The AP Declares War On Blogs And Search Engines

4 Responses to “The AP Declares War On Blogs And Search Engines”

1. Bill Hobbs writes
   July 24th, 2009 9:43 am

   The AP has no choice. All the pieces and parts are there for an open-source replacement for the AP. There is really no need - at all - for newspapers to subscribe to or feed content to the AP anymore. It no longer makes business sense to pay the AP for content which the AP for the most part just gets from other newspapers and rewrites slightly, when the internet makes it possible for newspapers to share content with each other directly.

   The AP is a middleman. The web replaces middlemen.

   The AP’s ‘value-added’ isn’t very valuable - it re-edits content that was already edited by the newspapers that produced it in the first place. (The AP’s original content is rarely exclusive.)

   A good content management system in which newspapers feed their stories and index them by various categories and tags, combined with RSS feeds, could replace the AP at lower cost, and the newspapers could use the savings to pay for producing more good original content.

2. B-Ho is a douchebag writes
   July 24th, 2009 11:44 am

   Here’s some original content from The Associated Press, Hobbs:

   April 3, 2008

   AP NewsBreak: GOP both assails and requests public gun permits
   By ERIK SCHELZIG
   Associated Press Writer

   NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ The state’s Republican Party spokesman filed a request to obtain the state’s entire handgun permit database on the same day his party publicly scolded House Democrats for keeping those records open to the public.

   Communications Director Bill Hobbs filed the request for the database on Thursday, Safety Department spokesman Mike Browning told The Associated Press.

   One day earlier House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, a Covington Democrat, used his powerful post to kill a bill that would have exempted handgun permits from the open records law. The legislation also would have
   made it a felony to publish information about them.

   A Thursday GOP news release that lists Hobbs as the contact for more information said “Naifeh and his anti-gun gang” were assaulting gun owner rights and security by keeping the records open.

   Hobbs said in an e-mailed statement that he is “aware of the irony in our requesting a copy of public records that we thought should not be
   public.”

   Hobbs said the party wants to use the database to target voters and to raise campaign contributions as Republicans seek to gain majorities in both chambers of the Legislature this fall.

   Still, said Hobbs, “We would have preferred to be unable to get the records.”

   Naifeh dismissed the Republican criticism and called his maneuvering to keep the gun records open “the right thing to do.”

   “They’ll find something to be upset with me anyway, so it doesn’t really bother me that bad,” he told reporters earlier Thursday. “I’m not anti-gun at all _ I’ve told you all before the number of rifles
   and shotguns and pistols I have.”

   Naifeh cited news accounts of felons who have obtained handgun carry permits in violation of state law as a reason to keep the records publicly available.

   Rep. Rob Briley, D-Nashville and another vocal opponent of closing the records, took issue with the penalties provision of the bill.

   “I think it’s irresponsible, I think, for someone to pass a law to make it a criminal offense for somebody to publish a fact,” he said.

   The bill is sponsored by Rep. Eddie Bass, D-Prospect, and Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris of Collierville. Norris on Thursday withdrew his bill from a Senate vote considering the House actions a day earlier. But he pledged to revisit the issue.

   “We found that driver’s licenses have more protection than the data you submit when you apply for a handgun permit,” he said.

   But Browning, the Safety Department spokesman, said information like Social Security numbers is redacted from both handgun permits and driver’s records before they are released to the public.

   “Really there’s no difference between the two,” he said.

3. Wintermute writes
   July 24th, 2009 12:20 pm

   Adam, I would not leave an entire AP piece quoted by some hater in the comments to my blog, for my own sake and that of my employer.

   For my own part, I can leave out the links I provide to the original content and just let people take my word for what it says or look it up themselves.

   On the indexing and first sentence excerpting, my money’s on Google. On cacheing, not so much.

   AP must be acting insanely under some “I think I’m so brilliant” new managers, board members, or lawyers. My money would still be on bloggers who do not overquote a piece and who link to it. There’s also paraphrasing and not linking.

4. Kay Brooks writes
   July 24th, 2009 3:08 pm

   Thanks, Bill. It makes more sense to join the movement and adapt than to stomp your foot and demand folks pay for an outdated service.

   I’m still curious about what sort of software they can ‘add to the article’ for tracking purposes.

   Wintermute has a point. There are some bloggers I’d trust way more than any AP source. Some of them ARE the source.