Following its ouster of journalists
Emily Wilder over her pro
Palestinian activism while she was
a college student.
The Associated Press is now
engaging in some damage control,
especially among its writers and
staff who found the fact that she
was fired,
questionable to say the least.
So the editors over at the
Associated Press set a memo over
to their staff and they say, look,
we hear you guys, you have a voice.
I'm going to read you a few
excerpts from that memo and
give you some more details.
So they write to the staff.
We don't discuss personnel matters
publicly.
But please know that our recent
decision to dismiss a member of
the staff was a difficult one.
We did not make it lightly.
Much of the coverage and
commentary does not accurately
portray what took place.
Now you would think that if they're
going to make a claim like that,
maybe they're going to get a little
more specific, right?
Maybe they're going to clear
the air, provide some more details
as to why this 22 year old Jewish
journalist by the way was fired for
a smear campaign that the right
wing amplified.
But no, they didn't do that.
They did say though,
we emphatically do not believe
there is a widespread problem of
opinion and bias being
expressed online by news-staff.
In the rare instance when
a problem does arise, they write,
we take great care to examine
the circumstances in detail.
Now if they had taken the time to
examine the circumstances in great
detail in this particular case,
then maybe they would have been
aware of how this was a right
wing smear campaign directed toward
a 22 year old journalists.
But I would argue they didn't do
that before they made their
decision to fire her.
They finally say that the
Associated Press is in the business
of fact based journalism.
>> Is it?
>> It is who we are.
We have these values to ensure
we maintain our position as
an unbiased source of information,
and to protect our journalists so
they can cover the news in all
parts of the world.
Just make sure though, that you
don't ever participate in any type
of activism, either in college or
in any time in your life because if
the right wing decides to point
that out as part of a smear
campaign, then, we'll fire you,
then we'll fire you.
>> So, let's be clear about
a couple of things.
First of all, I know how hard it is
to be an employer and sometimes ex
employees lie about you.
And, then they say, well, no, no,
you can't say anything about me.
Okay, they have a number of threats
against you in situations like
that.
This is not one of
those situations, okay?
Emily Wilder is saying, you can
release all my personal files,
I don't mind.
I'm asking you,
what did I do wrong and
you won't answer me.
So she's not saying I'm blaming
you.
She's not lying about you.
You appear to be lying about her.
So she's saying,
can you please just tell me
what the hell you fired me for?
because you say that it wasn't for
what I did in college.
It was what I did as a journalist
at the AP, but
I only wrote stories about Phoenix,
I covered Phoenix Arizona.
>> Yep. >> I didn't cover
the Israeli Palestinian issue, so
what did I do wrong?
No, no, no, Associated Press,
unless you clearly explain it,
especially in a situation where
an employee, a former employee says
no, you can say it.
You can say why, right?
I'm not going to sue you,
all right, whatever it is, right?
But say why, right?
And then you say no, I'm not
going to tell you, that means that
you're very likely lying.
So, don't give me this BS about
fact based journalism,
when you won't put up.
So, would the Associated Press
stand for it?
If let's say Russia today said,
we fired someone and it looked like
it's because they disagreed with
Putin, but we're not going to tell
you why, but trust us, it wasn't
because they disagreed with Putin.
Would the Associated Press
trust them?
Would they just leave it be or
would they do follow up questions
and go,
can you show us the evidence.
Now, the AP doesn't show us
the evidence, so my job is not only
to present the news with Anna but
to give analysis and perspective.
And my analysis is,
you appear to be lying.
And that hurts your brand of doing
fact based journalism,
way worse than what Emily Wilder
wrote, which by the way,
none of it was offensive.
What she wrote in college that
Ben Shapiro was upset at, and
now Ben Shapiro runs
the Associated Press you cowards.
>> Yeah, yeah, Ben Shapiro
runs the Associated Press.
Ben Shapiro and his
ilk decided that they were going to
decide what the hiring practices at
the Associated Press should be.
So they all get together.
It's always, look, the right wing
is very, it's a well oiled machine
in regard to these smear campaigns.
And so they decided, okay,
our next target is a 22 year old
Jewish journalist, she's Jewish.
Excusing her anti semitism,
not Associated Press.
>> Let me finish my point, damn it.
They're accusing her of anti
semitism as a Jewish person who
found the treatment of Palestinians
a boring.
She wanted to do protests,
she wanted to engage in activism,
that's her right
as a college student.
And for all of the right wingers
were like, politically correct
stuff has run amuck in America.
Canceled culture has run amuck
in America.
The right wing is at this point,
they're the leaders of canceled
culture.
They're obsessed with destroying
people's careers over whatever
activism they engaged in that they
happen to disagree with.
Who the hell is Ben Shapiro to tell
any news organization who they
should or should not employ?
Ben Shapiro who can't even make
a cogent argument, and has to hide
the fact that he's incredibly
uninformed by speaking quickly.
That's the guy that
the Associated Press allowed
to bully them into firing a 22 year
old journalist, really?
It's embarrassing.
>> Yeah, and in this case, it
wasn't that Ben Shapiro called for
the firing.
It's that the Stanford Republicans
said that Ben Shapiro was offended.
And then of course
Senator Tom Cotton got into the mix
and then the Associated Press
really got nervous.
My God, what if the Republicans
criticize us,
then the powerful would be upset.
I thought you were supposed to
challenge the powerful.
Come on. Let's give real man,
Associated Press hasn't done that
in years and years and years.
And so where there's one other
thing we should consider, that it's
not just the Associated Press gives
into the right wing.
It's there's an excellent chance
that the people who run
the Associated Press are right wing
and certainly on this issue.
So then probably their perspective
is, the right wing government of
Israel is always right.
Emily Wilder disagreed years
ago as a student.
Get rid of her, unacceptable, okay?
Well you tell us Associated Press,
you're supposed to be journalist.
You tell us, what's the answer?
By the way, I want to be clear.
I want the Associated Press to be
excellent.
I actually want them to do fact
based journalism.
I don't want them to be scared of
their own shadow.
And I don't want them to be biased,
and right now they are deeply,
deeply biased.
And what do I mean by that?
So right wing goes boom, and
they just fire anyone,
change their reporting etc, right?
Again, I don't know if
it's because they're right wing
themselves or scared.
If the left-wing says something,
they got, get out of here,
who cares left wing,
you have no power,
we only care about the powerful.
Progressive's complaining about how
we covered Medicare for all,
because we gave no context and
pretended that it was really
expensive when in fact it cost
half of what our card system costs
everywhere else in the world.
You want us to report it
accurately, shut up progressives.
The Associated Press has never
fired anyone, has never bent to
their left, no matter how right we
are, no matter how factual we are,
they dismiss the left in this
country, and all across the world
because we don't have enough power.
What does that tell you about how
they do reporting?
No, I wish they were excellent at
their job, and sometimes they are.
They have some great reporters and
some great editors.
And sometimes we get wonderful
stories from them.
But oftentimes, it is, as usual,
bending a knee to the powerful.
Here, we've got one person who
wrote in our members section that I
think made a good point
that unfortunately,
it's not just about Emily Wilder.
Carl Tuckerson,
their handle on our site wrote in,
every single AP article says Hamas
seized power in Gaza in 2007.
They never say that they were
democratically elected, regardless
of whether Hamas are now seen as
politically representative in Gaza.
They recently postponed long
awaited elections.
APs wording is just flat out wrong.
He says it drives him crazy,
>> The building they operate out of
in the Gaza strip just got, I mean
it was bombed by Israeli forces.
It was bombed by Israeli forces,
and immediately after that,
thanks to a smear campaign by right
wingers, they cave to the demands
of bad faith right wingers.
Good job,
you guys did a great job here,
killed it, absolutely killed it.
Good job, really.
>> Can you just report facts?
Stop reporting your right wing bias
to us and report facts.
I don't like that Hamas won
an election in 2007, but they did,
that's a fact.
They seize power, no, we seize
power when the United States and
Israel blockaded Gaza-strip
after their democratically elected
representatives, which we don't
like, I don't necessarily like,
got into power.
Then we said we were kidding.
We didn't think you could actually
rule yourselves, you're Muslims,
you're Palestinians, you're dart.
No, we seize power back.
We blockade you and you no longer
control your lives and you now live
in an open air prison, but
the Associated Press writes every
time Hamas seized power in 2007 and
not mentioned their elections.
It is terrible reporting, and
it is not fact based journalism.