Take your time and don't let yourself feel rushed. Looking forward to reading you, as usual.

Regardless what's happened since, I still have a real sense of affection for the ol' "A&P"! I consider it a feather in my cap.

When I first hired on there, within a couple of weeks, the LA Times did a long feature story on the AP, that started on the left-hand column of the front page and went on all the way to the back pages. Everybody at the bureau was really buzzing about it, with great excitement, calling New York, calling Washington, calling their friends, calling their moms! The story opened with an anecdote about Mahatma Gandhi, back in the day, who had traveled across India by train to an obscure little outpost - late at night, in the rain. Waiting at the minimal train station to interview him was an AP correspondent. Gandhi was seriously impressed. Saw this as proof-positive that the AP really was EVERYWHERE. He commented that when he died, and arrived at whatever awaited him Upstairs, he fully expected to find an AP correspondent there, too, waiting to interview him.

That and the Mark Twain motto that's a proud AP legacy, as well: "There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe... the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here."

Does kinda make one proud!

As you aptly note, hueymahl, it's as true and valid today - and all our tomorrows - as it was then.

What handicap? He's bigger and more brilliant than I could ever imagine being. Talk about rising above it.

A keeper. Both him AND his remarkable letter.

OF COURSE he'd wind up at the National Review! Either that or Pox, but he definitely had one of those things we referred to as "a face for radio." ALWAYS led with his wrong-wing slant. Jerk! What the hell they were thinking - hiring him to run the Washington bureau - I will never understand. Glad he didn't last long there!!!

And here's the thing of it: At the AP, we WEREN'T supposed to be slanted - AT ALL!!!!!!

You weren't going to get rich doing so. There was NO pizazz involved whatsoever. Everybody that newsroom struck me as another real-life version of Clark Kent. It was always a roomful of mild-mannered Clark Kents, both males and females but mostly men, whether at the LA bureau or the BNC in Washington (Broadcast News Center) or anywhere else. I once visited their print headquarters in NYC, at 50 Rock, and there, too - sure enough. Another roomful of mild-mannered Clark Kents. NEVER a Superman costume. But a whole lot of the humble not glorious or flashy or super-powered Clark Kents. Makes me think of the Geek Squad at Best Buy. Buncha dudes in rumpled clothes, hunched over their computers either on the phone with a source or writing, writing, writing. But you could count on what one of the member services guys referred to as "three square a day." As in - you certainly had enough to eat your three meals a day and cover all the basic expenses like rent or house payment and shoes for the kids and gas in the car and basic insurance premiums and so forth.

Fuck! I remember being on duty in L.A. the night former Beirut bureau chief Terry Anderson was released from several years as a hostage. CNN went live to the AP World Headquarters in NY. Somebody'd set up a camera in the newsroom - all ready to go for a live shot whenever the story could be confirmed (any minute now, folks!) and then it was all about waiting for the word to become official. It was a really boring visual - you could see part of what looked like a pretty empty newsroom (it was maybe 3am in New York) and the back of some dude predictably hunched over his computer, working on something, and not moving. Whoever he was, he seemed utterly oblivious to this major breaking news story directly affecting one of his own colleagues. Didn't even care that the camera was on him. Probably didn't know, but typical of an AP reporter - wouldn't care.

And we waited.

And we waited some more. It had been a pet cause, internally, among AP staffers all over the world, for something like four years, holding vigils and prayer moments where we'd all get in a circle in the middle of the newsroom and hold hands and close our eyes and silently send prayers and good thoughts and hope and good hoodoo and the rest of it - for the release of Terry Anderson. One of the guys in our bureau had buttons made up. There were Terry Anderson POW-style bracelets that some staffers wore every day. It was a tremendous moment - one of our own had been a hostage for several years - finally on the verge of being released! As Joe Biden would say - THIS was a Big Fucking Deal!

And we kept waiting. Seemed like a long time. It was late in the LA bureau that night and most of the staff had gone home (hell, WE covered Hollywood for the most part, so nobody in our bureau was particularly key to this story). Looked much the same in NYC, too. And every time CNN would cut back over to the live shot at the New York AP newsroom, STILL nothing was happening yet, for the longest time! At one point, here in L.A., as we were watching and getting bored, the nighttime supervisor - who had a booming baritone voice, shoulda been in radio - spoke up:

"And THERE we see... the BALD spot... of the NIGHT guy... at the AP World Headquarters in New York!" And those of us who were still there literally collapsed in laughter!!!! Talk about breaking the tension!

The AP was full of random moments like that. I spent nine years there. There were some times when it was just the coolest thing to do - work at the AP. There was just a certain kind of cachet to it. I felt like I'd actually become a full-on news person. No frills, no pizazz, no lights, camera, makeup, blondes, fancy sets or phony frippery. Just the news in a plain brown wrapper or generic brand at the grocery store. And some amazing good times.

Sweet sweet word. The verb "concede" carries such a lovely undertone of giving up on something. It's even better just knowing that the word is being used in the press - in this context (GOP giving up on something).

It used to infuriate me when that dingdong Paula Zahn was on Pox Noise and also CNN and used that wording all the damn time - mainly when interviewing the rare opponent of bush/cheney or the Iraq War or both - and without fail she would pose some question with "...but can't you at least concede that..."

Over and over she did that. She seemed to relish saying that to any Democrat or Iraq War opponent of any stripe or sort. Just left me completely OUTRAGED!!!! The context and flavor of "concede" is deliciously applicable here. She never questioned any GOPer or bush/cheney apologist using that phrase or anything close to it.

When you Google it - you don't even have to click on any of the links to get a whiff of its fragrance!

con·cede
kənˈsēd/Submit
verb
past tense: conceded; past participle: conceded
1.
admit that something is true or valid after first denying or resisting it.
"I had to concede that I'd overreacted"
synonyms: admit, acknowledge, accept, allow, grant, recognize, own, confess; agree
"I had to concede that I'd overreacted"
antonyms: deny
admit (defeat) in a contest.
"he conceded defeat"
synonyms: capitulate, give in, give, surrender, yield, give up, submit, raise the white flag; More
admit defeat in (a contest).
"ready to concede the gold medal"
2.
surrender or yield (something that one possesses).
"to concede all the territory he'd won"
synonyms: surrender, yield, give up, relinquish, cede, hand over
"he conceded the Auvergne to the king"

Savor the flavor! Especially the kind of word that tends to be followed immediately by another very dear and excellent word in this particular context:
"defeat"!

DEEELISH!!!!!! (rhymes with Gefilte FISH!)

cheney saying to him - "you can afford to lose a few points (in the popularity polls)." Because Colin Powell was the most popular and well-respected member of the bush/cheney entourage. He had the highest public opinion polls of the whole lot. So they sent him out as sacrificial lamb, since he had this pretty much unimpeachable reputation. And they ruined him, too. Cost him whatever credibility he still had.

At one time, Colin Powell was almost literally GOLDEN. He was the guy everybody predicted would be the first African American President. bush/cheney sure took care of that.

Owned by its member stations and newspapers. They all pay a fee as members. Internally that's what they're referred to: "members." Nobody ever described or referred to them as "affiliates" the way stations affiliated with the NBC or the ABC network, for example, were called "affiliates." (I used to work at NBC - AND at an ABC O&O, too, btw.)

I used to work at the AP - for nine years. It's not a corporation. Never has been. Just wasn't set up that way. If any RWs are part of the ownership, it's because they're that way at the station level.

After I left, however, I noticed they'd hired ron fournier to head the Washington DC bureau. He set out to change things, issuing an "all-hands" memo dictating that reporters and writers could and should start putting point of view into their political coverage. When I was still there, everybody tried pretty damn hard to be objective, and NOT to betray any personal points of view or attitudes or political slants. He fucked that up. Not there anymore, but at that point, as far as I'm concerned, they were tainted.

But they don't have a big corporate owner or a 1%er at the top, as the other conventional networks do. Hell, with what little they paid ANYBODY, no one at the AP would EVER qualify as a 1%er.

She also was part of a deeply vicious scheme to destroy the Hindenburg, too, dontchaknow!!!!!!!!!!

AND, she also helped plot the disappearance and MURDER of Jimmy Hoffa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next up - the "smoking gun" emails about to come out that PROVE she was part of a plot to short-sheet the beds at all the hotels catering to delegates at the 2012 GOP CONvention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And pour saltpeter into the soup, too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh NOES!!!!1111!!!1!!!!

"I don't think anyone could -- have -- predicted -- " And she threw in a few "indeed's" very eloquently enunciated, to continue the impression that she's this world-class "brilliant" smart person. And all the time her head was bobbing in the affirmative. She was clearly a nervous wreck, or at least her body language betrayed that to anyone who might be watching.