>> The conspiracy against the public from the continual meeting of all journalists
The conspiracy will end the day you all wake up to the fact you’re voluntarily perpetuating the malicious MSM.
No one, not one single poster, mentions the fact that Comcast controls the majority of the MSM. No one, not one single poster, mentions the fact that ATT is demanding ownership of CNN. No one, not one single poster, mentions the fact that Disney drives its ABC “news” coverage.
But ‘conservatives’ regularly patronize Disney, pay monthly to Comcast, pay monthly to ATT. So WTF are we to expect when we’re collectively paying to take it up the ass? Seriously!
The AP wire service is old news.
. . . and in part that is precisely my point - having all major journalism outlets being “associated” - read, “in cahoots” - because of economy of scale in the transmission of news is a Nineteenth Century invention which was actually made illegal before the start of the Twentieth Century. It has survived this long only because, when challenged, it was too big to fail. With the advent of laser/fiber optic, microwave, and satellite communication technology late in the Twentieth Century, it became obsolete and is only getting more so in the Twenty First Century.The unique feature of the AP - besides the fact that it attained critical mass in part by methods which were outlawed in 1890 - is the fact that it serves not customers but members. You don’t subscribe to the AP, you join it - and you join it not merely because you want to and have the money but also because they accept you into membership.
The members of the AP sign up for the AP Stylebook, which defines standard journalistic practice. The “pyramid layout” of a news story is standard - it requires that the most important information about a story be included up front, and less important information fills out the later part of the story. Which is unexceptionable, and sets up reader’s expectations so that the reader knows what to expect, where. But what is important? Suppose a Congressman is caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The question naturally arises, “Is it important for the reader to know the political affiliation of the congressman?” We all know how that question gets answered - by asking, “Is the miscreant as Republican?” If so, that is important information to put in the lede - if not, then it is of little or no significance.
But in addition to simple style, the Stylebook can have overt political implications when, for example, it mandates the use of the term “undocumented immigrants” and forbids the use of the term “illegal aliens.”
What the situation cries out for is the complete delegitimization of the AP model because it is entirely inconsistent with heterogeneity of journalism. Which is to say, the Associated Press is entirely inconsistent with the very reason that “the freedom of . . . the press” is protected by the Constitution. This means that the AP cannot legitimately cry “freedom of the press” if subjected to legal assault under the Sherman AntiTrust Act of 1890. The AP must be abolished - and arguably, all its members should be put on probation because of their ingrained habit of conspiring against the public. Eliminating the AP “wire” will not by itself make such conspiracy impossible. But delegitimating such conspiracy would at least be a step.
Understand, as well, that delegitimating the AP would help SCOTUS to see that NY Times v. Sullivan was wrongly decided in 1964. The error lay in assuming that because the presses were independent of government, they were independent of each other. And that therefore public figures attacked by one newspaper would be defended by another. Independent presses was the objective of the First Amendment but - due in large measure to the AP - was not the actual result which existed in 1964, and certainly is not the actual result in evidence now. If a Judge Kavanaugh - or a Judge Roy Moore, or any other Republican - is attacked by a newspaper, the response of the rest of the press is far less likely to be to express suspicion of the charges than to pile on with abandon.