HILLARY RHODES does some reporting to answer a reader's question -- just how does the AP work? -- and looks to contributors to a new AP book for anecdotal illumination.
The AP reports on how the AP reports. (AP Photo)
Wild, touching, influential, record-breaking, history-making moments happen every day, and you learn about them on television, in the newspaper, on the radio and online.
But how does that information get from point A to point B?
How does news about an earthquake in Thailand, a stock trade on Wall Street, a vote in Washington or a fashion show in Milan get to your computer screen, and why, so many times, is it marked with the Associated Press logo?
An exotic animals veterinarian in Atlanta wrote in when asap solicited readers' recommendations for story ideas in a new feature called "Assignment: You." Here's some of Tarah L. Hadley's e-mail to us:
"I get most of my news from the Internet and most of it is AP news. I'd really like to understand how it all works. I'd like a feature that shows how stories bubble up from thousands of local news outlets to reach the big time."
TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION...
Well, Tarah, you have the basic idea.
As the world's largest and oldest news organization, founded in 1846, AP operates 243 news bureaus in 97 nations. That means we have employees spread all over the world who develop sources, break news and disseminate it to the public as quickly as possible.
And while it seems like the AP is delivering news directly to the public -- all those stories you see on Yahoo or AOL, for example -- the organization's mission is actually to provide stories to the U.S. newspapers and broadcasters who together own the AP, as well as organizations like online services and overseas news outlets that pay to subscribe to the AP. Those "members" and "subscribers," in turn, deliver the news to you.
An example: Mr. Newsman in L.A. finds out from a law enforcement source that Paris Hilton is going back to jail. He writes up his story or calls it in to the bureau, where it ends up in the hands of editors, who send it out on the local "wire" for use by AP members (newspapers, TV stations, etc.) in the area.
Of course, folks outside L.A. might also want to learn about Paris. Editors at AP world headquarters in New York -- in this case, at the Entertainment Desk, or perhaps the National Desk -- give the story a once-over and send it out to U.S. newspaper editors and broadcast news directors, who decide whether to use it. And when it's sent, the story also shows up on the Web sites of the AP's online subscribers.
Meanwhile, another desk at headquarters will send the story out for overseas newspapers and, in some cases, the AP may also produce a video report on the subject.
You still with us?
BREAKING NEWS
Hadley's question for asap, it turns out, is a particularly timely one, since the AP's been doing a fair amount of introspection lately.
The organization has published a history volume called "Breaking News: How The Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace and Everything Else," written by current and former AP reporters and editors and featuring nearly 200 groundbreaking photos.
So to further answer Hadley's question about how The Associated Press works, asap asked some of the book's contributors for examples from their careers of the AP doing what the AP does best.
Here's what they had to say.
AP New York reporter RICHARD PYLE, whose many assignments have included bureau chief in Saigon during the Vietnam War.
Probably my best personal example was the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew on October 10, 1973.
I was AP's "body man" on Agnew, but was in the Washington bureau when we got a tip that he was in a Baltimore federal courtroom for an unknown reason, with the courtroom sealed -- nobody could go in or out. I called Agnew's office and learned from a secretary that Agnew had just submitted a letter of resignation from the office as part of a plea bargain to escape prison for extortion and income tax evasion.
We had the story on the wire in seconds, and scored a huge beat on UPI and other competitors. When the courtroom doors were opened, the reporters dashed for the phones, only to be told by their editors that the AP was already out with the story.
Washington's afternoon paper, the Evening Star, actually stopped the presses to "replate" page 1 with the AP story -- the only time I was ever involved in that movie-type event actually happening.
CALVIN WOODWARD, enterprise editor in the Washington bureau.
Everyone's crucible around here, as there (New York), was Sept. 11.
I heard on the radio coming in about the White House and Congress being on fire, and all sorts of other false things. I remember biking across the Key Bridge, seeing the smoke from the Pentagon, and thinking the pedestrian thought that this will be one busy day.
I had to read the wire, an hour into the madness, to know what was really going on. And then I was given two hours to write an essay putting it in perspective. While everyone else was in a full court press to find out exactly what happened, who did it and why.
Finding out these things fast. That's what we do best.
TOM JORY, coordinator of the AP's state and national vote count.
When I was still reporting, covering the TV beat in New York, AP was still in very heated competition with UPI. I was at CBS interviewing Walter Cronkite about a documentary he had just finished. One of the CBS PR people asked me to come back that afternoon for a "very important" announcement which she could not tell me about then.
I said I was too busy and would have to pick it up later. When I got back to the office there was a call from Cronkite. He said as an old wire service man (he'd worked for UPI during WWII) he couldn't leave another wire service man flapping in the breeze. If I would hold the story till 4 (which I would) he would tell me what it was.
Dan Rather was replacing him as anchor of the CBS Evening News.
I had 600 words ready to move when the announcement was made, and was on front pages all over the country with this important media story.
NANCY BENAC, Washington-based enterprise reporter.
Part of what makes the AP work is the concept of simply being there -- wherever the news is.
In 1994, I was covering the Clinton White House and drew weekend duty. It was late afternoon on a quiet Saturday in October, the kind of day when almost everyone else in the press corps had taken an early slide and was probably off at the shopping mall or some such. Not the AP, of course.
Just then, some guy with an assault weapon opened up on the White House with gunfire, and one of bullets came right into the press room. It didn't immediately dawn on me what was happening, so I stood there gawking at the bullet hole until a cameraman suggested it might be a good time to duck.
I did, but then ran outside to see what was happening. A Secret Service agent rushed me back inside, and I hit the phones to file. I called in all that was known -- shots were fired at the White House -- then began reporting. Lucky for me, the place was locked down for quite a while, so no one else could get in to report firsthand. And, since there were actual shots into the press room, top officials like the White House chief of staff came down to personally inspect the scene, so I could interview them firsthand.
Just like the book says, it was "breaking news" and running for the phones.
For more about the new book about newsgathering at the AP, watch the attached AP video.
ASSIGNMENT: YOU -- HOW'D WE DO?
So, there's the story, assigned by Tarah L. Hadley and reported by asap. What did Hadley think? Take a look at this follow-up story to find out her thoughts about how we did.
NEXT ON ASSIGNMENT: YOU
Looking for more asap stories based on assignments from people like you?
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the next installment of Assignment: You -- a look at a genre of music called "go-go" that's been popular in and around Washington, D.C., for years. Iris Scott, a 32-year-old IT consultant, assigned the story to us, and asap reporter JAIME HOLGUIN will be heading to Washington to learn all about go-go.
Hillary Rhodes is an asap reporter based in New York.
Want to comment? Sound off at soundoffasap@ap.org .
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