So now we have to pay a buck for this rag!!!
Read it and weep for the demise of Big Journalism (or so we hope).
This out yesterday from Tom Blumer at PJ Media regarding: “The competition for the most loathsome news organization in the U.S” We think the Associated Press (AP) wins hand’s down for the extent of its influence and long standing bias, spin and corruption of truth.
Politico’s and HuffPo’s hypocritical poses, their sheer volume of misinformation and disinformation, and their obsequious treatment of the Obama administration, leftists, and Democrats make them arguably closer to being official wings of the Democratic National Committee than even the Associated Press, aka the Administration’s Press.
Not that the AP isn’t trying mightily. . . .
AP, organized as a not-for-profit cooperative, has seen its newspaper subscriber base shrink from roughly 1,700 in 2005 to 1,400 in 2011. Employment fell by over 6 percent in 2012. An expected decline in revenues this year will be the wire service’s fifth straight. The AP Stylebook has turned into a parody of political correctness, potentially courting widespread rejection by everyday news consumers. Difficult contract negotiations with its Occupy movement-sympathetic union loom.
Still, AP’s subscriber base, its influence on broadcast and online outlets, and its completely undeserved but still widely perceived reputation for objectivity make it the most perniciously negative news organization in the U.S. Far too many still treat AP content as presumptive gospel.
Lee Newspapers headquartered here in Davenport, has contributed CEO Mary Junck to the AP, who now also reins there as Chairman of the Board. The Quad Cities Times, owned by Lee and located in the same building, serves simply to parrot the AP for the most part as regards national and much state news, extending the AP’s checkered influence. We have no doubt its editors get their refining political fixes from the likes of HuffPo, and Politico in part, and a host of other liberal blogs and newspapers, i.e. “the pac.” Truth is neither objective, even handed, or consistent. Truth (and the news) as promulgated by the QC Times is what the AP style book and “the pac” says is truth and what is selected for you to know.
But there is salvation for some in Big Journalism and Lee in particular. As reported in Jim Romensko’s media oriented blog, Mary Junck was awarded $655K in stock in 2012 and an 82 per cent increase in compensation in 2013 in spite of a losing 2012 fiscal year.
And now we find that somebody has to pay for Junck journalism. About two weeks ago the QC Times increased its per copy price from 75¢ to $1.00, a thirty-three per cent increase for us casual readers. Ironically the debut price was we are told on a Monday. The edition was one of the smallest that regular reader has seen. R Mall with DLH
* We might have termed it “pack” journalism, but we felt the acronym pac, for political action committee, entirely appropriate.
