Associated Press

Associated Press   (Corporate media)
Abbreviation	AP
Formation	1846
Headquarters	New York City, New York, U.S
Type	•  commercial •  non-profit
Staff	3,200
Sponsored by	ClimateWorks, Hewlett Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rockefeller Foundation
Membership	•  Gary Pruitt •  Daisy Veerasingham •  Jessica Bruce •  Sally Buzbee •  Ken Dale •  Gianluca D'Aniello •  Karen Kaiser •  Jim Kennedy •  Steven R. Swartz •  Richard A. Boehne •  Emily L. Barr •  Robert Brown •  William Stacey Cowles •  Kirk Davis •  Lisa M. DeSisto •  Bill Hoffman •  Rob King •  Isaac Lee •  William Lewis (journalist) •  Robin Martin •  Gracia C. Martore •  Jim M. Moroney III •  Michael Newhouse •  William O. Nutting •  Brian Carovillano
Very important hub of corporate media

Associated Press (AP) is a "non-profit" news agency headquartered in New York City. Together with Reuters and AFP, it is one of three agencies that creates the majority of news distributed in all other corporate media.

Gaza

Their office building in Gaza City was bombed by Israel in 2021.

Helping billionaires achieve their goals

In 2022, AP assigned more than two dozen journalists to cover climate issues, in the news organization’s largest single expansion paid for through "philanthropic" grants, from the Rockefeller Foundation and four other foundations, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Quadrivium, and the Walton Family Foundation to "help them achieve their goals". It’s the most recent of a series of grants the AP has received since the mid-2010s to boost coverage in health and science, religion, water issues and philanthropy itself. Some 50 AP journalists have jobs funded through grants.

The AP’s new team, with journalists based in Africa, Brazil, India and the United States, will focus on climate change’s impact on agriculture, migration, urban planning, the economy, culture and other areas. Data, text and visual journalists are included, along with the capacity to collaborate with other newsrooms.

According to AP, it "illustrates how philanthropy has swiftly become an important new funding source for journalism — at the AP and elsewhere — at a time when the industry’s financial outlook has been otherwise bleak." Brian Carovillano, AP news vice president, said that "after years of basically feeling a little beleaguered", he’s noticed a difference in morale in his organization.

Poisoned at the Source

The 1913 cartoon: “Poisoned at the Source,” representing the president of the Associated Press engaged in pouring the contents of a bottle labeled “Lies” into a reservoir labeled “Public Opinion". AP sued for libel, but withdrew the case.

In his 1919 book the Brass Check about the corporate press system, Upton Sinclair wrote of the Associated Press coverage of a miners' strike, and how it tried to sue for libel:

When the sixteen months’ strike in West Virginia had been smashed, the same mine guards, with 363the same rifles and machine-guns, were shipped to Colorado, and under the direction of the same Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency they smashed the fourteen months’ strike in Colorado. And both in West Virginia and Colorado the same Associated Press was made use of to send to the country the same misrepresentations and suppressions of truth.

..In the “Masses” for July, 1913, appeared a cartoon: “Poisoned at the Source,” representing the president of the Associated Press engaged in pouring the contents of a bottle labeled “Lies” into a reservoir labeled “Public Opinion.” Accompanying the cartoon was an editorial, one sentence of which read: “The representative of the Associated Press was an officer in that military tribunal that hounded the Paint Creek miners into the penitentiary in violation of their constitutional liberties.” The answer of the Associated Press to this was the indictment for criminal libel of Max Eastman and Art Young. The facts are here made public for the first time—possibly because in preparing this book I have not taken the trouble to consult counsel. Here are certain facts which the public should have; and if I have to hand them to the public through the bars of a jail, it will not be the first time that has happened in history.

Mr. French explained in detail the methods by which the Associated Press handled its news, and the principles upon which he and his subordinates “edited” it. He produced a bulky mass of typewritten sheets, containing all the dispatches dealing with the West Virginia strike sent out by the Associated Press during sixteen months. Mr. French swore that this record was complete; and you will readily understand that in studying the reports it is of the utmost importance whether Mr. French was telling the truth. If the Associated Press sends out hundreds of dispatches about a strike, and if, before such dispatches are offered in evidence, they are carefully gone over and those which are flagrantly untrue and damaging to the reputation of the Associated Press are extracted and destroyed—then obviously the Associated Press has poisoned the evidence of the trial at the source.

Can I say that the officials of the Associated Press did thus poison the evidence by which they endeavored to send Max Eastman and Art Young to the penitentiary? No, I cannot say that. All I can say is, that Mr. French submitted this record under oath, as the original record, and a correct and complete record, and testified under oath that there was no possibility of its being incorrect or incomplete. Also I can say that an investigation made in the bound files of two Associated Press newspapers revealed the fact that these papers had published dispatches, marked as sent by the Associated Press, which did not appear in the correct and complete record offered under oath by the Associated Press. Such a dispatch may be found in the “Los Angeles Times,” September 9, 1912, marked “(by A. P. Night Wire to the Times).” Another such dispatch may be found in the “Nashville American,” September 22, 1912, marked “(By Associated Press).”

Let us take the five hundred and thirty-seven exhibits that the Associated Press did submit. By means of them we are enabled to enter the Associated Press’ Pittsburgh office and watch step by step the process of poisoning the news at the source. Mr. French, it appears, was not satisfied with the bitterly prejudiced reports which his correspondent, Young, and Young’s partner, Bond, sent in to him. He found it necessary to go over their dispatches, and to put in still more poison. The dispatches, as submitted in evidence, contained numerous pencil-marks, excisions and revisions; and all these were initialed, so that it was possible to tell whether Mr. French or one of his assistants had done the work.

Covid

“Posts continue to circulate online falsely claiming that COVID-19 survivors don’t need vaccines because of natural immunity. In fact, that protection is variable and not long-lasting, so vaccines are still recommended.”
 (30 Sep 2021) 

Management Committe and Board

The Management Committee and Board is from March 2021.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
John Laughland	“People experience a strong psychological reluctance to accept that political events today are deliberately manipulated. This reluctance is itself a product of the ideology of the information age, which flatters people’s vanity and encourages them to believe that they have access to huge amounts of information. In fact, the apparent multifarious nature of modern media information hides an extreme paucity of original sources, rather as a street of restaurants on a Greek waterfront can hide the reality of a single kitchen at the back. News reports of major events very often come from a single source, usually a wire agency, and even authoritative news outlets like the BBC simply recycle information which they have received from these agencies, presenting it as their own.”	John Laughland	2010

 

Known member

1 of the 25 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
William Lewis (journalist)	Corporate media executive

 

Sponsors

Event	Description
ClimateWorks	Large funder of projects intended to steer public opinion and take control over all government policy under the pretext of fighting climate change. Part of "a blob" of similar very wealthy interconnected foundations with opaque structures. Backers include Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg.
Hewlett Foundation	Huge foundation setting the agenda by funding lots of deep state projects.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute	The largest private biomedical research institution in the United States. Spooky.
Rockefeller Foundation

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The Propaganda Multiplier	media analysis	2016	Swiss Policy Research

 

A document sourced from Associated Press

Title	Type	Subject(s)	Publication date	Author(s)
Document:Bradley Manning post-sentencing statement	statement	Chelsea Manning Patriotism	21 August 2013	Chelsea Manning

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.