Yes, absolutely, it’s a gaffe for the ages. Dean Singleton asking Barack Obama about the threat posed by “Obama” bin Laden.
Read about it here; … or see it here.
That’s a whopper, you bet, from your MediaNews CEO.
But the real news out of the E&P story (the first link, above)? What really caught my eye?
That Dean Singleton is AP Chairman.
Holy mackerel. Run for your lives, news hounds!
It’s one thing to mangle the name of a guy, even a presidential candidate, while standing in front of a big crowd. I mean, I’m a political creature and it wasn’t until December or so that I could with confidence tell you, at a moment’s notice, that it was Barack Obama instead of Obama Barack. It’s not as if either name strikes the average American as a surname or first/Christian name.
And Obama/Osama … they’re darn near the same name. It could have been you or me up there making that mistake, while working off the cuff.
No, what alarmed me about the story is … Singleton as the titular head of the Associated Press.
I knew this, in the back of my mind. I read about it when Dean was appointed, last year or whenever, and remember thinking, “Well, somebody has to do it.”
But that was before Singleton decided he had to destroy print journalism to save it.
If anyone is absolutely unqualified to be chairman of the nation’s (the world’s?) most important news-gathering organization … it’s the Dean Singleton we have seen over the past six months. Dean the Destroyer, Singleton the Savage, rougher on print journalism than Godzilla was on Tokyo.
Singleton garbled his syntax. That happens.
Singleton destroyed print journalism. And we have him as AP chairman?
That, my friends, is the scary part of this. By focusing on the verbal gaffe … we have buried the lead.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Guy McCarthy // Apr 15, 2008 at 11:51 AM
From AP’s website:
The Associated Press is the backbone of the world’s information system serving thousands of daily newspaper, radio, television and online customers with coverage in all media and news in all formats. It is the largest and oldest news organization in the world, serving as a source of news, photos, graphics, audio and video.
AP’s mission is to be the essential global news network, providing distinctive news services of the highest quality, reliability and objectivity with reports that are accurate, balanced and informed. AP operates as a not-for-profit cooperative with more than 4,000 employees working in more than 240 worldwide bureaus. AP is owned by its 1,500 U.S. daily newspaper members. They elect a board of directors that directs the cooperative.
http://www.ap.org/pages/about/about.html
http://www.ap.org/pages/about/board.html
http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_050707e.html
Dean Singleton’s been AP chairman since May. Rupert Murdoch and Sam Zell are on the AP board too.
In case you missed it, here’s a link to February video of Zell telling an employee – an Orlando Sentinal news photographer – “Fuck you.”
http://gawker.com/5002815/exclusive-sam-zell-says-fuck-you-to-his-journalist
Not much new here Paul. Business as usual.
You’re right to be concerned that Singleton is helping lead and direct the Associated Press.
But the “Obama bin Laden” comment is newsworthy when it comes from chairman of the board for the world’s largest news agency – no matter who the chairman is.
2 Len Cutler // Apr 15, 2008 at 3:00 PM
I used to wonder about Singleton (and now Zell) being elected to the board at AP too. But on second thought, they’re the best thing that’s ever happened to wire services. Every time they lay off another newsroom reporter, that’s more column inches for wire copy and filler.
3 Mike Rappaport // Apr 15, 2008 at 9:43 PM
All this proves is that you don’t have to be intelligent — or even competent — to be wealthy.
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