Gah. This is what happens when a newspaper doesn't properly label stories that come off the wire. When I was a copy editor, one of my jobs was to find wire stories to fill out the inside pages of the xnewspaper. Every so often, an opinionated piece like this would come through. More properly, this should have been labeled "analysis," which is code for "this is the reporter's opinion of what happened."
IIRC, AP usually labels these things, but it's been a while, so I might be wrong.
--|PW|--

Let me toss out a couple more things:

I listened to the local "progressive" station yesterday, and the liberals are just as unhappy with the "mainstream media" as you are.

Also, on your question about "doing something" about AP, I don't suggest the liberal blogger method of pestering the reporter and his editors. What I suggest instead is polite letters to your local newspapers, with proper citation to the story, and a request that such things be labeled.

Additionally, you might suggest that the paper expand its wire consumption or speak with the state AP office.

From what I can tell, the best pressure points for the AP would not be big papers, but rather tha good-sized papers. The big papers subscribe to AP, but don't often use AP material because they have their own staffs.

I suggest bringing pressure via "good-sized" papers like those in your state capital or circulation areas of around 100,000-250,000 residents, where the papers are just large enough that they might turn the ship of journalism a little bit at AP.

--|PW|--

E-claire has a great post that unravels the media spin on Marine Andres Rayas, who killed a cop last week & was portrayed as a shell-shocked combat victim of the Iraq War.

NOT SO

Here's another article from the Chicago Tribune today by Jill Zuckman. She states, in an article about what Democrats were doing for the inauguration,

'After their second straight razor-thin presidential loss, many Democrats, with no apparent coordination, arrived at the idea of marking the inauguration of their nemesis by gathering for events that were sad yet darkly humorous'

People can argue if W recived a mandate if they want, but to say it was a razor-thin loss....

You think the AP is bad, check out Reuters defending the honor of the protesters/thugs.

When you decide to start posting with frequency, no one comes close. Such an excellent selection today, thanks Bill!