The Associated Press Giveth, and the AP Taketh Away

As I went through my RSS reader this morning, I saw a very nifty widget provided by the AP and thought it would be nice to post something positive about the Associated (with terrorists) Press for a change. They’ve created a very nice interactive pork map that shows which states are the worst offenders, and for some nuance, which states are worse per capita. I wouldn’t have thought of the per capita twist and it’s a good one. For example, we know that John Murtha, D-PA, liar and vicious smearer of troops in spite of the fact that he used to be a Marine himself, is one of the biggest porkers in Congress. And we know that Ted “bridge to nowhere” Stevens, R-AK, is also a shameless, egregious porker who hid behind arcane Senate rules to place a “secret hold” on the legislation to create an earmark database which would expose their sneaky, backroom deals to the public. While Murtha’s got Stevens beat on the numeric totals, Stevens is bringing home more bacon per constituent than Murtha; probably because only about 500 people live in Alaska to begin with.  Given that the pork problem is getting worse, not better, everything that can be done to publicize it is a Very Good Thing.  It’s past time that voters understood the magnitude of the problem. Bottom line, the interactive map is very nifty, and I was all set to give AP some kudos for it. Until I saw this -

Marine sniper charged in Iraqi deaths – Military- msnbc.com
The charges allege Winnick killed the civilians on June 17, 2007, during combat operations near Lake Tharthar in Iraq’s western Anbar province. The charges also allege he fired at two others without first determining whether any of the civilians posed a threat, Myers said.

…The case against Winnick, whose hometown and age were not immediately released, comes on the heels of other cases in which Camp Pendleton Marines were charged with wrongdoing in Iraq, including the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha and the fatal shooting of a civilian in Hamdania.

Well, we should all know better, by now, than to expect honest and good reporting from the Associated (with terrorists) Press. While it’s true that those Marines were charged with those crimes, the AP’s purposeful failure to mention that ALL BUT TWO have been exonerated, and those two haven’t yet been tried. One of those Marines was exonerated yesterday, a fact reported on by the AP, so they can’t claim ignorance. They do, however, on their home page, link to a defense of Bilal Hussein. Hussein was released, not because he was exonerated, but because of an Iraqi amnesty law. In fact, “MNF-I possesses convincing and irrefutable evidence that Bilal Hussein is a threat to security and stability as a link to insurgent activity.”

It’s like when I try to convince myself that I really need to vote for McCain; every time I make up my mind to do it, he provides me with another reason not to. And just when I want to compliment the AP, they remind me once again why I despise them.