After Hillary Clinton’s campaign reportedly asked the Associated Press to delete a tweet about its investigative story on meetings she held with Clinton Foundation donors during her tenure as secretary of state, the AP is standing by the story and its social media posts.
The AP report, which was trumpeted Tuesday with an all-caps breaking tag, detailed how 85 out of 154 “people from private interests” whom Clinton met with as secretary of state donated a combined total in excess of $150 million to the Clinton Foundation. Those figures were gleaned after the AP twice requested Clinton’s schedules before suing the federal government for access.
But the news organization since has been hammered by critics who contend the AP’s report, which is based on limited schedules that the State Department eventually released, is misleading and implies that Clinton spent more time with donors than heads of state and government officials who were not the focus of AP’s story.
BREAKING: AP analysis: More than half those who met Clinton as Cabinet secretary gave money to Clinton Foundation.
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 23, 2016
Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon told the Washington Post they “formally requested that AP remove or amend” the breaking tweet, which didn’t specify that the investigation looked at those people outside of government whom Clinton met.
“They apparently considered it, but officially decided to let it stand. That seems pretty egregious to knowingly allow a falsehood to remain posted under AP’s banner,” Fallon said.
AP spokesman Paul Colford stood by the story in a statement posted online.
“AP has been transparent in how it has reported this story. It focused on Mrs. Clinton’s meetings and calls involving people outside government who were not federal employees or foreign diplomats, because meeting with U.S. or foreign government officials would inherently have been part of her job as secretary of state,” Colford said.
“We focused on Mrs. Clinton’s meetings and calls involving those people outside her duties as secretary of state whom she chose to include in her busy schedule,” he also said.
People are tired of these TRUMPED up “scandals.”
They recognize the crying wolf garbage.
The AP has seriously damaged its credibility with this series of questionable statements about the Clinton Foundation and Hillary.
One would almost think that they’ve rehired Ron “Right-Wing” Fournier to run the Washington Bureau.
Also:
When it comes to false equivalency, they just cannot help themselves.
The AP’s defense of its bad Clinton Foundation story is also bad
Thank you again, Yglesias.