The Associated Press has once again furnished the Harris campaign with propaganda to further mislead voters about its political adversaries.
Following a horrific school shooting in Georgia on Wednesday, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) expressed his sympathy for the victims and their families and lamented the fact that such tragedies happen.
The AP mutilated Vance's remarks both in a now-deleted social post and in a since-re-titled article with the ostensible aim of painting him as callous and accepting of the school-shooting status quo.
The Harris campaign did not miss a beat, seizing upon the AP's deceptive framing to engage in some deception of its own — providing a damning characterization of Vance's remarks and recommendations wholly divorced from reality.
'More bulls*** from the Fake News AP.'
Although the Associated Press has walked back its misleading titles, the false narrative it inspired lives on in the propaganda shared by the Harris campaign and its boosters.
A school shooting took place Wednesday morning at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, claiming the lives of two teachers and two students.
Vance told the crowd at a campaign rally in Phoenix the following day:
First of all, what happened in Georgia is just an awful tragedy. And I know we've got a lot of parents and a lot of grandparents in this room — I mean, I cannot imagine. You know, little kids so excited to go back to school, God love them, and they're at their first week back from the summer, and an absolute barbarian decides to open fire and take their lives and also a couple teachers.
The video the Associated Press shared to YouTube omitted the following from its playback of Vance's speech:
We gotta think about these people. If you're the praying type, and I know I am, we gotta hold them up in prayer. We gotta be hoping for the best for this incredible community because no parent should have to deal with this. No child should have to deal with this. And yes, after holding these folks up in prayer and giving them our sympathies — because that's what people deserve in a time of tragedy — then we have to think about how to make this less common. Now look: the Kamala Harris' answer to this is to take law-abiding American citizens' guns away from them. That is what Kamala Harris wants to do. But we have to ask ourselves, we actually have been able to run an experiment on this because you've got some states with very strict gun laws and you've got some states that don't have strict gun laws at all. And the states with strict gun laws — they have a lot of school shootings, and the states without strict gun laws, some of them have school shootings too, so clearly strict gun laws is not the thing that is going to solve this problem.
The AP resumed sharing footage from Vance's speech at the point where the senator discussed a potential remedy to this problem, stating, "I don't like this. I don't like to admit this. I don't like that this is a fact of life. But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets."
Vance added, "We have got to bolster security at our schools so that a person who walks through the front door and kill a bunch of children, they're not able to."
The Ohio senator noted further that this is not the reality he wants, particularly not for his own children, but this is the reality "that we live in."
The Associated Press covered the speech Thursday. Although the body of the article was relatively accurate in its characterization of Vance's remarks, the corresponding title and social media post, which netted millions of impressions and thousands of retweets prior to its deletion, told a different story.
The original article title — which survives on the pages of various publications that recycle the Associated Press' content and has lookalikes in the pages of the Washington Post and other liberal publications — read, "JD Vance says school shootings are a 'fact of life,' calls for better security."
Noticeably absent from the title was the indication he "lament[ed]" the reality of school shootings; specifically that he said, "I don't like that this is a fact of life."
The post on X, like the original article, said, "JD Vance says school shootings are 'fact of life,' calls for better security."
Critics cognizant of the difference between the Associated Press' framing and the actual content of Vance's remarks lashed out. Soon, a community note was appended to the post, prompting the liberal publication to change the article's title and delete its tweet.
The Trump War Room on X wrote, "More bulls*** from the Fake News AP."
Vance spokesman William Martin told Fox News Digital, "This is yet another case of the fake news media brazenly lying about a Republican politician. Senator Vance said exactly the opposite of what the Associated Press claimed."
"It should come as no surprise that the AP lost any and all credibility it had years ago, because they will lie about literally anything in order prop up the Democrats," continued Martin. "Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has called for all police officers to be removed from schools, putting children all over America at risk. It's yet another example of how Kamala Harris's weak, failed, and dangerously liberal agenda makes her unfit for office."
The new title for the article is "JD Vance says he laments that school shootings are a 'fact of life' and calls for better security."
The new tweet reads, "JD Vance says he laments that school shootings are a 'fact of life' and says the U.S. needs to harden security to prevent more carnage like the shooting this week that left four dead in Georgia."
The AP said in a subsequent message, "This post replaces an earlier post that was deleted to add context to the partial quote from Vance."
The Harris campaign ran with the Associated Press' framing, hyperlinking it to an internal communications plan then tweeting, "JD Vance responds to the deadly shooting in Georgia by saying school shootings are just 'a fact of life' and attacking common sense gun safety reform."
'Instead of addressing her own failures, she lies about what I said.'
In an official statement, the Harris campaign wrote, "Yesterday, Vice President Harris said 'it doesn't have to be this way' in response to another senseless school shooting. Donald Trump and JD Vance think school shootings are a 'fact of life' and 'we have to get over it.'"
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The Trump campaign responded, "Kamala's interns just released a statement pushing FAKE NEWS that the Associated Press just retracted. Watch the full video and you'll clearly see that JD Vance does not say what they claim he said. These morons do nothing but lie every single day."
Harris' campaign was not alone in peddling the falsehood, however; its leader had similarly gone in on the action, tweeting, "School shootings are not just a fact of life. It doesn't have to be this way."
Vance responded directly, writing, "Kamala wants to take security out of our schools instead of protecting our children. Instead of addressing her own failures, she lies about what I said. More desperation from the biggest fraud in American politics."
Late last month, the Associated Press supported another false Democratic narrative.
Blaze News previously reported that the liberal publication parroted the false Democratic claim that Project 2025 is the "Republican blueprint for a second Trump term in the White House."
Project 2025 responded on X, "Is this the AP or the DNC account? Project 2025 does not represent any candidate or campaign."
Only after the damage was done did the AP correct its error and delete its post, noting it had "misidentified the blueprint as Republican."
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The Associated Press was obliterated online for a recent article that attempted to dismiss the illegal immigrant murder suspect in the brutal killing of Laken Hope Riley, and instead tried to blame toxic masculinity for the brutal slaying.
On Saturday, the AP published an article titled: "The killing of a nursing student out for a run highlights the fears of solo female athletes."
The article did not acknowledge that Riley's suspected killer was an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. Instead, the news site described Jose Antonio Ibarra as an "Athens resident."
The writer, Janie Har, referenced the 2018 murder of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts – who was also murdered while jogging. Once again, Har did not mention that Tibbets was murdered by an illegal immigrant.
Instead, Har focused on "the dangers female runners face" and the "hypervigilance women must take when going out, even for a run on campus."
The article cited a survey from the clothing company Adidas that found 92% of women reported "feeling concerned for their safety, with half [51%] afraid of being physically attacked, compared to 28% of men."
The survey added, "Over a third (38%) of women have experienced physical or verbal harassment, and of these women over half have received unwanted attention (56%), sexist comments or unwanted sexual attention (55%), been honked at (53%), or followed (50%)."
The article stated, "But Callie Rennison, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Colorado who studies violence against women, wishes there was more emphasis on teaching men not to assault women rather than telling women what they should or should not do."
The Associated Press article was torn to shreds by online commentators who bashed the piece as "disgusting" and "putrid propagandizing" for President Joe Biden.
Blaze News senior editor Daniel Horowitz: "This is the died suddenly Covid schtick now applied to the Venezuelan gang of invaders."
Columnist Adam Johnston: "What a garbage headline. Laken Riley was murdered by an illegal alien who was afforded refuge in a sanctuary city. That’s the story. The ONLY story. But journalism is nothing but regime propaganda and leftist narratives."
Gov. Ron DeSantis senior analyst Christina Pushaw: "American Pravda strikes again. They’d rather stop women from running alone than stop illegal immigration."
Writer Charles C. W. Cooke: "They can’t change because this is what they think their job is."
Podcast host Monica Crowley: "This is disgusting, AP. The killing of Laken Riley had nothing to do with 'the fears of solo female athletes.' Her murder is the direct result of Biden’s wide open border that allowed in her illegal alien killer. Your putrid propagandizing for Biden & murderers is sickening."
1776 Project PAC founder Ryan James Girdusky: "Yep…. The story of an illegal alien who broke into our country, committed a crime in one state, released back into the community because of sanctuary city laws, flees to another state where he rapes and murders a young woman is really just a story about solo female athletes."
Florida state Representative Berny Jacques: "The corporate media will bend over backwards to avoid mentioning this was done by an illegal alien allowed in our country."
Republican activist Scott Presler: "This young American girl was killed by an illegal alien. So, when we say that Americans are being replaced, we really mean it. Democrats are welcoming illegal aliens into the country. They welcome the lawlessness. Democrats do not care about us or they would secure the border."
DeSantis press secretary Jeremy Redfern: "Victim blaming, because the alleged murderer is an illegal alien."
Columnist Derek Hunter: "It wasn't the run that killed her, it was the illegal alien from a 3rd world country with a culture that views women as garbage to be used by men that Democrats in this country refused to keep out or deport that killed her. Own it."
The "End Wokeness" account: "Illegal alien from Venezuela is described as an 'Athens resident.' The framing of the story is about toxic masculinity. No matter how much you think you hate the media, it is not enough."
Writer Ian Miller: "It really is jaw-dropping how hard the media will work to avoid mentioning any aspect of a story that makes their political party or progressive ideology look bad."
Author Rachel Bovard: "Running alone was not what killed her, you complete hacks."
Writer Tom Bevan: "Just insane framing. The media never fails to disappoint."
Ruth Peterson: "Look at the tweet & think about what it says. AP has no integrity. She was killed by someone here illegally and who was released after being apprehended at the border. How is this OK? And how can you consider any media outlet who reports on it like this as having credibility?"
Media critic Stephen L. Miller: "Pretty sure that's not the lesson here."
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New details emerge following arrest in case of murdered University of Georgia nursing student www.youtube.com
The Associated Press appears to have had a rough Wednesday on account of unforced errors committed by the ideologues in its midst.
In three glaring instances, reporters at the New York City-based media agency managed to get their inaccurate and partisan hot takes cleared by editors, then published. While the AP has never been immune to leftist bias and inaccuracy — having all but brought the world to the brink with an erroneous November 2022 report that Russia had launched a missile strike on a NATO nation — the agency's rapid sequence of bad hot takes this week prompted an especially scathing response from critics.
South African billionaire Elon Musk, among the AP's many critics, responded to one of the instances of buffoonery, writing on X, "The @AP has the woke mind virus growing out of its head like a giant mushroom!"
The AP is evidently cognizant of its embarrassing errors, granted it has been desperately attempting to correct them. However, this corrective effort has been made all the more difficult by the fact that myriad publications across the nation routinely regurgitate the AP's articles — meaning those errors continue to live on coast to coast despite the agency's centralized efforts to make stealth edits and title changes.
Blaze News previously detailed the criticism the AP was met with Wednesday over its coverage of Claudine Gay's resignation as president of Harvard and exacted an explanation from the agency.
While Gay's resignation ostensibly highlighted that there remained some consequences in academia for scholarly misconduct, the AP instead ran an article entitled, "Harvard president's resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism."
Critics wondered how Gay's deficit of integrity and alleged tendency to pass off the work of others as her own in at least seven of her published works amounted to a "conservative weapon." Others contemplated why a university president's self-destructive behavior needed be framed in partisan terms.
The AP's corresponding post on X was flagged with Community Notes emphasizing the absurdity of the title and the article's premise.
Later in the day, the AP changed the title to "Plagiarism charges downed Harvard's president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage." This altered version was executed without an editorial note.
The AP ultimately told Blaze News why it had made the change: "The initial story didn't meet our standards, so we updated it."
Deep in the Gay article, the AP's Collin Binkley and Moriah Balingit highlighted a tweet from New College of Florida board member and Hillsdale College fellow Christopher Rufo wherein he wrote, "SCALPED," in response to the news that Gay had resigned.
The AP claimed that Rufo had done so "as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans."
Just as with its suggestion that a leftist university leader's questionable practices were the fault of conservatives, the article's racially charged and ahistorical statement about scalping prompted backlash.
— (@)
Again Musk opined, writing, "Woe, the @AP hasn't merely drunk the woke Kool-Aid, they are swimming in it!"
The tech billionaire added, "Somehow, indigenous peoples went from being referred to almost exclusively as baby-killing savages to almost exclusively being referred to as noble, peace-loving ecologists! In reality, all peoples back then did terrible things by modern western standards. Slavery, for example, was standard practice worldwide, including within Africa, until a few hundred years ago and was stamped out by force primarily by the British."
Others highlighted that several past tweets from one of the article's authors, Balingit, hinted at a deep-seated antipathy for white people.
Gov. Ron DeSantis' press secretary Jeremy Redfern pressed Balingit and Binkley for a response after sharing an image of a white man who had been scalped as a boy by Sioux Indians.
— (@)
According to Britannica, archeological evidence, specifically from a mass grave in South Dakota, suggests North American Indians were scalping one another since at least the early 14th century, long before "white colonists" had made it to North America.
"Native Americans in the Southeast took scalps to achieve the status of warrior and to placate the spirits of the dead, while most members of Northeastern tribes valued the taking of captives over scalps," Britannica indicated. "Among Plains Indians scalps were taken for war honours, often from live victims. As a challenge to their enemies, some Native Americans shaved their heads."
After being overwhelmingly confronted with the inaccuracy of their framing and suggestion, the AP caved and edited the paragraph without providing an editorial note.
The paragraph now reads: "On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote 'SCALPED,' as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans and also used by some tribes against their enemies."
— (@)
The Associated Press wasn't a punchline Wednesday only on account of its revisionist history and title claim about the weaponization of Gay's apparent use of copy and paste. The agency also published an article entitled "Things to know about Minnesota's new, non-racist state flag and seal," concerning the Minnesota Emblems Redesign Commission's final decision on a new state flag.
Whereas the old flag, which the AP apparently concluded was necessarily racist, depicts an Indian riding a horse and a farmer plowing his field, the new flag by 24-year-old white designer Andrew Prekker is a minimalist, starred tricolor bearing some resemblance to the colors flown by a Somali state.
— (@)
Facing additional lampoonery over its suggestion that the old state flag was racist and the new flag wasn't, the AP, apparently not committed to its characterization, changed the title to "Things to know about Minnesota's new state flag and seal."
Despite the change, the AP's Steve Karnowski's heartfelt opinions remain baked into the piece.
"The flag does not resemble that of Somalia nor of its Puntland region," wrote Karnowski, sensitive to the criticism over Andrew Prekker's design, which had become the basis for the final flag.
Some conservative commentators had suggested Prekker's approved design was reminiscent of the Jubaland flag, right down to the colors. However, the flag — like the AP write up — has been altered such that it no longer has the white and green bars.
— (@)
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