The AP Is At It Again

Kathryn Lopez reproduced this email from a reader in Steubenville, Ohio:

Before Kerry arrived there was a huge pro-life march led by Franciscan University students, 500 strong. “You can’t be Catholic and pro-abortion”, read some of their signs. Students and members of local Catholic parishes were full of energy and FoxNews reported that this was the largest protest against Kerry outside of the Democratic Convention….
The Kerry campaign…also chose to hold the rally in a public park which should be open to all the public. Mistake number three. The police chief, sheriff, and mayor all agreed with me that protesters and their signs would be allowed inside the Kerry rally site. Freedom of speech is alive and well here in Ohio. The Kerry campaign flipped out!
So, now add another 500 local Bush supporters to the Kerry rally. They tried to turn up the music but they could not drown us out. According to the Herald Star (local press), “The crowd, estimated by officials as 3,500 strong, was almost split in half with people for and against the Massachusetts senator.” John Kerry must know he has a problem when over 15% of his audience was booing him. We were respectful and did not heckle him – but upon arrival and when he sought our applause he got something he didn’t expect. As the press arrived a feisty nine year old little girl began shouting, “We want Bush!”, and we all chanted along. The campaign staff was beside themselves. This is history in the making! Even places like Steubenville are not supporting John Kerry. He is in serious trouble.

Now, check out this Associated Press article on Kerry’s visit to Steubenville by Darlene Superville. Note the next to the last paragraph:

Several dozen Bush supporters greeted Kerry in Steubenville with signs favoring a second Bush term and opposing the Catholic Kerry’s support for abortion rights.

I think that until further notice, you should assume that every news article you see that is based on an AP dispatch–probably at least half of the content of most newspapers–should be considered unreliable.
Thanks to reader Shanley Burk for pointing this out.

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