I left the AP in the mid-1990s after more than a decade and a half (lifestyle reasons). The wire service of today is nothing like the one I took pride in working for. The AP began to change in the mid-1990s, when many of the older hands began leaving for other jobs as the Internet began opening up opportunities. It started to fall off the cliff after Tom Curley, formerly of USA Today, took over as publisher.
The AP is no longer interested in telling readers/listeners merely what happened — its purpose in life for more than a century. Now, like many other media, it wants to tell readers what to think as well. However, like most mainstream media, the editorial staff is tilted well to the left, meaning that, whether consciously or unconsciously, more and more stories are politically biased. This would be anathema to me and the people I worked with; it seems to be the goal of the “new” AP.
I still have friends there (at least until the AP can find a way to get rid of them to save money; it’s trying to run out the older staffers and replace them with cheaper, less experienced people). My heart grieves for them — and for the readers who think they’re getting unbiased coverage when they are emphatically not.
