Deanna Sands, is managing editor of the ultra conservative Omaha World Herald newspaper, whose parent company owns the largest voting machine company in the nation, Election Systems and Software (ES&S).
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