Yikes: AP Tries to Explain Interview With Radio Host—Who's Been Dead for Two Years

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

We’ve seen a lot of fake news, particularly over the last few years. A lot of that is because they’re trying to spin everything into a Democratic narrative.

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But some of it is just bad journalism. As we previously reported, we saw NBC’s “Meet the Press” reach out to Zack Brown, who was a former aide to Rep. Don Young (R-AK), asking if Young would come on for an interview with Todd. There was just one small problem, as Brown then noted in his response to them.

Young died in March, and “Meet the Press” had even done a very nice tribute to him as the then-longest-serving member of Congress.

How does that happen? I can see if they just didn’t know that he had passed, but if they did a tribute to him, how do they not know?

But that may not even have been the worst one of the week. That one was a bad mistake, but the one from the AP was something else.

The AP reported on the effort to stop Democrats from taking over a variety of Spanish-language radio stations. Many in South Florida were upset over the move, believing it was an effort to shut down conservative voices.

The Latino Media Network, a startup founded by two political strategists who worked for President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, reached a $60 million deal to acquire 18 AM and FM stations in ten US cities from Televisa/Univision. The agreement announced June 3 still needs Federal Communications Commission approval.

These markets are diverse — Hispanics with roots all over Latin America listen to the stations in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio, McAllen, Fresno and Las Vegas. The network said it “will focus on creating content that addresses the different cultural and political nuances that impact different types of Latinos.”

But the deal isn’t going over well in Miami, where Radio Mambi is popular among hardline Cuban exiles.

“We would need to be deaf and blind not to understand the motives behind this buyout,” Irina Vilariño, who co-owns a chain of Cuban restaurants in South Florida, said at a news conference held by a coalition called the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance.

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So, they held an event in Miami against the takeover.

The AP described part of it like this.

They supposedly interviewed Martha Flores, host of an evening show on Radio Mambi, whom they said was concerned about the possible changes and declined to speak at the event because she said she knew she would just cry.

Except, as writer Giancarlo Sopo explains, there’s a small problem with this story, too, and another reason that Flores likely wouldn’t be speaking — Martha Flores died two years ago. So, if the AP is interviewing her, they have some special powers they need to explain to us.

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How does that even happen? What did they even do to try to make sure about the truth of what they were saying?

The correction they eventually issued showed just how weak their journalism is–and made it even worse.

So, they identified her as Flores, just because she was at the event and expressed concern? Wow, that’s some criteria for identification. No, not all older women are the same. I supposed we should be lucky they didn’t identify the other concerned speakers, including the men, as Flores. After all, what is a woman? I’m not sure folks on the left know. I’d be just as embarrassed about that correction as the original mistake.

But, these are the folks that we are supposed to be looking to for the facts and who want to fact-check everyone else? It also makes a greater point about liberal media and the takeover, if they don’t even care enough to get this basic fact right. How can the folks in the Cuban-American community and elsewhere be sure that their voices are going to be heard on these channels anymore?

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