CJR's Campaign Desk exposes a bias for the incumbent in the Associated Press' coverage of Bush-Cheney's 04's complaints about new ads funded by the Democratic group Media Fund. The Bush campaign wants the FEC to investigate the ads, an AP story says.
But, as Campaign Desk points out: "It's not until the 16th paragraph of AP's story -- which is chock full of quotes with fightin' words like 'blatant,' 'cynical,' 'intimidate,' and 'bogus' -- that the reporters deliver the punch line, a.k.a. the point of the piece:
"Bush-Cheney doesn't want the ads pulled, or a court to intervene. Rather, the reporters tell us, 'the object of the complaint is to highlight what Bush campaign officials say are Democratic hypocrisies and to prod the FEC to act more quickly than it has in the past.'"
"Forget the FEC. Seems to us that, with this kind of stenography disguised as reporting, AP is already carrying that water for the re-election campaign," writes Campaign Desk's Susan Q. Stranahan.
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