Gary Pruitt, in his first television interviews since it was revealed the Justice Department subpoenaed phone records of AP reporters and editors, said the move already has had a chilling effect on journalism. Pruitt said the seizure has made sources less willing to talk to AP journalists and, in the long term, could limit Americans’ information from all news outlets.
Pruitt told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the government has no business monitoring the AP’s newsgathering activities.
“And if they restrict that apparatus … the people of the United States will only know what the government wants them to know and that’s not what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment,” he said.
A lawsuit has not been ruled out, but next moves haven’t been decided as of yet.
It put the American people at risk and that is not hyperbole. Trying to determine who was responsible required very aggressive action.U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder • Defending the Department of Justice’s decision to collect roughly two months worth of various Associated Press employees’ work and personal phone records as part of a criminal investigation. The DoJ is apparently investigating a leak which occured last year, revealing the existence of a failed plot to bomb a U.S. plane, during a time when the Obama Administration insisted the U.S. government was unaware of any terror attacks which might be planned to coincide with the annviersary of Osama bin Laden’s death. source
Any one of those stories would be enough to knock an Administration back on its heels. All three — and with the IRS and AP stories coming in rapid succession over the past 96 hours — threaten to permanently derail Obama’s plans to fortify his presidential legacy in the first 18 months of his second term.
The problems are both practical and symbolic. They have both short term and long term political consequences. And almost none of it portends well for President Obama and his Administration.
Another point here worth considering: “Remember that President Obama was elected in 2008 in no small part because of his pledge to be the anti-George W. Bush. That is, prizing competence over all in governance and putting a premium on transparency. And both of those pillars are undermined by developments in the past four days.”
There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.Associated Press President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt • In a letter, sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, denouncing the Justice Department’s decision to acquire the phone records of AP journalists as well as a number of the wire service’s offices over a two-month period. The move came as a result of a 2012 AP story which leaked the news of a foiled attack on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death. The move, which followed the Obama administration’s general policy of trying to shut down leaks, nonetheless was disowned by the White House. “We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. “Any questions about an ongoing criminal investigation should be directed to the Department of Justice.” The move has been condemned by many journalists.
Will the new guidance make it harder for writers? Perhaps just a bit at first. But while labels may be more facile, they are not accurate.The Associated Press’ reasoning (in a nutshell) for officially dropping the term “illegal immigrant” from the AP Stylebook on Tuesday. Official AP style now calls for writers to specifically state that a person(s) is living in a given location illegally, rather than referring to the person(s) themselves as being illegal. source
Today, the AP ran a sponsored tweet. Here’s the backstory about the tweets, which the Associated Press will run throughout the week, as part of Samsung’s pitch during the Consumer Electronics Show.
The Associated Press has created an impressive embeddable interactive graphic to go with the Sikh temple shooting. It explains everything you need to know about what happened. Click above to check it out. (more here)
Please, immediately, stop taunting on social networks about CNN and others’ SCOTUS ruling mistake and the AP getting it right. That’s not the impression we want to reflect as an organization. Let our reporting take the lead.Associated Press Central U.S. regional editor David Scott • In a memo to their reporters and editors, asking them to stop taunting other media organizations that got it wrong.
Now you’re just messing with us, AP.
Where does this leave us vegetarians? Are they going to do a follow-up story about how awesome Quorn is?
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
BREAKING: AP and CNN declare Ohio for Mitt. In other news, Dennis Kucinich just lost his primary.
By the way, here’s what the Associated Press logos looked like over the years. Kinda have an affinity for the 1945 one … well, if they actually bothered to kern it. (By the way, there is an error in the graphic; it says “Current (2011).” This is the AP’s error, as this is from their branding document.)
The AP has a new logo. It’s currently on this page. “We have world-class content and world-class products and now we have the world-class look to go with them,” claims AP President and CEO Tom Curley. Wait, Tom; have you guys seen Reuters’ logo? Way world-classier. This looks like a smoothing-down of your old logo.
The guy who guided AP into the aggregation era: You probably don’t know this guy very well, but all the organizations that give you your news know him quite well. Tom Curley, who has led the Associated Press since 2003, plans to retire later this year, after his successor is found. Curley, a former USA Today publisher, faced a not-very-enviable task as AP’s leader: As many of his member publications found it difficult to stay afloat (in some cases, trying to drop AP entirely as a cost-saving measure), Curley took a very hard stance against copyright issues, and once played a role in a protracted fight with Google over access to AP articles. (For years, the Curley-led Associated Press considered Google merely running headlines in search results to be lawsuit-worthy, before eventually backing off.) The AP’s leader will leave a somewhat-difficult legacy in its handling of the blogosphere, too: After previous stunted attempts to show control over its content, the site is moving forward with a new content-licensing initiative called NewsRight. Journalism is a difficult business to keep financially stable, and the AP has had a lot to fight against. But at times, you sometimes wonder if folks like Curley simply didn’t understand the environment. Their issues are certainly not as bad as the music industry’s. But they’re certainly not shining examples of new-media transition. (Photo by Richard Drew/AP) source
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