The AP reports on an infringement of its stomping grounds, and not very politely:
Republican governors are getting into the “news” business.The Republican Governors Association has quietly launched an online publication that looks like a media outlet and is branded as such on social media. The Free Telegraph blares headlines about the virtues of GOP governors, while framing Democrats negatively. It asks readers to sign up for breaking news alerts. It launched in the summer bearing no acknowledgement that it was a product of an official party committee whose sole purpose is to get more Republicans elected.
Only after The Associated Press inquired about the site last week was a disclosure added to The Free Telegraph’s pages identifying the publication’s partisan source.
[BOLD mine]
This is interesting from a couple of different perspectives. First, we can view it on the spectrum of bias. While I don’t doubt the professionalism of the reporters who work for news organizations, such organizations often feature editorial departments, and there we can find opinion which can occasionally bleed into the news product of the organization.
Or sometimes quite a lot, as I’ve noted a time or two.
So while the AP may not view TFT (The Free Telegraph) as some sort of legitimate opponent, no doubt some readers will think of it as a legitimate alternative because of the relentless din of the “liberal media bias”.
The problem, of course, is that the source of the funding, organization, and material is an openly and legitimately politically partisan organization, the Republican Governor’s Association. But it has no allegiance to the important principles of news reporting, and in fact it is intruding into the news collection & reporting sector of the democracy without proclaiming any adherence to those critical principles.
Beginning, as the AP notes, with its dubious attempts at hiding the affiliation:
As of early Monday afternoon, The Free Telegraph’s Twitter account and Facebook page still had no obvious identifiers tying the site to RGA. The site described itself on Twitter as “bringing you the political news that matters outside of Washington.” The Facebook account labeled The Free Telegraph a “Media/News Company.” That’s a contrast to the RGA’s Facebook page, which is clearly disclosed as belonging to a “Political Organization,” as is the account of its counterpart, the Democratic Governors Association.
That leads to my second perspective: how this fits into the ethics-free approach the GOP has adopted of late to all its activities. We have the dubious processes used by the GOP in both the Senate and the House to attempt to repeal the ACA, which Senator McCain ended up denouncing in shaming the Senate; the refusal to even consider the nomination of Judge Garland to SCOTUS, which was bad enough on its own, but was accompanied by shameful, bald-faced lies concerning the traditions of the Senate; the letter to Iran which caused embarrassment and showed a country divided at the moment when it should have been united. Even their primaries have devolved into ludicrous lies fed to a electorate who apparently is considered to be ignorant backwater jerks.
Do they think they’re immune to backlash? This sort of misinformation will be revealed for what it is quickly enough on social media; hopefully, that will penetrate into the communities which might not see it in social media.
But it’s really emblematic of the depths to which the GOP has sunk.
