The Associated Press is struggling to defend its decision to assign a fleet of 11 reporters to pore over the facts in Sarah Palin’s best-selling memoir “Going Rogue: An American Life.”
The news agency was thrown on the defensive after critics — including Palin herself — charged she was being singled out for investigation when the AP savaged her book as inaccurate.
They noted that President Obama, whose two best-selling memoirs helped propel him to national fame, didn’t receive any fact-checking.
Last week, the AP sent news organizations a story headlined “Fact check: Palin’s book goes wrong on some facts,” citing several discrepancies in accounts of her tenure as governor of Alaska and other matters.
It carried one byline and listed 10 other writers who contributed to it.
Palin shot back with a Facebook post:
“Imagine that. 11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book, instead of using the time and resources to ‘fact check’ what’s going on with Sheik Mohammed’s trial, Pelosi’s health-care takeover costs, Hasan’s associations, etc. Amazing.”
AP’s director of media relations, Paul Colford, said the story was based on input from 11 reporters, but some were “minimally involved.”
“It has been widely perceived by some that AP has an 11-man squad which is trailing the governor coast to coast,” Colford said. “This is categorically untrue.”
“Going Rogue” was No. 1 in sales on Amazon.com before its Tuesday release and has stayed there.
AP wouldn’t say how many reporters are typically assigned to fact-check. The agency has roughly 3,000 employees for news gathering. Palin supporters said she was being unfairly targeted for scrutiny.
Colford said AP didn’t fact-check Obama’s two books, for example, because “neither of those books were published when he was a major player on the scene.”
His latest book was published in 2006, as he was being mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.
With Post Wire Services