AP Silently Edits Firing Squad Story, No Correction Noted

In my previous post, I lamented the death of journalism as displayed through a terribly biased and unprofessional article by Jennifer Dobner of the Associated Press.  The AP is now altered the article on their website and make no mention of any correction.

The original article contained the following quote

Lydia Kalish, Amnesty International’s death penalty abolition coordinator for Utah said her organization opposes the state’s effort to see Gardner executed. But despite Utah’s strong religious roots – it’s the home of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – most here support the use of the death penalty.

“I think in Utah, when it suits their purposes, they go back to the Old Testament and the ‘eye for an eye’ kind of thing,” Kalish said. “These people may be the worst of the worst, but if the best we can do is repeat the same thing, it’s so obviously wrong.”

That quote has now been replaced with

About 20 anti-death penalty protesters demonstrated in the courthouse rotunda before the hearing.

“The firing squad is archaic, it’s violent, and it simply expands on the violence that we already experience from guns as a society,” said Bishop John C. Wester, of Utah’s Catholic Diocese.

This is an unacceptable alteration of the record. Longstanding journalistic practice demands that corrections be noted. The Associated Press is a dinosaur which sweeps unpleasantness under the rug and pretends it never existed.

In the credit-where-credit-is-due-dept, I should mention that the New York Times’ Eric Eckholm has written an article on the same topic which merely reports the facts objectively and dispassionately. Without interjecting opinion.  The way journalism is supposed to be done. Ms. Dobner and the AP would do well to learn from Mr. Eckholm and the New York TImes.