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Our Liberal Media
Balloon Juice — ... foreign policy, the business sector, somebody who clearly can walk in and be President of the United States tomorrow and everybody would be comfortable with it. Republican names a running mate with lots of experience- a sign of wisdom and good judgement and a sense of being secure. Democrat names a running mate with lots of experience- a profound lack of confidence. Go liberal media! *** Update *** More on the disgraceful Ron Fournier here.

Hullabaloo — ... UPDATE: Also, Ron Fournier has to go. The "straight reporter" who actively sought a job in the McCain press operation is commenting on the Presidential race? I think The John McCain Show figured Fournier would be more valuable on the outside. ...

that right wing ap guy, fournier
skippy the bush kangaroo — ... ...and then, within hours of obama announcing his running mate, there's fournier again, writing up another piece -- whether it's a news article or an opinion piece is, again, unclear -- that the mccain campaign just loves.- washington monthly ...

AP’s Ron Fournier Strikes Again - Writes Hit Piece On Obama’s VP Pick
Crooks and Liars — ... and the Bush administration and considered taking a job with the McCain campaign so when he stepped up to the plate for the GOP candidate this morning, it came as little surprise. The headline of his article says it all: ...

AP’s John Fournier Strikes Again - Writes Hit Piece On Obama’s VP Pick
Crooks and Liars — ... and the Bush administration and considered taking a job with the McCain campaign so when he stepped up to the plate for the GOP candidate this morning, it came as little surprise. The headline of his article says it all: ...

Wanker of the Cycle
Lawyers, Guns and Money — Ron Fournier. See also. This is the Hot Soup wanker? Wow, that's world class.

Biden time
The Reaction — ... , which seems to have a lot of traction in the news cycle, I'll let Steve Benen dispatch that as only he can do. Many wondered what would happen to AP when Fournier took over the bureau. It seems clear, he is leading the march of the once venerable wire service into irrelevancy. ...

Ron Fournier: If Obama were confident, he would have picked a ficus tree
Majikthise — Because nothing says confidence like picking a VP who adds nothing to your ticket. A photosynthesizing running mate would have been a decisive break from the status quo, not to mention a source of fresh air. By picking a ficus tree, Obama would have signaled his readiness to win the entire election by himself. Of course, such a bold selection by Obama would have telegraphed arrogance to many observers, especially Ron Fournier. ...

Filled a gap, rather than reinforced
Daily Kos — ... at a time when at a time when national polls suggest that his race with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is tightening. At the Wasington Post homepage, the blurb teasing their Biden story says: In a move aimed at shoring up his foreign policy credentials, Barack Obama will share Democratic ticket with Delaware Senator Joseph R. Biden. McCain's mole at the Associated Press, Ron Fournier, is gleefully at it as well. Lucky for us, unless McCain picks Joe Lieberman, he's not ...

Fournier inflames the netroots
Michael Calderone's Blog — ... Steven Benen, who just moved to the Washington Monthly this week, wrote that Fournier's "objectivity covering the presidential race continues to look shaky." Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas ...

The AP Going Fox?
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — ... Ron Fournier's dramatic use of opinion in the first paragraph of the Biden story going out on all the wires is an aggressive Republican spin. Fournier has already weakened the AP's rep for pretty straight-up reportage. It just got a lot weaker. Last spring, by the way, Fournier was lambasting Obama for arrogance. Now, apparently, it's a lack of confidence. Whatever works, I guess. But please, get a blog. ...

It’s Biden
Comments from Left Field — Move over, Hinderaker. There’s a new winner for the Spin Award of the Day (linked via Memeorandum). Ron Fournier says, in an AP “analysis,” that Barack Obama’s pick of Joe Biden for his vice-president “lacks confidence.” Steve Benen, blogging at his new place, has the best response I’ve seen so far: By choosing Biden, Fournier argues, Barack Obama is showing a “lack of confidence,” and is siding with “the status quo.” ...

Is Team McCain Scared of Lunch Bucket Joe?
Taylor Marsh — ... So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the AP’s Michael Fournier once considered working for the McCain camp. Steve Benen, now in his new spot a Political Animal has the history. ...

Karl Rove’s Little Hot Soup Nazi
Firedoglake — ... It didn't really matter who Obama selected, Fournier was going to make a case against them. So, while everyone else was waiting for their Obama VP text, Fournier was receiving one from from Karl Rove: "Keep up the fight" That's his job.

Joint New York Times/Atlantic Monthly Death/Washington Post/AP Spiral Watch
J. Bradford DeLong's Grasping Reality with All Eight Tentacles — ... Kevin Drum: In March, for example, Fournier wrote an item -- whether it was a news article or an opinion piece was unclear -- that said Barack Obama is "bordering on arrogance," "a bit too cocky," and that the senator and his wife "ooze a sense of entitlement." To substantiate the criticism, Fournier pointed to ... not a whole lot. It was basically the Republicans' "uppity" talking point in the form of an AP article... ...

ACTION: Tell AP To Remove Ron Fournier From the Presidential Beat
Firedoglake — ... . Steve Benen chronicles the horrible history of GOP propaganda masquerading as news that has constituted the AP's political coverage of this election. ...

What Sully Said
Comments from Left Field — ... As Kathy previously noted, new Political Animal head honcho Steve Benen has penned the ultimate smackdown of Ron “keep up the fight” Fournier’s bullshit op-ed-masquerading-as-analysis re: the newly announced Obama/Biden ticket (sample dingleberry of wisdom: Biden “talks too much”–yep, that’s why they pay Ron the big bucks, folks), both of which y’all should check out (assuming you haven’t yet done so). But I want to highlight something that Andrew Sullivan also noticed regarding Fournier and his blatant (if inconsistent) use ...

AP writer criticizes Biden pick: Leftosphere explodes in outrage!
Doug Ross @ Journal — ... The barking moonbatsphere erupted with the expected indignation. How dare the mainstream media -- and the AP no less? -- criticize a major Democratic decision. Most observers believe that such a thing hadn't occurred since '63 with JFK's Bay of Pigs debacle. The wanknuts' reactions ranged from high-pitched shrieking to overt threats of personal harm. Washington Monthly : "[His] objectivity covering the presidential race continues to look shaky... We learned not too long ago that Fournier exchanged emails with Karl Rove about Pat Tillman [and] Fournier was also one of the ...

The AP Strikes a Nutroot Nerve
The Sundries Shack — ... Steven Benen, who just moved to the Washington Monthly this week, wrote that Fournier’s “objectivity covering the presidential race continues to look shaky.” Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas ...

Action item
The Reality-Based Community — ... treatment of the candidates. But the actual slant of AP's Presidential campaign coverage -- culminating in this morning's hit-piece aimed at Joe Biden and at Barack Obama for choosing him -- is now too obvious to ignore. I urge you, for the sake of the institution you lead, to replace Fournier with someone who understands the difference between fact and opinion and who will cover this campaign with something resembling an even hand and insist that others do the same. Yours, Steve Benen has the background .

worst vice presidential pick ever
skippy the bush kangaroo — ... granted, as steve benen points out, fournier was working for mcmuffin as recently as last year, which does call his objectivity into sharp question. ...

New entry from the Dictionary of Functional Analysis
The Reality-Based Community — [image] New entry from the Dictionary of Functional Analysis Fournier transformation , n. phr . The representation of a propaganda function as a news function. Cf. Fourier transformation NB: Only the latter operation is isomorphic. While "Fourier analysis" defines a field of mathematics, the phrase "Fournier analysis" is a contradiction in terms. It is conjectured, but not proven, that: [Fournier is the chief of the AP Washington Bureau] =>[The AP is not a news organization]. That theorem would yield as a corollary: [The AP is a news organization] => ...

8/25: Reactions To Biden
Blogometer — ... 's Andrew Sullivan also criticizes Fournier: "Ron Fournier's dramatic use of opinion in the first paragraph of the Biden story going out on all the wires is an aggressive Republican spin. Fournier has already weakened the AP's rep for pretty straight-up reportage. It just got a lot weaker. Last spring, by the way, Fournier was lambasting Obama for arrogance. Now, apparently, it's a lack of confidence. Whatever works, I guess. But please, get a blog." Meanwhile, MoveOn.org has launched an ...

Hullabaloo — ... Ron Fournier's hit piece on Obama over the Biden VP choice really boiled down to, "Obama's weak, and scared of McCain," repeated over and over again for emphasis. Sometimes, the shallow coverage favors the Democrat, as with LA Times blog Top of the Ticket's ...

Did the AP Fix Its Poll to Help McCain?
Comments from Left Field — ... Those of those on the progressive side have repeatedly noted the AP’s biased reporting against Barack Obama.  This, of course, has come while the AP has been under the stewardship of McCain ally Ron Fournier. ...

The amazing Fournier knows all
Balloon Juice — ... in mind-reading is just plain weird, and why it focuses only on Sotomayor and Leahy (when there’s a Republican KKK-sympathizer on the panel) would be anyone’s guess…were it not for Fournier’s history ( ...