Associated Press has more Problems than Just Sources

The AP
has many problems that stem from being a monopoly protected by the First Amendment. A recent one is concerning stories which are sourced to an Iraqi named Jamail Hussein who evidently doesn't exist and is employed by AP's pro-insurgency stringers to justify bogus reporting about alleged Shi'ite and American atrocities in Iraq. But this fallen-on-hard-ethical-times collection of ink-stained wretches overdid it on New Year's Eve, which I first noticed in Drudge[h/t WSJ]:

Here are a couple of Associated Press headlines:

"AP Poll: Americans Optimistic for 2007"--Dec. 30

"Poll: Americans See Doom, Gloom in 2007"--Dec. 31

Guess what, folks? It's the same poll![my emphasis] Half of Americans polled think the glass is half-empty, while half think it's half-full. Or something like that. From the "optimistic" version:

Seventy-two percent of Americans feel good about what 2007 will bring for the country, and an even larger 89 percent are optimistic about the new year for themselves and their families, according to the poll.

That fits with a long-term trend suggesting that Americans are generally an optimistic lot. Polling over recent decades is replete with optimism, and with a tendency for people to feel more positively about their own situations than that of the country overall.

From the "doom, gloom" version:

Six in 10 people think the U.S. will be the victim of another terrorist attack next year, more than five years after the Sept. 11 assault on New York and Washington. An identical percentage think it is likely that bad guys will unleash a biological or nuclear weapon elsewhere in the world.

There is plenty of gloom to accompany all of that doom.

Seventy percent of Americans predict another major natural disaster within the United States and an equal percentage expect worsening global warming. Fewer than one-third of people, or 29 percent, think it is likely that the U.S. will withdraw its troops from Iraq.

The pessimistic version also notes that "one in four, 25 percent, anticipates the second coming of Jesus Christ." But if they're Christians, wouldn't that make them optimists?

Taranto and the WSJ are to be commended for once again pointing out the spurious specious level journalism in the USA has descended to. However, overseas the situation is probably worse, and the Mexicans still look to north of the border for stories about their own country that are not tainted by libel and apple-polishing.

However, the arrogance and unspeakable insufferable complacency of AP is reflected inthis article by Editor & Publisher which has a third-rate hack named Carroll refusing to even read a report questioning the AP's use of sources.

Like Pogo, AP has met the enemy, and it is AP.