Able to Provide Unbiased News Reports?

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“About 100 Associated Press [AP] journalists held a rally outside AP’s Manhattan headquarters this week to stand up for quality journalism at the world’s largest news agency,” according to a press release from an undisclosed source published at EditorandPublisher.com, the newspaper trade magazine turned website.

Wow, even AP reporters have gotten fed up with the sloppy, biased coverage that goes under the name “accountability journalism”! Haha, of course not. Here’s what they mean by “quality journalism”:

Virtually all AP journalists withheld their names from their stories and photos all week long, a big sacrifice for many reporting on major news, to send AP managers a message that they oppose the company’s contract proposals and support their union, the News Media Guild. . . .

The staff is protesting AP’s proposals to hike [medical insurance] premiums 50 percent or more and slash retirement benefits about 50 percent, while giving only a tiny raise.

So “virtually all AP journalists” equate the generosity of their fringe benefits with the quality of their journalism. Does that enhance your confidence in the objectivity and fairness of the AP’s coverage of controversies involving other unionized employees [like the ongoing union protests in Wisconsin and now other states]?

Read the original post at OpinionJournal.com. (Scroll almost halfway down to “What ‘Quality’ Journalism Means”)