Associated Press Coverup Continues

The Associated Press is still trying to cover its tracks after being caught fabricating "news". From Galley Slaves (h/t JW):

Apparently, the AP may have dipped into Lexis-Nexis, too. Reader Gary writes in that the first AP version of the "booing" story appeared not, as I had previously written, at 2:12 p.m. with the Tom Hays story, but at 1:57 p.m. with an un-bylined short report. The AP has taken this report down, but Boston.com still has it up, for now.

[Ed. Note: as luck would have it this is the same version I linked to yesterday in my post. After long experience with the Kerry web site, I took a screen snap of it yesterday. I was mildly amused to note that they couldn't change the incriminating URL (otherwise anyone who had previously linked to it would get a Page Not Found - a dead giveaway that the page had been removed or altered): http://www.boston.com/dailynews/247/region/Audience_boos_as_Bush_offers_bP.shtml. Oopsie... ]

As of last night, this version of the story which Boston.com has, had been stricken from Nexis, and the first instance of the "booing" report was in the longer Hays piece from 2:12 p.m. Perhaps Hays simply appropriated the reporting from the earlier item. We have no way of knowing unless the AP comes out and tells us.

This morning, the AP is moving to further cover its tracks. The Hays story from Nexis which I posted last night has been removed from Lexis-Nexis altogether.

Still no retraction.

UPDATE: The AP has issued a retraction. h/t Powerline. Having wrongly accused the President of the United States of something he did not do, one might think they owed him something more than a perfunctory retraction that will undoubtedly not get half the attention as the original lie.

Still no apology.

We all make mistakes, and no large organization can operate for long without some mishaps. When one makes a mistake, especially in a professional setting, the right thing is to admit it at once and set about making it right. This establishes your honesty and restores confidence that you can be relied upon to act professionally and with integrity.

AP should have disciplined (or fired) Mr. Hays, corrected the old story on the wire immediately, and actively taken steps to set the record straight by putting a new story on the wire, admitting what had happened and outlining the steps they took to fix the problem. Had they done so, they would have taken some heat, but it would have been obvious that they had integrity and some claim to be a professional news organization.

Instead, they refused to admit the error, scurried to cover their tracks, and (most egregiously) refused to repair the damage caused by their unethical and unprofessional behavior.

If the White House had been caught in a similar position, the AP would be all over the story.

If Mr. Kerry's campaign had been caught in a similar position... oh my! but they have been caught in a similar position.** Silly me - I forgot: the AP just declined to cover the story. So we already know how they would respond to that situation. We also know they've shown a strange reluctance to cover the David Alston, Christmas in Cambodia, and Silver Star stories.

Growing up, I read about communist Russia and how Pravda and Izvestia covered only what the government wanted them to print. They were essentially propaganda instruments. Here the situation is (apparently) little better. We get only that news which the AP (in its infinite wisdom) has decided will lead to an acceptable outcome in November.

And where is FoxNews on this story? I had come to think that they, at least, still had some interest in covering the news.

- Cassandra

** See Boston Globe catches Kerry taking credit for combat incident that occurred before he joined Swift Crew.