Associated Press Reveals Agenda of the Year

Don Surber

The Associated Press selected "Police Killings of Blacks" as its top story of 2014, downplaying the historic sweep by Republicans of the elections (No. 4 story), and the de facto legalization of gay marriage by the courts (No. 9), and completely ignoring President Obama

Inflating the importance of two non-criminal homicides into the Story of the Year is another example of Associated Press reporters and editors pushing the liberal agenda rather than reporting the news.

The Associated Press was misleading in its summary of its "top story," writing:

POLICE KILLINGS: Some witnesses said 18-year-old Michael Brown had his hands up in surrender, others said he was making a charge. But there was no dispute he was unarmed and shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson. In New York City, another unarmed black, Eric Garner, was killed after a white officer put him in a chokehold during an arrest for unauthorized cigarette sales. After grand juries opted not to indict the officers, protests erupted across the country, punctuated by chants of "Hands up, don't shoot" and "I can't breathe." In both cases, federal officials launched investigations.

But the allegation that Michael Brown surrendered is based solely on the testimony of his accomplice. Physical evidence from three autopsies show that contention to be false. A more accurate summary would have said that.

And the real story is the riots and looting in the aftermath of misrepresentations of the Michael Brown killing, events which culminated this weekend in the executions by a black Muslim of an Asian-American police officer and a Hispanic police officer in New York City in an act of vengeance. 

If we are going to make this the story of the year -- and it is not -- then we are obligated to focus on the actual story: 

The riots and lawlessness.

To be sure, I have my agenda and biases, but I do not pretend to be an objective news organization.