The AP, regrettably, has chosen to respond to the publication of my article on their North Korean news bureau operations in NKNews.org by engaging in a campaign of character assassination instead of addressing the merits of the article. The AP repeatedly refused to comment, on the record, on the article prior to publication and continues to maintain that their AP North Korea bureau operates under the same standards as every other AP news bureau in the world, with no censorship or interference or manipulation from Pyongyang. We talked to 21 current and former AP journalists, both on and off the record, as well as an additional 30+ sources with direct knowledge of AP and other reporting in North Korea, in addition to obtaining the AP draft agreement they made with North Korea establishing the terms of operation of their newly established news bureau. AP has chosen to refuse to address any of the detailed evidence of the merits of the story that resulted from this meticulously sourced and documented story, and, to avoid having to answer the indisputably fact checked content of the piece, instead is now engaging in a public relations campaign to discredit the reporter and the media outfit, NKNews, which published it. AP management, I am sure is ashamed of themselves, as they well should be. It is always the cover up of the initial mistake which gets you in the end (see Watergate (c) 1972-74) Paul Colford Director of AP Media Relations Statement from AP: In the late 1990s, Nate Thayer, a former AP stringer, became disgruntled over a distribution agreement with AP covering video he had shot in Cambodia. More recently, he dismissed the value of AP’s North Korea bureau shortly before he sought from AP detailed proprietary information about the bureau for further articles that were published on Dec. 24 by NKnews.org. No serious news organization would hand over the kind of business agreements, salary information and other payment documentation that Mr. Thayer sought. His latest articles from Dec. 24 are full of errors, inaccuracies and baseless innuendo. The draft agreement between AP and North Koreas KCNA news agency that he cites is remote from the final document. Among other inaccuracies, AP does not distribute outright KCNA stories, as Mr. Thayer concludes, but at times AP cites KCNA reports, as do most other news organizations, including his publisher. Because of his reliance on this draft agreement, he makes the laughable assertion that APs Pyongyang bureau submits to censorship by the North Korean government. It is unlikely that Mr. Thayer spoke to as many AP sources as he claims. Indeed, Chad OCarroll, the editor of NKnews.org, told an AP news leader several days ago that he would not publish Mr. Thayers latest attack against AP after all. It is regrettable that the website decided to reverse course on Dec. 24 because of a newly found draft agreement. Importantly, Politico never bothered to contact me prior to publishing this piece an hour ago.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:10:13 +0000