there are only so many things

i can pay attention to and/or remember. i had NO idea about this ron fournier bullshite. it is a crock o' steamin' shite all right. if you don't see the improprieties well then, you have darker blinders on than i did. fair and balanced reporting? we'll see we'll see.

oh and one more thing: PRAISE THE LORD

The AP has a Ron Fournier problem

by Eric Boehlert

You never know what nuggets congressional investigators will uncover when they set off on official inquiries.

Last week, we learned that while investigators for the House Oversight Committee were looking into the 2004 death of Cpl. Pat Tillman, the former NFL player whose story was promoted by the White House before it was revealed that he had been killed by friendly fire, they discovered that top political aide Karl Rove had exchanged emails with the Associated Press' Ron Fournier on the day the news of Tillman's death broke.

In one email, Rove asked, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this?" Fournier responded: "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

That sign-off, which seemed to indicate an allegiance between the two men, raised hackles all over the Internet. That kind of correspondence ("Keep up the fight") between a reporter and a partisan White House aide during a campaign year lands way outside the boundaries of acceptable newsroom practices.

But Fournier, now the wire service's D.C. bureau chief, shrugged off the embarrassing revelation, conceding only: "I regret the breezy nature of the correspondence.".........

Why does AP have McFournier even covering the presidential race?

John Aravosis (DC) · 8

I know that the Associated Press considers it a point of honor to promote someone whenever they do something incredibly biased and their impartiality is seriously compromised, but after their top presidential reporter, Ron Fournier, interviewed for a job with the McCain presidential campaign, it's simply abominable that AP would keep him on the presidential beat. Does anyone doubt that a McCain presidency will try to hire Fournier for press secretary? Please, it's a given. Fournier will always have his next job in the back of his mind...............

everyone who knows him

and the ap, whom he works for says he's NOT a terrorist. he's A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER. taking pictures of what the WAR wreaks- does to people AND countries. that's his JOB. TAKING PICTURES. some of them may NOT be nice. but war ISN'T nice, is it?
LET HIM GO.
AP Photographer Ordered Released After 2 Years Held In Iraq

By Robert Reid, The Associated Press
BAGHDAD An Iraqi judicial committee has dismissed terrorism-related allegations against Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein and ordered him released nearly two years after he was detained by the U.S. military.A decision by a four-judge panel said Hussein's case falls under a new amnesty law. It ordered Iraqi courts to "cease legal proceedings" and ruled that Hussein should be "immediately" released unless other accusations are pending.The ruling is dated Monday but AP's lawyers were not able to thoroughly review it until Wednesday. It was unclear, however, whether Hussein would still face further obstacles to release.Hussein, 36, remains in custody at Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention facility near Baghdad's airport.U.S. military authorities have said a U.N. Security Council mandate allows them to retain custody of a detainee they believe is a security risk even if an Iraqi judicial body has ordered that prisoner freed. The U.N. mandate is due to expire at the end of this year......
...........The committee may still be reviewing a separate allegation that Hussein had contacts with the kidnappers of an Italian citizen, Salvatore Santoro, whose body was photographed by Hussein in December 2004 with two masked insurgents standing over Santoro with guns.Hussein was one of three journalists who were stopped at gunpoint by insurgents and taken by them to see the propped-up body. None of the journalists witnessed his death, said Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography. The AP wrote a story about the incident at the time.The AP said a review of Hussein's work and contacts also found no evidence of any activities beyond the normal role of a news photographer. Hussein, 36, was a member of an AP team that won a Pulitzer Prize for photography in 2005, and his detention has drawn protests from rights groups and press freedom advocates such as the Committee to Protect Journalists."The Amnesty Committee took only a few days to determine what we have been saying for two years. Bilal Hussein must be freed immediately," said Curley, the AP's president.............