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Monday, July 14, 2008

The AP Style is no longer the AP Style

I belong to a website of writers like myself called Absolute Write. On this website, someone posted a link to an article about the new Washington Bureau Chief changing the way reporters at the AP write their news stories.

See, when I went to college and took the appropriate journalism classes, when I wrote for newspaper, when I learned what journalism really was, I was told, "Just write the news. Let the public make their own decisions as to how to feel about it." This has always been true, and the AP has done it this way for 162 years.

The new Washington DC Bureau Chief, Ron Fournier, thinks Americans are too stupid for that kind of news. He thinks Americans need to be told how to think based on the opinions of his reporters. He calls it "accountability journalism" but I call it horse shit. You know, you can put a fancy name on horse shit, something like, eau de Secretariat's bunghole, but it's still horse shit.

Fournier seems to be telling the news reading public that they can't be trusted to read the news. They can't be trusted to formulate intelligent thought and decide how they feel about a particular issue simply after reading the news. Fournier is telling the American news reading public that they are too stupid to do this on their own, that HIS reporters are the ones that need to tell you how you should feel now.

Another website, Bring it On! is also reporting on this new trend of "people are too stupid to understand the news". If the commentary there, as well as responses from readers, is any indication, Fournier's tenure at AP won't be long.