Associated Press

“ It is insisted that the Associated Press is in substance the press itself, that the membership consists solely of persons who own and operate newspapers, that the news is gathered solely for publication in the newspapers of members. ”

“ The Personal Press in all countries is very much alike and very misleading—in fact, it is a curse to any country. It’s no good the reporters taking this down for most of their employers won’t publish it. One reads the Press for news, true news and facts, not to have the news tainted by the personal prejudices of the owner. Unfortunately some newspaper owners don’t realise this, but we, who read their papers, can only pity them and pray for better times. Now the Associated Press of America is a shining light in the country, because it tries to put true European news before the people. ”

“ If the prevailing opinion is right, the monopoly of the Associated Press over the news of the world is complete. Unless the courts will hold, as I think they will, when the question comes before them, that news is a public utility; that the Associated Press is engaged in interstate commerce, using the cables, telegraph lines and telephones and that it is, therefore, bound to furnish its service on equal terms to all who choose to pay for it. ”

“ A point is made of the fact, however, that the Associated Press is the largest of the news agencies, ranking 'in the forefront in public reputation and esteem' and constituting 'the chief single source of news for the American press, universally agreed to be of great importance.' A unique value is said to attach to Associated Press news reports, growing out of the fact that they are furnished by an agency com osed of and controlled by newspapers representing nearly every shade of opinion and geographical section of the nation. ”

“ The Associated Press is in essence the common agent of about 1300 newspapers in the various cities throughout the country for the interchange of ews which each paper collects in its own territory, and for the gathering, editing, and distributing of news which these member papers cannot collect single-handed, and which requires their pooled resources. ”

“ The Associated Press also has correspondents everywhere in the world, most of whom are paid for what news they furnish, while others at important news centers are regularly employed to gather and send news to the association. To facilitate the handling of the news, the Associated Press has divided the country into four divisions with a central office and a superintendent in each; and in these divisions there is a bureau at every important news center with a correspondent who is responsible for all the news in his district of the division. ”

“ The news of the world is collected and distributed by the Associated Press as the co-operative agency of the big papers, and through them it reaches the country papers. Any legislation which cuts the revenue of the big papers will reduce their ability to perform this necessary function. Every editor needs to keep informed of affairs and opinion in the country at large. ”

“ You are an Associated Press newspaper, and your honor is definitely bound up with that of the organization which serves you. You sell Associated Press news to the public. If the Associated Press news is false news, you are selling false news to the public, and you are refusing the public any opportunity to judge a most serious, a carefully documented charge that this news is false. It is true that you published my telegram to the President in one edition of your paper. ”

“ I showed President Birge also how the students of his own Social Science Club had tried in vain to get the Associated Press to answer me. Their first request, that the Associated Press should send a representative to meet me on a university platform, had met with no reply; a 226second and very sharp letter had brought the response that no responsible newspaper man would be willing to meet me on a platform. Any newspaper man will realize the absurdity of this statement. The A. P. could find a man in any city—if they could furnish him with the facts! ”

“ Gavit, managing editor of the “New York Evening Post,” wrote to Mr. Melville E. Stone, general manager of the Associated Press, that I had a reputation “as an insatiable hunter of personal publicity,” what Mr. Gavit meant was that I was accustomed to demand and obtain more space in newspapers than the amount of my worldly possessions entitled me to. ”

“ The Associated Press from the time of its organization and establishment in business sold the news reports to various newspapers who became members, and the publication of that news became of vast importance to the public so that public interest is attached to the dissemination of that news. The manner in which that corporation has used its franchise has charged its business with a public interest. ”

“ Often news has to be gotten in advance—say a thing like the President's message, or a speech by a big man.
"The Associated Press gets a copy in advance, and sends duplicates of it out to the newspapers that take its service. ”

“ While a member newspaper no longer has an absolute veto power in the denial of facilities of the Associated Press service to a rival paper applying for membership, for practical purposes there remain effective barriers to admission to the Associated Press based solely on grounds of business competition. ”

“ Because of its traditions and its code, and perhaps also because of the never ceasing watchfulness of 900 members, it has come to pass that few people on earth are capable of giving the management of The Associated Press any points on maintaining a strict, though benevolent, neutrality on all questions on which we can be neutral and still be what we are—loyal Americans. We know, too—none better—that the genuine neutral, the honest neutral, is always the target of every partisan, and we find some solace in the fact that this is now being demonstrated to the world at large. ”

“ There are published in the United States about 2,500 daily papers. [1] More than 800 of them are supplied with domestic and foreign news of general interest by the Associated Press-a corporation without capital stock which does not sell news or earn or seek to earn profits, but serves merely as an instrumentality by means of which these papers supply themselves at joint expense with such news. Papers not members of the Associated Press depend for their news of general interest largely upon agencies organized for profit. ”

“ Stress is laid upon the facts that this membership consists of persons of every conceivable political, economic, and religious view, that the one thing upon which the members are united is that the Associated Press shall be wholly free from partisan activity or the expression of opinions, that it shall limit its function to reporting events without bias in order that the citizens of our country, if given the facts, may be able to form their own opinions respecting them. ”

“ The Associated Press of the United States dates from 1849. Though these serve for the smaller papers, they are to the larger papers only hints to be followed up by their own agents. The telegraph, indispensable for gathering news, has been reënforced by the telephone, which is now finding its way into every village. These new sources for obtaining news have revolutionized the office. The editor who personally superintended the issue of his paper is of the past. There can never be another Greeley or Dana. The editor-in-chief of certain papers finds no time even to write a leader. ”

“ That is to say, the leading papers form an Association and appoint men to send them news from the chief points in America and in Europe. These representatives of the Associated Press are very enterprising, and 18 they do not allow much news of importance to escape them. The salaries of these men, and the cost of the telegraphic dispatches, are divided up among the papers of the Association, so that the expense to each paper is comparatively small. ”

“ To supply the people of the country with news from the field, a veritable army of war correspondents was organized, a telegraphic service was organized and built up, plans were laid that developed into the Associated Press. ”

“ Correspondent Associated Press, Portland
NEWSPAPERMEN more than any other class of workers are trained to meet emergencies. The publisher, editor, reporter, the entire staff, is accustomed to deal with the unexpected. ”

“ He appeared every night, like myself, at about nine o clock, in the office of Mr. Tyler, to learn the news brought in the night Associated Press report. He knew me from the Bull Run campaign as a correspondent of the press. ”

“ Many, in varying localities and fields, not only belong to AP but patronize one or more of the other services, including UP and INS. Some of the largest and most powerful newspapers in the nation have grown to be such without AP service ”