The AP Take A Business Hit

By Kyle-Anne Shiver and Lee Cary

The Associated Press (AP) is being dumped by the Tribune Company.

According to Editor&Publisher (link repaired), The Tribune Company has given a two-year, pink-slip notice to the AP. The announced reason pertains to pricing.

The Tribune Company's two major papers, the LATimes and the Chicago Tribune, have a cadre of real reporters that can fill much of the void.

Tribune reporters have done a great job documenting Senator Barack Obama's association with Chicago slum landlords. And, the LATimes broke the Clinton NYC Chinatown Donorgate story late last year all the way from the West Coast. (The New York Times was AWOL on that one.)

Those of us who are regular news junkies have long noticed a definite bias in the AP's reporting. Radio host Rush Limbaugh refers to the news source as the "APO" - the "Associated Press Obama."

Many Drudge Report listings come from Reuters, the AP, and newspapers, but more and more Drudge links end up at online publications. Sooner or later, Drudge will begin including websites that today are not quite as widely known yet -- like the American Thinker.

Regardless of who wins this election, the world of election coverage journalism in 2012 will look considerably different that it has this silly season.

The publications that started out on the internet have a definite advantage going forward. Collectively, they got here first, with the most.