Thanks for the ping.The Associated Press is the center of “the MSM.” The First Amendment expresses the right of the people to read or hear whatever (non libelous, lest we be forced back to dueling) speech/printing we wanna. On terms agreeable to the speaker/printer. That right is a derivative, or corollary if you will, of the right to speak and print.
But the right to speak and print is not a title of nobility or of priesthood. It is only a right of the people, and all of us. Not just the AP and its member newspapers/broadcasters. The AP newswire is a continuous virtual meeting of all major news organizations, and its participants - all members of the same trade, journalism - function precisely as Adam Smith would have predicted:
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. - Adam Smith, Wealth of NationsThe AP is a conspiracy against the public. It was found by SCOTUS to be in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act back in 1945, and in the decades since it has gotten even worse. Even as its justification - the conservation of scarce, expensive data transmission bandwidth - has been obliterated by optical fiber and satellite communication technology. The AP should be sued into oblivion. Along with its members it is responsible for propaganda which, acted upon, led directly to the attempted murder of half the Republicans in Congress.We have had enough, and more than enough, of their conspiracy against the public.
The AP doesn't want or need facts.