AP Board Chairman Singleton
Clearly Mr. Boehlert is right – the AP has a Ron Fournier problem. The question is, why does the AP have a Ron Fournier problem? Could it be because William Dean Singleton, the Chairman of the AP Board and a man who owns a lot of newspapers, has a Democrat problem?
Both McCain and Obama attended this year’s Associated Press Annual Meeting and Luncheon, but they were treated somewhat differently.
This was the welcome McCain got
McCain’s moderators, the AP’s Ron Fournier and Liz Sidoti, greeted McCain with a box of Dunkin’ Donuts. "We spend quite a bit of time with you on the back of the Straight Talk Express asking you questions, and what we’ve decided to do today was invite everyone else along on the ride," Sidoti explained. "We even brought you your favorite treat."
McCain opened the offering. "Oh, yes, with sprinkles!" he said.
Sidoti passed him a cup. "A little coffee with a little cream and a little sugar," she said.
And this is how William Dean Singleton, the Chairman of the Associated Press board and the founder, chair, and stakeholder in one of the largest newspaper chains in the country, greeted Obama:
A strict freudian might sense a touch of hostility there, I suspect. So might someone who’s been following the news.
See, Mr. Singleton has a bit of a Cause. He’s a big fan of relaxing the FCC regulations banning cross-media ownership. Here, he discusses Michael Powell’s short-lived rules change allowing people who own a lot of newspapers, like, say, Mr. Singleton, to also own a lot of TV stations in the same market:
There is no more vocal cheerleader for convergence than William Dean Singleton — vice chairman and CEO of MediaNews Group Inc., and past chairman of the board of the Newspaper Association of America. He has spoken and written frequently about the issue over the past year, becoming a go-to guy for comment from the perspective of media owners.
Singleton, like many who advocated for cross-media ownership, said people who criticize the FCC’s decision are being timid about embracing the future.
"This rule change is a win-win for everybody," he said in an interview following the June 2 decision. "Those who opposed the change were doing nothing more than playing Chicken Little.
One Solon who decidedly did not play Chicken Little: the current Republican candidate for President
In 2003, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) sponsored a resolution condemning the Federal Communications Commission’s massive relaxation of its media ownership rules. It passed the Senate by a big but not overwhelming margin: 55 to 40. Thirty-eight Senate Republicans voted against the measure, including Republican John McCain.
And really, it’s no wonder
It was McCain who personally and aggressively promoted Michael Powell to serve as FCC chair, and who defended Powell’s attempts in 2003 to rewrite media ownership rules according to a script written by industry lobbyists. While other senators objected to those rule changes after more than 2 million Americans communicated their opposition, McCain sought to preserve them. And he remains joined at the hip with Powell, who unabashedly thinks the job of government is to promote the interests of the largest communication firms. In May Powell represented the McCain campaign on a panel discussion at the annual conference of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
Of course, the rules change didn’t last. Mr. Singleton wasn’t very happy about that:
The FCC tried accommodate them by loosening ownership rules in 2003. A federal court threw out the first attempts. Now, in a last chance effort, FCC chairman Kevin Martin is trying to push through a compromise.
But newspaper executives say Martin’s plan is too little, too late.
“I think the commission missed the boat,” William Dean Singleton, chief executive of Media News, one of the nation’s largest newspaper chains, told the “Washington Post.”
Media News, based in Denver, had hoped to buy TV stations in markets where it owned newspapers in 2003, but had to abandon those plans when the court threw out the FCC’s first set of rules. Now, Martin’s proposal won’t help him buy stations, Singleton said.
That’s right – it’s back. Or, at least, it was. The Republicans don’t control congress any more:
With a White House veto threat looming, the Senate voted Thursday night to throw out a new Federal Communications Commission rule allowing a newspaper in any of the nation’s top 20 media markets to own a TV or radio station in the same market. The measure, introduced by North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan, passed on a voice vote.
Earlier in the day, the Bush administration defended the FCC rule, saying it "modestly and judiciously modernizes decades-old media ownership regulations that highly restrict cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations."
Officials said President Bush’s advisers would urge him to veto the measure should it pass the House, where a companion resolution has been introduced.
The Senate measure drew 27 cosponsors, including Democrats Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. Republican John McCain of Arizona, another presidential hopeful, was not a cosponsor.
As a matter of fact, a couple of prominent Democrats went a little further than that:
Sens. John Kerry and Barack Obama issued an ultimatum to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin about moving ahead with a vote on media ownership changes next week: If he proceeds, they’ll try to block any government money being spent to implement the new rule.
The Massachusetts Democrat and the Illinois Democrat previously have been critical of Mr. Martin’s request to alter media ownership; Sen. Kerry confronted Mr. Martin at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Thursday. However, this latest move steps up the rhetoric as the FCC readies to vote Tuesday on a change.
Mr. Martin has proposed the FCC ease its current ban on cross-ownership, or newspapers and broadcasters buying each other in a market. Under the proposal, the FCC generally would allow cross-ownership in the top 20 markets and not allow it in other markets; however, media companies may be granted waivers in smaller markets if cross-ownership would lead to more TV news. A newspaper could buy only a TV station that is not among the top four in the market.
Sen. Kerry on Thursday questioned whether enough consideration had been given to the impact of the proposal on minority- and women-owned businesses and their ability to acquire broadcast properties.
Others have questioned whether the FCC had adequately researched the impact that consolidation and loss of local ownership might have on the availability of local programming and information.
In today’s letter, the two senators again called for the FCC to delay its vote, warning the change “could have a direct and detrimental impact on the state of media diversity,” but they added a kicker: They will ask the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee to add to an appropriations bill language banning the FCC from spending any money implementing any changes.
‘Nuf said?
So what’s the big deal which, or how many, rich folks own your TV station and your newspaper? Common Cause has some thoughts about that
The very reason that merging newspapers and broadcast outlets under one owner makes economic sense – the ability to maximize the productivity of news staffs by sharing resources, reducing competition, and cutting costs – often fails to serve the public interest when it reduces the amount of independently produced news and information available in a local community.
A cross-owned media offers the following dangers:
- Giving the community inadequate coverage of the media business itself
- Ignoring diverse voices, particularly critics
- Avoiding enterprise reporting
- Confusing promotion with substantive journalism
- Choosing synergy over a quality product
- Compromising editorial values for business reasons
- Sharing resources and staff in ways that dilute, rather than enhance the quality of the cross-owned news staffs
Which, you’ll be amazed to hear, is precisely the problem Fournier’s critics have with the brave new world o’ journamalism he’s running over there at the AP
Jane’s e-mail action to tell the AP and the newspapers which subscribe to it how we feel about all this is here. Be respectful, remember that the person who reads your e-mail almost certainly isn’t in a decision-making role and may well agree with you, and happy hunting.
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Hmm, everybody still downstairs at Book Salon?
Geez, Singleton even looks like a Repub. Tight-lipped, cold eyes, the whole works.
Nice post, Julia
the consolidation of our media has been the biggest pox on our nation, it is what’s responsible for the misinformation of the american public, it is what’s responsible for the wealthy’s ability to convince middle class americans to vote against themselves and their children
media must be disolved and re distributed back to the local arena and back to a multitude of ownsership where they have to compete against each other with their content instead of competing for corporate marketing dollars
My thought is that no one entity should be able to own more than one media outlet in any single market! The consolidation of the news media needs to be broken up that includes newspapers. We are see the results when a big conglomerate is out buying up papers and then shrinks the staff and then you start seeing that NEWS is being CANNED from other sources and there is no original reporting at the local level… We are seeing the results here in the Bay area as the newspapers here get more And more alike and the stories are being purchased from the big conglomerates… BIG ownership has to be stopped/broken up and the rules be brought back in line to what they once were. The consolidation of ownership equals censorship of the news, it is a slow death of the first amendment. You don’t get a FREE Press if only a few people own all the news outlets!
Trudat but CNN has the quite pretty and not-much-else Erica Hill asking CNN’s ‘best political panel in the universe’ what Biden’s VP pick means to the Clinton’s and some 27% of Hillary’s supporters staying home and clenching their knees, tight. CNN is pathetic ad so is Anderson ‘milquetoast ‘ Cooper.
Also, Biden will eat McSame alive. It. Will. Be. Fun.
even salon.com (unintentionally?) feeds the narrative. what looks to be an otherwise sympathetic piece starts off thus:
Wow, what a great day. Independent of Jane’s effort, and in the midst of other errands I should have been doing, I found Steve Bene’s take on the Ron Fournier problem and decided it needed to go the the AP editors & a few local papers.
without checking what address Jane is using I’ve been using feedback at ap.org, it doesn’t bounce back.
Dear Associated Press,
Everyone notices but you … your coverage of the Presidential election leans toward one party, and this pattern has been apparent for a number of elections now.
The pattern really needs to end.
Pardon me for pasting in a long quote (see below) here, but Mr. Benen seems to have a much closer and more professional view than I, an average disgusted citizen-activist with 3 jobs, and he has the particulars of the indictment of your disgraceful “reporter” down cold.
When will the pattern end? Are you really going to validate enough Republican lies to keep it close, then gloss over another election-stealing … and you really think we’re not going to notice for a THIRD time?
Everyone desperately needs you to return to just a modicum of objectivity and professionalism … we don’t expect much from you, yet it really begins to defy belief that you can consistently give the American people such shallow and one-sided political coverage of the great issues threatening our civilization.
You can’t be associated with helping one particular party sell its smears year after year and expect to keep your reputation. The pattern needs to end.
Ron (exact name & address & phone in original)
Article copied from Mr. Benen, The Washington Monthly
FOURNIER IS AT IT AGAIN…. The latest piece from Ron Fournier, the AP’s Washington bureau chief and the man responsible for directing the wire service’s coverage of the presidential campaign, on Joe Biden joining the Democratic ticket, is drawing a fair amount of attention this morning. More importantly, McCain campaign staffers are pushing it fairly aggressively to other reporters, in large part because it mirrors the Republican line with minimal variation.
By choosing Biden, Fournier argues, Barack Obama is showing a “lack of confidence,” and is siding with “the status quo.”
There are two ways to consider Fournier’s piece: substantively and in the broader context.
First, on the substance, Fournier’s analysis seems a little lazy. By his logic, any potential running mate shows a “lack of confidence” — picking Hillary would mean Obama lacked confidence in his ability to win over women voters; picking Bayh would mean Obama lacked confidence in his ability to win over independents and conservative Dems; picking Webb would mean Obama lacked confidence in his ability to win over voters concerned about national security; picking Kaine would mean Obama lacked confidence in his ability to win over voters in the South; etc. For that matter, “the status quo” in Washington has been conservative Republican rule. Biden may be an old pro and a DC insider, but he’s anything but “the status quo.”
Second, in context, Fournier’s objectivity covering the presidential race continues to look shaky. We are, after all, talking about a journalist who, as recently as last year, considered working for the McCain campaign.
Before Ron Fournier returned to The Associated Press in March 2007, the veteran political reporter had another professional suitor: John McCain’s presidential campaign.
In October 2006, the McCain team approached Fournier about joining the fledgling operation, according to a source with knowledge of the talks. In the months that followed, said a source, Fournier spoke about the job possibility with members of McCain’s inner circle, including political aides Mark Salter, John Weaver and Rick Davis.
We learned not too long ago that Fournier exchanged emails with Karl Rove about Pat Tillman, in which Fournier wrote, “The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight.” Fournier was also one of the journalists who, at a gathering of the nation’s newspaper editors, extended McCain a box of his favorite donuts (”Oh, yes, with sprinkles!” McCain said).
It’s led to a series of AP reports that can, at best, be described as “questionable.”
In March, for example, Fournier wrote an item — whether it was a news article or an opinion piece was unclear — that said Barack Obama is “bordering on arrogance,” “a bit too cocky,” and that the senator and his wife “ooze a sense of entitlement.” To substantiate the criticism, Fournier pointed to … not a whole lot. It was basically the Republicans’ “uppity” talking point in the form of an AP article.
But much of the AP’s coverage has deteriorated since. There was a slam-job on Obama that read like an RNC oppo dump, followed by a scathing, 900-word reprimand of Obama’s decision to bypass the public financing system in the general election, filled with errors of fact and judgment.
When Obama unveiled his faith-based plan, the AP got the story backwards. When Obama talked about his Iraq policy on July 3, the AP said he’d “opened the door” to reversing course, even though he hadn’t.
The AP’s David Espo wrote a hagiographic, 1,200-word piece, praising McCain’s “singular brand of combative bipartisanship,” which was utterly ridiculous.
The AP pushed the objectivity envelope a little further with a mind-numbing, 1,100-word piece on Obama “being shadowed by giant flip-flops.”
The AP flubbed the story on McCain joking about killing Iranians, and then flubbed the story about McCain’s promise to eliminate the deficit. It’s part of a very discouraging trend for the AP that’s been ongoing throughout the campaign.
And then, within hours of Obama announcing his running mate, there’s Fournier again, writing up another piece — whether it’s a news article or an opinion piece is, again, unclear — that the McCain campaign just loves.
Sandy Johnson, the former DC bureau chief of the AP, was asked about Fournier and the bureau when she was forced out as part of a staff shake-up. “I just hope he doesn’t destroy it,” she said.
The more I see the AP’s coverage, the more I think about that quote.
—Steve Benen 10:28 AM
Try to look at the silver lining in this kind of thing: if the news conglomerates are working this hard to get the Republicans elected there must still be some difference between the two parties.
We should have a lot to say about it since the American people own the airwaves. It’s time to play rough I think.
Geez, Singleton even looks like a Repub. Tight-lipped, cold eyes, the whole works.
striaght from the Eric Prince mold
I hope you’re right. But remember, that’s what we said about Gore v Bush. “A-Bomb Al” was going to annhilate him.
Walter Shapiro wrote a book about the ‘04 primaries, in which he (explicitly. I am totally not making this up) argued that reporters on the national political beat should be able to report what their visceral reaction to the candidates is instead of reporting all those dull facts that don’t really mean anything.
Walter Shapiro has spent a good chunk of the time since Obama became the candidate trying to gin up conflict between Hillary supporters and Obama supporters (his assumption is that women are all Hillary supporters, and the Obama camp should ignore women in response).
Walter Shapiro… is no longer covering politics for USA Today. Is there anything else you need to know?
Hi Julia. *waving*
:D
Hey, you.
This is decidedly my theory.
Absolutely right. Prince also has the clenched jaw. A manly man s/
Wow. Someone’s awake at USA Today.
Truly. I think I may be the only person in America who read the book (I got a review copy).
I just started using opera and I can’t get the java features to work, does anyone know how to enable those in opera?
thanks for the illumination re Shapiro. I generally consider salon.com to be a trusted source, but they do have their weaknesses.
Media antipathy toward Ds will not end if Obama’s elected & there’s a greater D majority in Congress. Seems Rs have successfully injected it. Part is media ownership, but it seems more visceral than just reporters who are trying to keep their jobs.
They publish a lot of good things. They also publish Camille Paglia, Andrew Sullivan, Christopher Hitchens, Caitlin Flannagan, and, well, Walter Shapiro.
I can’t decide whether they’re just kneejerk againsters or if they think publishing provocative nonsense is a traffic-builder.
I at least get a huge laugh out of Camille. What a drama queen she is.
I have successfully trained myself not to visit sites that try to gin up traffic by being provokative. Only salon visits are Greenwald.
That’s true, they do publish him, which is wonderful.
But some of the other stuff? Gee whiz.
She’s kind of pitiful. She truly doesn’t seem to have absorbed the fact that she’s been supplanted by (let’s be honest) Ann Coulter and then Michelle Malkin in the public imagination, and she keeps trying to be shocking enough to get the attention back.
She’s sort of the mobile version of someone in a nursing home using bad words to shock the staff.
Oh, man, CNNs Malveaux (she loved the ‘Western WhiteHouse’ backdrop) just yipped about Gore v Bush and how this may somehow, somehow, somehow come back and haunt the Dems in 2008. WTF?
Applauding. That’s a great description of Camille.
we also own the petroleum that’s excavated in the states, that is not the oil company’s oil, it’s ours
I cannot BELIEVE they are allowed to put MY STUFF up for auction where I have to bid against countries like CHINA for MY OWN STUFF!
that system HAS TO CHANGE
I DO NOT WANT TO BID AGAINST CHINA FOR MY OWN STUFF
Great stuff Julia.
I use to enjoy reading Camille at Salon. Maybe its because she spoke to me as a male. She was a swift kick to the nads, once.
good grief. Next thing you know they’ll be talking about the Lincoln – Douglas debates.
Well. Was that an accident? Or does USAToday have an executive who actually notices bias?
oops, that was in response to Twain August 23rd, 2008 at 4:59 pm , otherwise it looks completely off topic
I am so glad I wasn’t eating at the moment I read that!
I got it and agree.
My thought exactly…the smug, cold face and semblance to some of the other repubs in the news. (I know..books and covers.)
Good gawd. This is why I hate and despise right wingers in our nation. They have no kooth and are hateful assholes, but get away with it every single day!
Found this over on DailyKos today and loved it:
“One House/One Spouse” Obama/Biden ‘08
Bah hahahahahaha! Terrific. ;-)
I always think of McConnell – he looks as if he smelled something bad, like maybe a Democrat. Just want to yell at him.
I’m not sure. I’d like to think that somebody read the book.
That might be a secondary motive but the primary reason is that after a lifetime of independence they’re utterly pissed to have to spend their final days in a
prisonnursing home.CryWolf Blitzer has an R-Thug surrogate talking about, wait for it, surrogates.
Sidenote: is it me or does CNN have a lot of the repigligan surrogates on to balance the discussion fairly.
WTF is CNN afraid of? Why must they have to try an teeter-totter everything? Weird.
I was thinking more of Larry Craig or Dan Barlett…
I couldn’t agree with you more. My family arranged for someone to visit my nonna in the nursing home (she’d started doing things like turning the gas on in the kitchen and walking away, or I don’t think they would have considered it) six days a week, and we were the only visitors we saw some days.
I’m not judging people in nursing homes, just saying that Paglia exhibits some of the behaviors I saw in people who’d gotten mean from lack of attention.
“One House/One Spouse”
I LOOOOVE that! Who can print up bumper stickers for us all?
BT’s got yer popcorn
What a great slogan! Let’s use it.
That fits in to the Shapiro characterization as the “conventional journalism” model of treating both sides as of equal value — that ain’t traditional
journalismreporting, that’s the degraded, corrupted (in multiple senses) “journalism”, that, along with the horse race approach, has ruined true reporting on pretty much everything.I live to serve.
I understand. I have some funny anecdotes I’ve picked up while visiting nursing homes. I won’t go into them now because it’s a little too far off-topic. Some residents are remarkably resilient under the circumstances.
And thanks for the great post, BTW.
It’s like they don’t recognize the truth anymore. That is, they see the facts, but don’t want to report them. So they take some facts on one side, and some hoodoo mishmash that some wingnut approves of on the other side and it all balances out.
But that’s not news or reporting.
Smash The Media.
Become the Media.
Thanks, Julia, for an important and revelatory post.
the sad thing is that Fournier claims that’s what his new regime is fighting against, even though he was one of the main propagators of the Gore internet smear (he was only hired by the AP as a local opponent of Clinton’s in Arkansas)
New thread up top.
I’m always chuffed when you like something I’ve written.
Singleton does indeed have a Democrat problem. During the Kerry/Bush election, the editorial board of the Denver Post voted to endorse Kerry. Singleton, however, disregarded their decision and “his” paper endorsed Bush.
I canceled my subscription.
A few years ago, Bill Moyers interviewed Jim Bouton, author of a book entitled Foul Ball. The book was about Dean Singleton and what happens when the “game is rigged.”
Here is the transcript of the interview: http://www.pbs.org/now/transcr…..ginal.html
Ver, very true Margot.
John ‘buzzligghtyear’s jaw’ King just commented, whilst smirking, that his newlywedded wife Dana Bashes thinks Colin Powell might be a McSame’s pick for VP. Why? How? What? No explanation. These so called best CNN pundits are ‘beyond’ pathetic.
You rock. Thank you.
Oh, thanks, Julia – my work computer is FORBIDDING the image, so I’ll have to look at it later. But, you are quick, girl.
Can you imagine if we made a bumper sticker up for McTeleprompter? It would read:
7-10 HOMES, 2 WIVES, ONE I CHEATED ON, *BLUSHING*
Bah hahahahahahaha!
He looks like the heavy in a James Bond movie, creepy eyes, the whole nine yards.
Here is the transcript of the interview: http://www.pbs.org/now/transcr…..ginal.html
Wow – skimmed the first part — and I’m reallly sad.Years ago, when I lived in Mass., the Eagle had a reputation as a great small paper.
Probably long before Singleton’s time, huh?
I hope there’s a time when you can share your stories. It’s a subject we should talk more about.
When those fuckers get on teevee talking about how we need to drill more in amwrica someone should ask why they are sending any of what we drill here over fucking seas? If we are not even keeping all of the product we get out of the ground now what makes these brain dead idiots think they ever will?
This is the real news, the real story. We need reporting on commercial media, the people in it, and the reporting they do.
America’s diet of public discourse is junk food.
Can’t wait to break up Singleton’s stranglehold on truth.
What a perfectly lovely man, married yet in bed with John McCain himself.
Obama bin Laden, how lovely and clever too! OMG! This is the kind of crap we are up against. Jokers like this who are not even as public as Rupert Murdoch who at least has the decency to maintain a high profile so we can see his ugly mug!
Calscientist, funny you should mention Rupert Murdoch. He on the board of the Associated Press, as of about last April.
When I see outrage over high democrat party officials sitting on two or three Sunday shows, get back with me on this ‘problem’ thing.