AP can’t keep class warfare out of tragic airplane story
For crying out loud. Seven children, all under the age of 9, died in a horrific plane crash in Montana over the weekend along with their devoted parents and the pilot.
This is how the Associated Press chose to write its lead sentence reporting the tragedy:
BUTTE, Mont. (AP) – Three California families headed to a retreat for the ultrarich were among the 14 victims of a plane crash in Montana.
Was the reference to the “ultrarich” retreat necessary? What is the relevance of how much it costs to stay at the ski resort the families were headed to — and why does it belong in the lede? How dehumanizing. And gratuitously callous. You have to search out local coverage to escape the AP’s class warfare-tinged coverage. From the St. Helena Star:
Five members of a St. Helena family died Sunday in a Montana plane crash in which authorities say there were no survivors.
Dr. Erin Jacobson, his wife, Amy, and their children Taylor, 4, Ava, 3, and Jude, 2, were en route to Bozeman to visit friends and family.
“They were going to Bozeman for the week — (Amy’s) parents were already there,” said Elizabeth Naylor of Angwin, a close friend of the Jacobson family for the past three years.“They were extraordinary, wonderful, giving and kind. Our daughters grew up together. My daughter asked today if we could have their daughter over for a play date this week, and we told them we could after they got back.”
The Jacobsons, who lived on Pratt Avenue, were active in the Montessori Family Center in St. Helena.
“Erin was an eye doctor, a surgeon, in St. Helena and Napa, and Amy was a dental hygienist in Angwin, but she was a full-time mom to three children,” said Naylor. “Everybody in town knows them — they were really, truly an amazing family.”
More details you won’t learn from the “ultrarich”-obsessed AP come from the Napa Valley Register:
Six of the seven adults who died Sunday afternoon in a plane crash in Butte, Mont. had attended Pacific Union College, a Seventh-day Adventist liberal arts college in Angwin.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragedy, and our prayers are with the victims’ families. This is a very personal tragedy for Pacific Union College and our local community,” noted Dr. Richard Osborn, PUC president. “There are many on our campus who remember them as students. Our alumni are also grieving this loss, as are many in the St. Helena and Angwin communities who knew and loved the Jacobson family.”
Dr. Erin Jacobson graduated from PUC in 1996, while his wife, Amy Feldkamp Jacobson, attended PUC from 1993-95. The Jacobsons and their three preschool-aged children died in the plane crash. Erin Jacobson was an opthamologist with the Eye Care Center of Napa Valley and worked at St. Helena Hospital and Queen of the Valley Medical Center.
Vanessa Feldkamp Pullen, Amy Jacobson’s sister, attended PUC, 1989-90. Vanessa Pullen’s husband Michael attended PUC from 1988-91. The Pullens and their two children died in the plane crash. The Pullens lived in Gault in northern California.
Brent Ching graduated from PUC in 1993. His wife, Kristen Mautz Ching, attended PUC from 1996-97. The Chings and their two children died in the crash. Brent Ching was a dentist in Chico and the family lived in Durham.
And from the Chico Enterprise-Record:
“The kindest, sweetest people I’ve ever met,” is how four-year friend Jason Bougie remembers the Ching family. Calling himself a “close, personal friend that vacations with them,” Bougie got to know the family through his profession, became friends, and later began going to Ching for dental services…
…”We were going on a vacation with all the grandkids,” said Bud Feldkamp, who lost two daughters and their families in the crash. “They were all excited about skiing.”
Feldkamp leased the airplane that crashed. He said he, his wife and another daughter had driven to Montana for the vacation.
“We were at the entrance to the Yellowstone Club when I got a cell phone call” from a nephew, Feldkamp said. “He saw it on CNN. He said, ‘Nobody survived.’ And we knew it was our plane.”
Sweet, kind families. Hard-working parents. Beloved by their communities.
But most newsworthy, in the minds of AP editors: ULTRARICH.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- The AP is an utter disgrace! (And this has nothing to do with politics, but EVERYTHING to do with class warfare) | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- Associated Press Can’t Be Trusted « Peace and Freedom Global Future
- Is Obama losing it? Or is he just being “creepy?” « Jim Blazsik
- Media Promotes Class Warfare « Vets On The Watch
- Seymour Nuts » Attempting the Full Metal Jacket Reach-Around
- Now Obama has insulted French President Sarkozy! « Goodtimepolitics
- Start your morning right, with Links™!
- BizzyBlog » Classless: As 14 Die, Including 7 Young Children, AP Reporters Engage in Class Warfare
- Classless: As 14 Die, Including 7 Young Children, AP Reporters Engage in Class Warfare | Got Access News
- Six Meat Buffet » Blog Archive » When A Major Daily Closes Its Doors, An Angel Gets Its Wings
- Classless: As 14 Die, Including 7 Young Children, AP Reporters Engage in Class Warfare | Latest Technology News - Business News And Expert Advice
- Crass Conduct By Al-AP « The Underground Conservative
- Why is this necessary? « Right Minded Online
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Media Bias
Power Line
» More From the East Anglia Archives
Sister Toldjah
» Obama plans to announce troop decision on Afghanistan next weekPundit & Pundette
» Various and sundryStop The ACLU
» Obama To Hold Another Prime Timer To Explain Our Afghanistan Strategy To Islamic ExtremistsRedstate
» Put Me in the No Camp on the Purity TestAmSpecBlog
» Lieberman Says He's "Stubborn" on Gov't PlanWeekly Standard
» Dowd on Palin
MM is doing exactly that. Her post is all about politics. If it wasn’t about politics, the AP bit would be an afterthought. Instead, it drive her entire post (just look at the title).
The only reason you are criticizing lgm and not MM is because you agree with her politics and disagree with his.
They must’ve done their digging and figured out the victims were republicans. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been called “ultrarich”.
(Why don’t they ever refer to the obamas as ultrarich?)
bluesoc: I missed the political references in MM’s post. Care to point them out for me?
The AP Writer’s blog is an interesting look into this guy’s “heart” if he has one. On Nov. 24, he had an article on this resort that he’s so fond of, the Yellowstone Club:
Sound familiar? The other stories that appear are also predominantly ecology related, except for a swipe at a religious group in Montana that maintains a belief in the Second Coming. Let’s see, anti-rich, anti-coal, anti-religious, totally callous toward families…yes, must be an AP story from some aspiring young wannabe, a raving leftist from the word go.
Headline: AP can’t keep class warfare out of tragic airplane story
Second paragraph: Was the reference to the “ultrarich” retreat necessary? What is the relevance of how much it costs to stay at the ski resort the families were headed to — and why does it belong in the lede?
MM is taking shots at the AP. That’s the point of her post. She could have easily written about the tragedy without mentioning the AP. I’m not saying she’s wrong. I’m just saying, don’t pretend she’s not engaging in politics.
So MM points out how the media is injecting class warfare into a tragic story… and Michelle is “just as bad” for pointing it out?
Good Lord, you must have sent that logic into Andrew Sullivan’s basement to get it that tortured.
Well, with apologies to William (#66), I lifted his post, and added a few additional words, and fired one off to the AP (info AT ap DOT org) like this…
With regards to your recent story about the fatal aircraft crash in Montana, wherein you describe the destination as one for the “ultra rich”, can you clarify that?
Does the AP mean “ultra rich” as in Barbara Streisand, Oprah, the Dixie Chicks, Snoop Dog (or Dawg), John Stewart, David Letterman, Keith Olberman, Jane Maddow, Chris Matthews, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, George Sorros, Sean Penn, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, a host of politicians, and music and entertainment industry members, actors, producers, directors, “rappers,” and others?
When the AP uses the word “ultra rich” do they include Hillary Rodham Clinton, William Jefferson Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and, John Kerry, Barrack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama?
I find your use of the term offensive and inappropriate. This is the sort of class warfare journalism that does not help Michelle Obama’s children, nor anyone else. It serves no valid purpose other than to allow people to say “Ha….ultra rich, huh? They got what they deserved.”
AP used to represent the gold standard for reporting. Now, based on your reporting of the past 8 or so years, I must conclude that it has been the iron pyrite standard. Yes, Fools’ Gold. I do not need an assayer or chemist to prove it. You do it daily with your slanted, biased coverage.
bluesoc: I wasn’t aware that “taking a shot” at AP for their slanted “reporting” was political at all.
Are you suggesting that asking the following questions was somehow out of line?
EaRtHqUaKeS!!!!!!!!
Nice way to wake up, a 4.7 and followed by a 3.0 in So. Cal this morning…. yeah the Ultrarich part so don’t fret AP if anyone was hurt.
Just so I know – what’s the definition of “ultrarich”?
Is it defined only in terms of money? How about those who are financially well off but miserable?
What about those who don’t have quite as much money but have complete contentment in life?
We The People should be taking bus trips to the homes of the constitution killers…and not little workers at AIG.
That might be part of it, but for me it’s more about not making a lick of sense 99% of the time.
Why should this type of reporting suprise anyone, and with just a cursory glance at what passes for journalism today you can see a clear agenda if you connect the dots.
If I recall the msm did a simuliar job to the Duke Lax case several years ago and inferred that the players were “rich white boys” because some of their parents owned houses near a golf course and they played a sport that is considered sterotypically played by white athletes.
If it fits a general narrative of class/race/sexual orientation/gender/ religious minority as perpeptual victim, then it can be counted on that this will be the perspective that a story will be framed in. Anything else, a story will be judged as unworthy to printed.
GSP
“This is Sparta!”
Most of us here do indeed agree w/Michelle’s views and disagree w/lgm’s, but that’s NOT why we criticize him. lgm is like the Keith Olbermann of blogspace. I hope you don’t see that analogy as a positive.
dead thread dead blog
Don’t forget those who waste Gia’s precious resources and cause global warming…anti-greenies who fly on private planes.
jangar-
Thanks and I forgot about the Gai devotee’s worship of motherearth, global warming, gore-hypocracy, her magesty queens pelosi/barney frankenstein.
GSP
“This is Sparta!”
Well now I would like to point out a couple of things.
1. Yes I know anything cannot be posted according to terms the wonderful Michelle has mandated. A class act too.
2 I read the names people called lgm and only said that I did not agree with two of them. I still don’t think he is stupid,as he threw a liberal bomb and a lot of people bit. I pretty well agree with most of the other names.
3 Matthew Brown has a lot of class and it is all very, very, low.
It’s “Gaia“. not Gia.
Gia, for what its worth, is a movie starring Angelina Jolie, where she is very naked. Not that I’ve seen it many manny times or anything. That’s just what I have heard.
I think what we have learned here today is that the AP doesn’t like the ultra rich and that I have to see Gia. Many times. For informational purposes only of course.
Thanks…sounds fun.
Socialist liberal agenda. Keep a continual divide among races and economic classes. They desire to build and grow animosity in hopes of creating hate. Socialists progressive liberal democrats feed off of hate. They thrive on it. They profit from it. They maintain power through it.
It is sad to see our great country engaging in class warfare. There is a truth that must be taught our childen that money is not the source of happiness. It is LIFE! Thank God.
Why was it also important to note their religious leanings?
oops; my bad–that was from a more local paper…
aj–do you live in the Palm Desert area?
NBC’s report on the Today Show felt it important to call it a “millionaire’s-only” retreat.
My son is 2 – the same age as the youngest victim of this crash.
Why did those kids – or their parents – “deserve” to die for being wealthy? Is this now the acceptable course of action against the “evil” rich and, if so, how can a toddler be “evil” because his parents made prudent decisiosn regarding their education, career, and finances in order to provide him with a better life?
Because that’s the implication here. These “ultrarich” people deserved to snuff it because they had money. It is now only a tragedy when certain, media-approved people die, apparently.
Me? I think about what it was like on that plane, moments before the crash, where the parents looked at their young children – who were probably scared – and knew this was the end. How terrifying. How heartbreaking. As a parent, there is no situation that frightens me more than not being able to save my child from death.
How dare anyone – from the MSM to liberal commenters here – imply that those people deserved to die for their money.
You want to be rich? Get off your duffs and work. Don’t try to knock these people down a peg or two to make you feel better about not having what they did.
A tar-paper shack with a 62″ TV. Now you’re ready for class envy…
EQ,
I think the reference to “ultrarich” was at best gratuitous and definetly comes off as callous and snide.
But…I think it takes it wayyy too far to say that anyone, AP writer or any commenter here, thinks these people deserved to die.
Chap,
Jolie is naked often in that movie. And I must say she is very, very delicious.
I think she also captured Gia very well.
And Mike Brown certainly has some issues.
Yes, yes he did. But I think you mean Matthew Brown.
So far as the AP is concerned, how much wealth is “ultrarich”? Just because this family was on a private jet? Does that mean Al Gore and Hollywood celebs are also “ultrarich”? I am quite sure the AP didn’t classify Natasha Richardson as “ultrarich” or her husband, Liam Neeson, in the stories on her death.
Editor should be fired. period.
assholes.
I don’t, because when you say they were on a trip for the “ultrarich” or going to a “millionares only retreat” (as the Today show reportedly said), especially in the wake of AIG bonus death-threats and government outrage and economic downturn, the agenda is clear: it’s meant to foster anger against these people for going on a nice vacation on the midst of a recession.
There is no other explanation for using the terms “ultrarich” or “millionaires-only” in stories about this, otherwise. Of course, the MSM forgets that rich people die just like the rest of us. They aren’t immortal.
Yeah Matt Brown.
Now, now, EQ: disagree w/ Chap and he’ll label you “disingenuous.” (Yesterday, he labeled practically everybody on the board w/ some similar adjective!)
BTW, I think you’re right – the media is fostering antipathy towards the upper class to play-off people’s fears and promote the Democrats-Obama administrations unequaled spending.
Hardly true. I have never considered EQ disingenuous, though I do not think she is right here.
And I only labeled 2 people as such yesterday, and only one of them for the first time. That is a pretty good day for me, or the board, depending on your point of view.
As I stated in my last post, I’m not criticizing Michelle’s opinion on this. I think she’s right. The AP’s wording was out of line.
However, someone criticized lgm for bringing politics into this – essentially accusing him of taking advantage of a tragedy for political reasons. I was simply pointing out that MM is doing a similar thing.
I don’t think it’s a secret that MM does not like the AP and thinks it has a liberal bias. She is using the story of a plane crash as an opportunity to point out such bias. That is political. If there was no political motivation, she would not have even mentioned the AP.
You used some unsavory terms yesterday to describe the cognitive abilities of some of the posters here. The “R” word being the one that really stands out.
“Hardly true”…you mean as in “disingenuous?”
She is using the example to reinforce her contention.
Just one of the posters, and yeah…that was uncalled for. But in my defense that poster clearly had no idea what he was talking about and when presented with refuting facts, resorted making ridiculous claims about me being a racist because I pointed out the fact that very very few black owned businesses or businesses that poor black people solicit, would be subject to a tax.
So…in summary…I guess there are a handful of people on here that deserve the use of certain, stronger terms. Alas, the TOS prohibit me and I end up resorting to other words I probably should not use. But I don’t regret the sentiment.
Misinformed.
On March 24th, 2009 at 11:17 am, MarcoPolo said:
She is using the example to reinforce her contention.
and quite successfully i might add… this is a political blogsite…
Sure…whatever.
I wonder if they’d open with that line if the ultra-rich happened to the Clinton’s, the Gore’s and the Soro’s ????
Probably not.
Dude… What is your issue? I have no beef with you.
Anyway, drop it on this thread at least.
I doubt the AP wants you comparing it to political blogs or political radio hosts.
However, it’s probably a fair comparison.
I compared her to lgm, not the AP.
I’ll walk you through this slowly.
By your own admission you compared;
MM’s criticism of the AP to
lgm’s criticism of MM.
Notice that the two entities being criticized are the AP and MM.
Therefore, you were comparing MM to the AP.
The SF Chronicle had to also use the class warfare tactic.
Five members of a St. Helena family headed for a ritzy ski vacation
But, at least many of the comments called them on it.
Wasn’t that a ski resort for the ultrarich and super-celebrities that Natasha Richardson received her fatal injury? I guess for the MSM, Hollywood elitism isn’t near as bad as little rich elementary kids.
You’ll have to do it really slowly because it’s not logically sound. I was comparing the nature of the criticisms, not what those criticisms were critiquing.
For instance:
- I’m criticizing you through the use of logic
- Conservatives criticize liberals through the use of logic
Am I comparing you to a liberal?
The subject of criticism was unarguably germane in your comparison.
It is made no less germane by your use of an example in which the subject of comparison is not germane.
Could you explain that further? I’m not sure what “subject” refers to.
The AP was MM’s subject of criticism.
MM was lgm’s subject of criticism BECAUSE of her criticism of the AP.
Then, you criticized socky for differentiating between MM and lgm.
You claimed that socky ONLY differentiated between MM and lgm because he agreed with one’s politics and not the other.
Your claim is preposterous on many levels.
MM wasn’t politicizing a tragedy. MM was politicizing the fact that AP politicized a tragedy. Certainly you understand the difference.
Furthermore, MM has NEVER claimed to be a non-politicizing source of information. Therefore, she should be judged upon a different set of criteria as the AP (unless of course the AP wants to be judged as a partisan source of information).
Get it yet?
If she wasn’t politicizing a tragedy then she should have differentiated between her coverage of the tragedy and of the AP article. She intertwined the two and used facts from the tragedy to show just how bad the AP is.
I didn’t claim otherwise. That’s why I only compared her to lgm and not the AP. I still don’t think your claim about me comparing her to the AP is sound. It simply does not follow logically and is merely something you read into my comments which is not there.
She didn’t provide coverage of the tragedy. She was only covering AP’s coverage of the tragedy. Information about the tragedy itself was merely provided as context. You have no argument here.
You criticized socky’s comments. You had no basis for doing so unless you think lgm’s comparison of MM to AP was appropriate.
Now, if you admit that you had no basis to criticize socky, then I will gladly back down.
However, if you continue to believe that your criticism of socky is appropriate, then you must admit that you are sanctioning lgm’s comparison of MM and the AP.
Context for what, exactly? She quoted three different articles. That’s quite a bit of context. In fact, I’d say it borders on exploitation.
First, when did he compare her to the AP? Actually, what lgm actually said is immaterial.
Also, I’m really unclear as to why I have to agree with lgm to criticize socky. I actually agree with Michelle that the AP should not have written the story in such a way.
Regardless, I was unaware that one must take a side in a debate in order to point out hypocrisy.
Why do you continue to over generalize issues? This is clearly situationally dependent.
I’m done attempting to explain this to you.
Now it turns out that one of the families was owner of a profitable chain of abortion clinics and the plane crashed near the tomb of the unknown unborn.
Is it a sign? A plane crashes within a few feet of a cemetery prayer memorial “Tomb of the Unborn” killing the children and grandchildren of a man who paid for the trip with the riches he made from his company which has among its holdings – Family Planning Associates who performs more abortions in California than Planned Parenthood.
http://www.gingiedmonds.com/
AP is a diseased corpse. AP doesn’t have any problem with the ultrarich so long as they are Marc Rich (criminal billionaire), T Heinz, T Kennedy, G Soros, name any democRAT senator. These are the “good” ultrarich who use their wealth as a weapon to damage the poor and give nothing to actual charities. As long as one is an enemy of humanity, AP will find something nice to say about you. If you are an actual humanitarian, AP will provide a cross and nails to execute you.