from Jules Crittendon.  Along with Dem talking point mouthpieces WaPo and the NYT, he particularly scewers the AP:

But the AP, as the primary source of international news for most American newspapers, deserves a closer look at its efforts on the ground in Iraq. The AP probably shapes more readers’ views about what is happening in Iraq than any other organization, and its performance there remains abysmal.  

Here’s one from the AP yesterday about a contested village north of Baquba.  The story is all about failure.  The failure to control this village. The failure of Iraqi forces to provide follow-on security in areas U.S. troops have cleared.  It tells us, “Fleeing insurgents appear to be trying to capture more territory farther north in Diyala, where Iraqi security forces are fewer.”

It doesn’t say why.  Because they have been run out of Baquba, after being run out of Baghdad and Anbar.  The three-week operation to clear Baquba has been highly successful, with the loss of one soldier, according to Michael Yon.  Can this possibly be true? One soldier killed in three weeks of what is routinely described as bitter fighting in Baquba, fighting that has run al-Qaeda out of the much-vaunted IED-saturated stronghold where al-Qaeda was executing people in the city square. How is that not a screaming headline? 

Thats just it-easy to read the headlines. You should read the headlines of my own hometown paper.

Here’s something I particularly found insightful from Crittendon, a explaination of the manner in which AP writers send their agendas through. He dissects a story from AP’s, Robert H. Reid:

Words like “maintain” and “insist,” by the way, are ofen journalistic code for “I believe the speaker to be full of shit.” I don’t know if that’s the case here. I also don’t know who or where are the “private security analysts” to whom Reid refers. I take that to be journalistic code for “people I agree with.” I’m wondering where in Reid’s reportage I can find the people who live and fight in and around Baquba?

I wonder if Reid is related to Harry Reid.

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