 Associated Press logo The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency that claims to be the world's oldest and largest. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, who both contribute stories to it and use material written by its staffers.
As of 2004, AP's news is used by 1,700 newspapers, in addition to 5,000 television and radio outlets. Its photo library consists of over 10 million images.
The collapse of United Press International, AP's traditional competitor, has left it as the only national news service in the United States. Only a few foreign challengers, such as Reuters, exist for English_language news coverage. It is so omnipresent that the AP Stylebook has become the de facto standard for newswriting in the country.
History
AP was formed in May 1848 by representatives of six competitive New York newspapers, who wanted to pool resources to collect news from Europe. Until then, newspapers competed by sending reporters out in rowboats to meet the ships as they arrived in the harbor. The following year it opened the first overseas bureau, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to meet ships from Europe before they docked in New York City.
In 1861, facing censorship in covering the American Civil War, reporters first filed under the anonymous byline "from the Associated Press agent."
In 1876, Mark Kellogg, a stringer, becomes the first AP correspondent to die in the line of duty, at the Battle of Little Bighorn. His final dispatch: "I go with Custer and will be at the death."
In 1899, AP uses Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraph to cover the America's Cup yacht race off Sandy Hook, New Jersey the first news test of the new telegraph.
In 1914, AP introduced the Teletype, which transmited directly to printers over telegraph wires. Eventually a worldwide network of 60-word-per-minute Teletypes was built up.
Alleged Bias The AP has critics who believe its news judgement is biased. Some claim that frequent coverage of hostility in Iraq, including hostage beheadings and perceived United States's point of view while ignoring civilian casualties caused by the so-called Coalition of the Willing. It is also claimed that the AP may often address the opinions of the Pentagon, White House, and CIA analysts more often than those of foreign governments.
External link - Official AP website (http://www.ap.org/)
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