It seems that the Associated Press deserves the lion’s share of the blame for the somewhat misleading story highlighting Frommer’s Honduras that appeared in USA Today last month. The sad truth is that several other publications ran the same exact article. 
While this doesn’t excuse USA Today or any of the other publications for not ensuring the quality of the content they publish, it reveals some serious fault lines in the news media.
At issue is an AP-written story that highlights all the natural beauty and thrills that the Honduras has to offer tourists, but fails to say a word about the country’s political situation.
Initially, Nicholas Gill, the author of Frommer’s Honduras, commented on Travelojos that USA Today failed to contact him for the article.
Lack of Depth. But last week, USA Today’s travel editor Chris Gray Faust pointed out that the story was written by the Associated Press. She said:
It’s a wire story by the Associated Press, which often lack the depth that our own writers do. (We are one of the few newspapers that still employs a staff of travel writers, editors and bloggers – reflection of the fact that many of our readers are on the road themselves).
After reading Gray Faust’s comment, Gill also said he believes the problem lies more with the Associated Press than USA Today. He said:
Just to clarify on this, I meant the AP didn’t contact me on the article. This really has little to do with the USA Today: nearly every newspaper travel section in the U.S. picked up the same AP article and ran the announcement of the guide being released. Google it.
Gill is correct. An internet search shows that several other publications ran the exact same story.
Questions. The incident raises at least three important questions:
- don’t newspapers or other publications that run wire stories have an obligation to ensure that the content meets readers’ expectations?
- at a time when newspapers are unable to abate historic losses of revenue and subscribers, can the industry afford to run thinly written articles?
- should the AP be highlighting books or other products if the organization is unable to do it in an objective, credible manner?
The fact that several publications let the story pass makes the incident even more disturbing. Not one of these papers checks the quality of the wire stories they receive before publishing them?
It seems that some newspapers are beginning to notice that their relationship with AP is not working. At the AP’s annual meeting in April, about 180 newspapers — 14 percent of the wire service’s U.S. newspaper membership — had threatened to leave the news service. While the ailing newspaper industry’s need to cut costs was probably a main factor, the AP story said that the reasons for the newspapers’ disillusionment “varied.”
Lack of Objectivity. Perhaps most disturbingly, Gill’s earlier comment suggests that the AP story was entirely based on a press release that it received from Frommer’s. Is this the type objective reporting that readers’ expect? If I publish an e-book about Honduras would the AP be just as likely to pick up my press release?
What’s your take on this situation?
Photo by wili_hybrid (Via Creative Commons)
on Nov 9th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Not to knock Nicholas or Honduras, it’s obvious that this press release recycled as news article lacked substance. That USA Today decided to run this in its travel section shows anl ignorance of its editors. Please more Latin America stories in your travel section, but keep an eye on the current headlines and political situation.
on Nov 9th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
The funny thing is that when Nicolas Gill first left his comment, I didn’t quite understand the scoop I had. At that point I didn’t notice that it was an AP story. After both he and USA Today pointed out it was a wire story, it’s clear now that USA Today was one of many newspapers that ran the same exact story…. And failed to change it.
on Nov 9th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Being here in Honduras throughout their political turmoil I have to agree that most if not all the articles coming from AP about Honduras were poorly written, biased, and relied on information that was often supplied by the Socialist Propaganda machines. It becomes very obvious when they constantly use phrases from the old Soviet propaganda. When EVERY
article has the words rich, elites, oligarchy, working classes, etc. you
begin to wonder. What the AP reporter does is just copy and paste from others on the internet, and then the AP articles are plastered into every news agency in the world in seconds. It allowed the Socialists to dominate the world with their propaganda until individuals caught on and started blogging and posting to forums.
Megan Mills