Fournier is acting head of the Associated Press, and The Politico writes of concerns about it.
Is Fournier saving or destroying the AP?Ron Fournier says he regards Sandy Johnson, his predecessor as head of The Associated Press’s Washington bureau, as “a mentor.” Johnson, though, regards Fournier, who replaced her in a hard-feelings shake-up in May, as a threat to one of the most influential institutions in American journalism.
“I loved the Washington bureau,” said Johnson, who left the AP after losing the prestigious position. “I just hope he doesn’t destroy it.”
There’s more to her vinegary remark than just the aftertaste of a sour parting. Fournier is a main engine in a high-stakes experiment at the 162-year old wire to move from its signature neutral and detached tone to an aggressive, plain-spoken style of writing that Fournier often describes as “cutting through the clutter.”
In the stories the new boss is encouraging, first-person writing and emotive language are okay.
First person, emotive writing in a news article? I guess we will be seeing big changes.
Fournier received much criticism in March when he wrote an article about Barack Obama. As I read it, it appears to be a news article written and loaded with Fournier's opinion. This is not journalism.
Obama walks arrogance lineI don't want to post any of the article/oped/opinion piece. It's pretty ugly stuff from the head of the AP.
Today I read this at the Locust Fork Journal, which did so much coverage of the Don Siegelman case. Sounds like Fournier is hiring on at the AP one of Karl Rove's Alabama buddies in the media there. Sounds like it may be turning from straight news to opinion pieces.
Birmingham News Ace Reporter Hits the Big TimeThis just in from Scott Horton.
Former Birmingham News ace reporter Brett Blackledge was recently hired by Ron Fournier, head of the AP’s Washington Bureau.
The AP’s Washington coverage has demonstrated a clear-cut GOP slant ever since Fournier took over, and the Blackledge hire is no doubt designed to help lock that in. Fournier’s key “inside source” and adviser is none other than Karl Rove.
I did a search on Blackledge to see just what was meant. I found a lot on him at Legal Schnauzer. This is the blogger
who was recently fired from his job at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
More from Legal Schnauzer
on Blackledge.Hmmm, wonder why Blackledge would ignore what clearly was the main point of the Schmitz motion in favor of trashing last week's U.S. House Judiciary Committee report on selective prosecution? That was the report, of course, that called for sworn testimony from former White House adviser Karl Rove.
Isn't it interesting that Blackledge would write his story in such a "Rove-centric" way, ignoring the main point of the Schmitz motion? It was almost as if a certain bespectacled and doughy "birdie" was whispering in Brett's ear as he knocked out his "objective" report.
Another interesting article about Blackledge by Scott Horton at
Pacific Free Press.The article is called "Friends in Low Places: Karl Rove's Press Gang"
Back in October, as the House Judiciary Committee was conducting its first hearings into the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman, I spoke with Simon Heller, the legal director of a Washington-based advocacy organization called the Alliance for Justice. Heller told me he had gotten a telephone call.
“It was strange. The man on the other end of the phone identified himself as a reporter. But he certainly didn’t act like one. We had put out a press release talking about Judge Mark Fuller and the role he played in the Siegelman case, and questioning how, given his many conflicts, he had failed to recuse himself. But this reporter wasn’t interested in our view. Instead he was hysterical, screaming into the phone, asking how we dared to criticize such a great American? I’ve never had a press experience quite like that one.”
The name of the reporter? Brett Blackledge, the award-winning prize star of the Birmingham News.
Blackledge has carried the paper’s water in its two major campaigns of the last six years. The first was its effort to take down former Governor Siegelman through a blizzard of innuendo and tendentious reporting straight from the files of a group of partisan prosecutors. And the second, still running, is the effort to reshape the state’s legislature by demonstrating that a large part of it is enmeshed in hopeless graft and corruption by working simultaneously as junior college teachers and administrators. In most states, a reporter like Mr. Blackledge would not venture very far. But in ‘Bama, where they take their Koolaid unalloyed, he’s the real thing.
So it comes as no surprise that when 60 Minutes at length runs its story on Karl Rove and the Siegelman case, Blackledge scoops a print media exclusive: an interview with Karl Rove.
Also we learned today from Talking Points Memo that Fournier was emailing Rove about the Stillman case back in 2004...
Fournier to Rove: "Keep Up the Fight"Karl Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line "H-E-R-O." In response to Mr. Fournier's e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this," to which Mr. Fournier replied, "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."
We have apparently lost our media now in most ways. They pump up John McCain, and in general they will be as protective of him as they have been George Bush. In a week in which the McCain campaign was coming out with one idiotic thing after another, our so-called media kept him up and running and never did a thing to harm him.
When I thought of the Associated Press in the past, I would think of it as a news source. Sounds like it will be more of an opinion based organization now.
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