AP: We Never Want To Mislead People

Except when they do. The AP pulled a video purporting to show a tornado touching down after the original videographer provided evidence that the new video was a fake.

A tornado chaser has claimed that the video was a doctored version of pictures he had taken of a twister that touched down four years ago in Rock, Kan.

The AP paid another storm chaser, Andy Fabel, $295 for footage of a tornado that briefly touched down Saturday afternoon near Valentine, Neb. The video was sent Sunday to nearly 2,000 Web sites that subscribe to the AP's Online Video Network, and more than 60 large digital customers that buy AP's online content individually.

Yet on Tuesday, a person who asked that his name not be used contacted the AP and said the supposed Nebraska footage was really video he had taken four years ago. The image was "flipped" to make it seem the tornado was pointed in another direction, and the action sped up. The Nebraska images add power lines and subtracts trees that were in the Kansas pictures.

Upon seeing the video evidence, the AP eliminated Fabel's video from the Online Video Network late Tuesday and contacted its other customers to urge them not to use it, said Kevin Roach, the AP's acting head of domestic broadcast news operations.

"We never want to mislead people," Roach said. "Based on evidence provided to us, we believe that the video was not authentic."

I'm sorry, but I had to stop myself from laughing over that last bit.

The AP says that it never wants to mislead people.

Except when it does.

Over and over again (AP isn't alone in this by a long shot, but they're prominently featured alongside the New York Times, MSNBC, and other wire and US media outlets). Want to play name that party? AP is expert that that. They managed to correct the political affiliation of Gary Condit, but not before their original report listed him as a Republican. He's a Democrat.

But, let's remember, that the AP never wants to mislead.

I'll have to remember that next time they mischaracterize terrorist attacks; use passive voice to describe dead Israelis as a result of terrorist attacks; or otherwise downplay information that goes against the grain of the editorial board at AP.

UPDATE:
I almost forgot the AP's JamilGate, where they clearly violated their policy on the use of pseudonyms, failed to fact check, and failed to provide corroborating details on repeated stories from Iraq.