
Associated Press
Why AP Media Bias Deserves High Level of Scrutiny
The Associated Press has historically been considered the "gold standard" of objective journalism. It operates a wire service, meaning local and national news organizations around the country use AP's content to fill gaps in their coverage. That means AP news content has extremely wide impact and reach.
As such, AllSides does particularly extensive analysis of AP. When AP displays political bias, or fails to portray political events, legislation, and perspectives in a balanced and even-handed way, the impact is broad and far-reaching. A media outlet that is relied upon by outlets all over the country deserves a high level of scrutiny when it comes to political bias.
For colleges and libraries seeking a boldfaced name for a guest lecturer, few come bigger than Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court justice who rose from poverty in the Bronx to the nation’s highest court.
She has benefited, too — from schools’ purchases of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of the books she has written over the years.
Sotomayor’s staff has often prodded public institutions that have hosted the justice to buy her memoir or children’s books, works that have earned her at least $3.7 million since she joined the court in 2009. Details of those events, largely out of public view, were obtained by The Associated Press through more than 100 open records requests to public institutions. The resulting tens of thousands of pages of documents offer a rare look at Sotomayor and her fellow justices beyond their official duties.