By Joseph Curl
he Associated Press was once considered an unbiased source for news.
Not anymore.
In a story on Friday – headlined “Top Dems call on Cuomo to resign amid harassment allegations” – the wire service found a way to praise President Biden and bash Republicans, saying the GOP has “seized” on the sexual misconduct scandal swirling around New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“The escalating political crisis has spawned an impeachment inquiry in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, and threatens to cast a cloud over President Joe Biden’s early days in office. Republicans have seized on the scandal to try to distract from Biden’s success tackling the coronavirus pandemic and challenge his party’s well-established advantage with female voters,” the AP wrote in the story’s fourth paragraph.
The story does point out that New York’s two U.S. senators, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand – both Democrats – have deserted Cuomo and that top Democratic progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called on the governor to resign.
But the article doesn’t state that more than 50 Democratic lawmakers in the statehouse have seized on the scandal. A huge swath of state Democratic lawmakers have called in the governor to resign or face impeachment.
“Just breathtaking bulls***,” Washington Examiner journalist Becket Adams tweeted. He later said, “Taking a screen grab again just in case” the AP edited the piece..
Others pointed out the irony of the verbiage. “Cuomo literally seized women who worked for him,” wrote one person on Twitter.
Still others took aim at the AP.
“Can’t decide what’s more crazy about this “Republicans seize on Cuomo scandal” line — that it was published .. or that it was published in the AP, not Think Progress or an outlet that you EXPECT to gaslight,” wrote another.
“When your coverage of a Governor having a series of sexual abuse allegations revealed and his own party triggering Impeachment inquires and calling on him to resign is ‘Republican have seized on the scandal,’ you aren’t a news organization, you are a propaganda machine,” says another post.
“This is reporting??” wrote still another.
It’s not the first time a liberal news site has sought to blame the GOP for a Democratic scandal.
“At this stage, any journalist who frames a mistake or controversial statement made by a Democratic politician with ‘conservatives pounce’ has to be either woefully out of touch with reality or consciously trolling,” National Review editor Charles C.W. Cooke wrote last year.