Longtime A.P. Correspondent Ousted From Job in Vermont (For Leahy column)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/22/business/media/22vermonts.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print&oref=login&oref=slogin

The longtime chief correspondent for The Associated Press in Vermont has been forced out of his job, stunning the state's journalists and politicians.

Christopher Graff, 52, a writer who was in charge of The A.P.'s Vermont bureau in Montpelier, was told Monday he no longer had a job. The move came after he put a partisan column on the wire, and as the news agency is consolidating some of its bureaus across state lines.

Mr. Graff, a 27-year A.P. employee and host of "Vermont This Week" on Vermont Public Television for more than a decade, said he could not discuss the matter because he had signed a nondisclosure agreement. But speaking of news articles yesterday about his losing his job, he said, "It's a little like reading your obituary prematurely."

Jack Stokes, a spokesman for The A.P. in New York, confirmed that Mr. Graff was "no longer with the company" and said The A.P. did not discuss personnel issues.

Candace Page, a longtime reporter and former managing editor of The Burlington Free Press, said: "The phone lines were burning up around the state. He's certainly a solid journalist and I can't imagine why The A.P. would fire him."

[wtbymark]

1. ahhh, so Candy confirmed the firing

I'll have to ask Chris what partisan article are they referring to.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=715810

[UpInArms]

2. more from your link:

On March 8, Mr. Graff posted Mr. Leahy's column on an advance wire that carries material that can be used at a later date. He had attached an editor's note saying Mr. Leahy "was asked by the American Society of Newspaper Editors for his thoughts on the status of the right to know for use in Sunshine Week, organized by media organizations and other groups to combat government secrecy and bring attention to the public's right to know."

The A.P. removed the column from the advance wire within an hour and advised newspapers not to run it.

Mr. Lynn said Mr. Graff called him and told him he had been criticized for posting a column that The A.P. said had compromised the integrity of the wire service.

Mr. Lynn said Mr. Graff was surprised because he had posted a similar column from Senator Leahy last year during Sunshine Week and had not heard any criticism and because Senator Leahy had held a hearing last year on the matter and Walter Mears, a former A.P. executive editor and vice president, had testified.

No one is allowed to criticise the great fuhrer! This is getting quite ridiculous.

[warrens]

3. I think he is going to end up owning a chunk of AP

AP often runs opinion pieces it considers newsy. And many of them are partisan, in that they are written by politicians making a point. This was a news event, and Leahy's piece was a legitimate opinion about what is happening to our sunshine laws.

[bananas]

4. I thought "Vermont This Week" was hosted by Bob Newhart

[SpiralHawk]

5. Daryl and Daryl took over hosting a couple of years ago

It hasn't been the same ever since.

[wicket]

7. LOL!

:rofl:

[Kelvin Mace]

10. No, but it has been entertaining

I learned more about skunks with self-esteem issues because of their body odor than I have from any other TV show.

[glitch]

6. This should put to rest any doubts about AP, should there be any. nt

[Iowa]

9. Yep... AP = RW propaganda

I try not to read their biased crap.

[melissinha]

8. So disingenuous

When we had people like Armstrong Williams spewing real propaganda.... I think that as long as you feature a politician, and give them credit for their opinions, its ok and perhaps necessary for his/her constituents to know what his/her position is..... I think the fact the Leahy is a Democrat and is labeled as such... and liberal views are certainly expected from him.

[PassingFair]

11. This creeps me out more than anything I've read in a long time...

Shades of "It Can't Happen Here".

Good thing we haven't got enough money for
them to build the Great Wall of Canada...

:scared:

[Cha]

17. Let's hope this is Christopher

Graff's.."when a door slams shut a window flies open somewhere" moment and there are bigger and better things coming to him!

Little sweetheart :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

[wordpix2]

12. Graff should sue AP for denial of constitu.rights--freedom of press

[cosmicdot]

13. is this Sen. Leahy's Sunshine Week 2006 commentary?

catapulting the AP wire ...


Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy
On Sunshine Week 2006
And The Assault On The Public's Right To Know
March 15, 2006

As we take stock during the second annual “Sunshine Week,” we confront the disturbing reality that the foundations of our open government are under direct assault from the first White House in modern times that is openly hostile to the public’s right to know.

The right to know is a cornerstone of our democracy. Without it, citizens are kept in the dark about key policy decisions that directly affect their lives. Without open government, citizens cannot make informed choices at the ballot box. Without access to public documents and a vibrant free press, officials can make decisions in the shadows, often in collusion with special interests, escaping accountability for their actions. And once eroded, these rights are hard to win back.

The right to know is nourished by openness and vigorous congressional oversight of federal agencies, but both are sorely lacking, and government effectiveness and accountability have been among the casualties. The disastrous failure to prepare for and respond to Hurricane Katrina is only the most recent example, but a glaring one. Despite misleading assertions in the storm’s horrific aftermath, we now know that the White House was warned in advance that the levees could fail in a hurricane. We have belatedly seen videotapes in which President Bush was cautioned by FEMA officials of this great danger.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) empowers the American people to pry information from their government that agencies would prefer to keep locked away. Americans learned more about Abu Ghraib and conditions at Guantanamo from FOIA requests than from oversight by Congress.

As we celebrate FOIA’s fourth decade as law, we also watch its erosion as a target of attacks such as when the Administration pushed an overly broad FOIA waiver for the Department of Homeland Security’s charter – the single biggest rollback of FOIA in its 40-year history.

~snip~

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200603/031506b.html

[PassingFair]

14. Thank you, cosmic.

Wouldn't want that to go down the memory hole!

[wordpix2]

15. if *BushCo could get Leahy fired, they would do it

[mcscajun]

18. Thanks for posting this. I'm putting it in my journal entries.

One more posting couldn't hurt against the Memory Hole agents.

[AX10]

16. But its O.K for Republicans to issue opinion pieces?

:wtf:?

[roseBudd]

19. There is nothing on Editor and Publisher regarding this yet n/t