The @AP tries to pin two deaths on Pamela Geller

In the era of BuzzFeed, Mashable, Gawker, and other online media using attention-grabbing headlines to lure in clicks, traditional media has often had to catch up. The Associated Press has taken what they’re good at (biased journalism) and combined it with an attention-grabbing tweet that instantly made many on the right jaw drop so hard they pulled a muscle.

Pamela Geller says she has no regrets about Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest that ended in 2 deaths

Get that? The AP is blaming Pamela Geller for the deaths of two death-worshiping cultists who decided to go to an event that offended them and shoot up the place (they failed miserably, by the way – they were the only two deaths and they were taken down fairly quickly). Now, they don’t imply she’s responsible in the story for the two deaths. They do go on the usual Leftist tirade blaming the victim (“she totally had it coming” “did you see the event she was holding?”), and that is to be expected.

Whoever the social media editor* is for the AP, though, should be called into an office and told “Hey. Don’t make our biases so obvious, okay?” If the AP expects journalists to follow their style of journalism (the AP Stylebook is considered the go-to guide for writing journalism – and, yes, it is actually a very good writing guide), then they need to practice the other important elements of journalism, like that whole “Just the Facts” thing journalism students (like I was**) are taught in journalism school.

I know from first hand experience how difficult it is to be straight down the middle in reporting, and I understand bias does slip through, but the evidence continues to mount that the mainstream media is less accidental in its biases and more intentional. Something within that field has to change.

*I don’t agree with the lean of the article, but it’s the social media editor who is responsible for the tweets that come out looking like “This woman is directly responsible for two people’s deaths.” That is the jaw-dropping crime here.

**Go ahead and bash that life decision if you wish, but had I not gone down that path, it is incredibly likely I would not be