GMD Site Stuff: On the AP boycott thing

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The linked “Boycott AP” graphic on the right hand side was put on this site, as well as many other blogs, when the Associated Press announced a new policy of charging for any quotations or excerpts from any AP wire story – even those as small as five words. Where this clearly flew in the face of Fair Use law and precedent, the AP was going to use its corporate muscle to essentially bully their unilateral approach into reality despite the law by targeting small blogs that couldn’t afford to defend themselves for legal action.

At any rate, there was pushback, a furor, and many of us decided to start the boycott AP bit in solidarity with our targeted comrades. Shortly thereafter, the AP backed off the targeted blog but seemed to continue with their announced new “policy.” Some of us kept the image and the link (and the boycott) up, some of us backed off.

But it’s been a while now – a year and a half since the court action was dropped – and they don’t seem to be furthering this nonsense after all. Given that (and given the fact that only GMD and a small handful of other sites are maintaining this boycott), I’m removing the image and link and calling it a victory. I suppose in retrospect it was a victory a year and a half back… I just didn’t quite trust it 100% at the time. Call me cynical.

One thought on “GMD Site Stuff: On the AP boycott thing”

  1. The AP uses its attorneys to bring unfounded and legally bogus lawsuits or threats of lawsuits.

    The bigger issue, however, is this corporations unflinching partisanship and GOP fluffing on the national level.

    The A.P. specializes in:

    Stenographic GOP dissembling of facts  —

    Gymnastic spin to puff the GOP through routine events or downplay Democratic achievements or victories  —



    Unwavering fealty to GOP (or CFL party) in AP’s uncritical stenography of proven lies and policy propaganda      —

    Sooooo Typical:

       Rep. Sue Myrick (R-Nutjob NC) issued the latest warning against a Democratic-backed health care overhaul as she recalled her fight with breast cancer. She said in the GOP’s weekly radio and Internet address that her diagnosis “took six doctors, three mammograms and one ultrasound before they finally they found my cancer. This process took only a few weeks.”

       “Under the government-run health care system they have in Canada and the United Kingdom, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get those tests so quickly,” she said. “One international study found that three times as many citizens in those countries wait longer than a month to see a specialist. When it comes to life-threatening diseases like cancer, delay could mean death.”

    NOTE:  As opposed to the US where patients who are not members of Congress do not have an opportunity to wait in line for care that only takes a month to coordinate.  Millions of Americans must wait, literally, a lifetime –cl

       Democrats are looking for competition to private insurance companies to help drive prices down: a government-run insurance option, a trigger to add that option later; or nonprofit insurance cooperatives, designed to compete with private industry and give consumers more choices.

    NOTE: Nice contextual retort by AP of false claim about government health care plans that Myrick claims will kill you. –cl

       “These so-called health care reform bills have different names: a public option, a co-op, a trigger,” Myrick said. “Make no mistake, these are all gateways to government-run health care.”

       She said that the proposals mean higher taxes for small business owners “at a time when unemployment is nearing 10 percent and analysts are predicting that any kind of recovery will be a jobless one.”

       She noted that she’s a former small-business owner.

       “I can tell you from experience [this is] job-killing taxes [and the] nation’s largest small business association found the health care tax increases being proposed would lead to the elimination of more than 1.6 million jobs.”

    NOTE: In fact, a single payer system clears up billions of health care waste and makes U.S. business more competitive. Every credible study proves this will generate millions of jobs and/or raise the standard of living for working people. Just ask the AP.  Oh, right. –cl

    Typical AP Formula:  Transmit demonstrably false GOP claims on health care, for instance; and then say “Democrats are looking for competition [with] a government-run insurance option . . ” Nice, uh?

    Instead of quoting someone willing or capable of honestly addressing the issue, the AP chooses one of the most egregious, lying-teabagging Republican-American demagogues and deceptively publishes the claims without any objection context. The result is that, instead of an objective story that honestly headlines “GOP Distorts Health Care Reform Proposal,” we read a story that uncritically transmits blatant falsehoods headlined “Democrat Government Insurance Worries Patients.” Mmmm, worried patients? Would those be the uninsured patients or the private insurance patients that lose their “coverage” if they become ill?

     

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