Why is Moveon.org upset at the Associated Press for telling the truth?

Question

Moveon.org is already furious at the lack of adoration for Obama's choice. In fact, they published a letter complaining about the AP's article "Biden pick shows lack of confidence," saying that is "sounded more like right-wing FOX than an unbiased news organization."

Excerpt:

The candidate of change went with the status quo. In picking Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, Barack Obama sought to shore up his weakness--inexperience in office and on foreign policy...He picked a 35-year veteran of the Senate--the ultimate insider...The Biden selection is the next logistical step in an Obama campaign that has become more negative..."1 (Emphasis added)

http://pol.moveon.org/emails/ap_fournier.html

Do they attack everyone that is not enamored with their candidate?

Answer 1

Moveon looks more and more like Hitler youth every day.

Sick.

Answer 2

Do they attack everyone that is not enamored with their candidate?

Well yeah...that is how they operate...

Answer 3

AP is one of my best customers, but sometimes they get it right,  

Answer 4

You should get out more and remove the blinders.

Answer 5

Moveon.org calling for unbiased journalism? That is perhaps the funniest thing I've heard in a while. Than again anything that is written that doesn't fall into to their belief system is "wrong" in their book.

Answer 6

Well to be fair.  moveon.org is always angry about something.  

Answer 7

the media AND move-on are liberal a******s

Answer 8

Yeah....d**n those reporters/journalists that tell the truth.  They should always say good things about Obama and nothing else.

2008 the year journalism died.

Answer 9

Isn't move on just a folk legend like Davy Jones Locker.

Is there really such a website.

Answer 10

Wow! Looks like typical communist/socialist behavior! Harass and attack anyone who doesn't believe like you want....just wow.

Answer 11

You know the answer as well as I do.  Moveon.org is a front for the most liberal and anti-American element of our country, and any time that their choices are ignored they act like a 2 year old throwing a temper tantrum.  Moveon wanted Obama to chose another extreme leftist as his vice president.

Answer 12

The problem is that AP feeds of the article, which was an opinion piece, were picked up in outlets like Yahoo! in their straight news sections.  Understand the problem?  The article is labeled an 'analysis' where it really should have been labeled an OPINION and relegated to the opinion sections of the sites which pick up the AP feeds instead of their straight news sections.  It talked about the Biden selection as displaying a 'lack of confidence' on the part of Obama and other such opinions (which in MY opinion was nonsense.)

In addition, the author of the article is their Washington, DC bureau chief and he apparently had email conservations with Karl Rove where he encouraged Mr. Rove and he also apparently had conversations with the McCain campaign about joining it.  So, MoveOn's objections go a little deeper than you contend.

MoveOn is an advocacy organization; it is their mission to be partisan.  The Associated Press is a news organization; their mission is to report the news and be non-partisan.  They need to pay attention to such things and an advocacy group like MoveOn's job is to get in their face when they perceive what they believe to be bias.  That isn't that hard to understand, is it?  As if conservative groups don't rant about the NY Times.

I often disagree with MoveOn, sometimes I disagree very strongly with them.  On this one I happen to agree.

Edited to add:  Thank you A.M. Frantz, you linked up articles that get at the truth. Good job.

Answer 13

Obviously you aren't looking for a real answer, but just to point out there is one:

First, they're upset that the author of this article, who is on record as having written fulsome mash notes to Karl Rove and inquired about a job in the McCain campaign, is hardly objective.

Second, any possible VP pick is trying to shore up the ticket in some way, so it always shows some kind of 'lack of confidence'.  Picking Hillary would have shown a 'lack of confidence' that he could get her voters.  Picking Bayh would have shown a 'lack of confidence' he could appeal to moderates.  Same with McCain: Picking someone other than Lieberman or Ridge, who seem to be his preference, would show a 'lack of confidence' that he can hold his base.  Picking Ridge would show 'lack of confidence' that he can compete in PA.  Picking Lieberman would show a 'lack of confidence' that he can reach independents and conservative demos.  So this is pure spin that tells you nothing.  But will AP frame McCain's pick with the same spin they used on Biden?  Not bloody likely.

Also, this article hardly stands alone.  When both candidates spoke to a group of news editors recently, Obama was referred to from the stage (by the chairman of AP) as 'Osama'.  McCain was given a box of his favorite donuts - by two AP political writers, one of whom wrote this article..  That's typical of a long series of biased articles AP has put out on this race.

Answer 14

The leadership of MoveOn.org wanted to run attack ads against a liberal respresentative in Washington State who had been a leader of the anti-war effort who was one of the few who voted against giving the President the authority to go to war....why? Because he voted in favor of the surge, recognizing that while it was wrong to go to war in the first place, now that we were there it was important to win and prevent genocide.

Answer 15

Yup they whine and cry about anything that does not fit their view of the world or their agendas.  Its the same people that gave rise to political correctness not because it was so much a "correct" thing to do but more that they saw the verbage as another weapon they could use to silence the truth.  Move On actually forbid any Democratic candidate to speak to any Fox employee and threatned anyone that did with loss of funding.  Now hows that for being fair and balanced?

Answer 16

You've missed the point of moveon.org.  

Answer 17

The ultimate irony is the MoveOn.org was founded in a kumbaya moment to urge people to join together in asking Congress to censure President Clinton rather than impeaching him so that the country could heal and "move on."

How sweet.

Since then, they've moved steadily further and further to the left until it's hard to get much further out there in lala land.

They're the group that published the infamous "General Betray-Us" ad in the New York Times when General David Petraeus came to Washington to report to Congress.  The NYT gave them the full-page ad at its steepest available discount.

The Senate held a vote on a Sense of the Senate Resolution condemning the ad. Obama skipped the vote even though he was in his office rather than anger MoveOn.

Obama also refused to meet privately with Gen. Petraeus as part of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (of which he's a member) although that meeting would have given him detailed information on Iraq and Afghanistan that he could not otherwise have gotten. He didn't want to p**s off MoveOn.

MoveOn.org is heavily funded by George Soros. During the 2004 campaign, he openly said that he was contributing over $400 million dollars to them and other groups for the express purpose of defeating Bush. He is doing the same thing this year to elect Obama, mostly through 527s.