Who's associated with the Associated Press?

I can’t say I was surprised when I read on Tapscott’s Copy Desk about Saddam having an agent inside the Associated Press, informing the dictator of the activities of UNMOVIC. Any reader of spy fiction (especially spy fiction written by one-time spies) knows that news organizations are historically hot beds of such activity. The Associated Press has a history of its own as well. Its Pulitzer Prize for war photography in Iraq is a subject worthy of serious investigation in and of itself. (If only Pajamas had the time and energy for that…)

Of course this is yet another indication of why an intelligent person does not believe what he reads in the mainstream media. He shouldn’t believe what he reads in the blogs either. Becoming a “trusted source” has become a highly complex matter. We live in a “competitive market” for trust. Many factors go into it. The primary one for me is the admission of point-of-view. Clarity of “where you are coming from” is ground zero for reader confidence. The Associated Press has just received another serious body blow in that regard. Look for this blow to be ignored by the mainstream media, however. This is increasingly about money and markets and the MSM has a vested interest in sticking together on these issues, no matter the ideology of the outlet.