The Associated Press

Like the Saturday Night Live skit of ‘Tom Brokaw’ taping a tireless litany of possible deaths, the Associated Press has been preparing Britney Spears’ obituary over the past month.

“We are not wishing it, but if Britney passed away, it’s easily one of the biggest stories in a long time,” the AP’s entertainment editor, Jesse Washington, told Us. He also said that it would be difficult for anyone to argue convincingly that Spears has not been skating on thin ice recently.

“Of course, we would never wish any type of misfortune on anybody and hope that we would never have to use it until 50 years from now…but if something were to happen, we would have to be prepared,” Mr. Washington added. Apparently this practice is not entirely unusual for the media outlet, which has a “pretty extensive obituary operation.”  read more »

More reporters than you could possibly believe are stacked into an auditorium at Saint Anselm college, safely far from tonight's debate.

At the front of the room is a row reserved for photographers. In the second row, news agencies AFP and AP and Reuters share space with USA Today, as well as local heroes from the Keene Sentinel, the Concord Monitor, and the Eagle Tribune.  read more »

Oh, well. The Real Estate kind of hoped it would go the other way. On Sunday, in case you missed it, Donald Trump's proxy beat the wrestler representing World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon. Per a bet between the two billionaires, Mr. McMahon had to have his head shaved (photo, above, courtesy of the Associated Press).

We think the whole thing was rigged.

- Tom Acitelli

Going Dutch: Basic Instinct Director Plumbs His Homeland’s Past     read more »

Going Dutch: Basic Instinct Director Plumbs His Homeland’s Past     read more »

Jennifer Siegel of the Forward has turned in another fine piece of reporting, this on the fact that Republicans count their Jewish vote in the recent election at 26 percent, while the Associated Press puts it at half that, 13 percent. Siegel shows that the Republican statisticians define Jewishness with a high bar: synagogue attendance. By leaving out the unaffiliated or the secularized, Republicans are able to contend that they are gaining Jewish numbers.

Myself I think there's something to the Republican argument. The more religious you are, the more conservative your politics tend to be. The more unaffiliated and assimilated you are, the more leftleaning. And though I'm for a big tent in terms of Jewishness, the Republican argument does touch on a significant divide: the extent to which conservative, religiously-identified Jews dominate Jewish organizational life, and the policy positions the organizations endorse. (C.f., Palestine, the Occupation; and its sequel, Iraq, the Occupation)

Around lunchtime on Nov.  read more »

MSNBC has declared that the Democrats will take back the House, based on Associated Press projections that the party has gained at least 19 seats (they needed 15 to win control). Still unclear is whether they will add significantly to that total before the night is over. -- Steve Kornacki

The Associated Press has declared Joe Lieberman the winner in Connecticut, avenging his loss to Ned Lamont in this summer's Democratic primary.

Lamont lost the momentum in this race literally days after his stunning primary triumph-- when he took off for a vacation in Maine. His campaign manager's ugly verbal attack on the city of Waterbury -- a socially conervative Lieberman stronghold in the primary whose voters, late in turning against the war, could have been Lamont converts in the fall-- didn't help either.

-- Steve Kornacki

Lebanon’s representative to the United Nations has to find humor where he can these days&mdash  read more »

A reader who's following the Darfur story closely was struck by the entry in today's Associated Press day schedule for a New York rally:

10:45 a.m.

More than 150 rabbis rally against "genocide" in Darfur; Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, East 47th Street between First and Second avenues.

That would make AP one of the last institutions outside the Sudanese government to be officially skeptical about what's happening over there. But apparently it was a mistake, not policy.

"If that were in an AP story, we would send a correction to eliminate the quotation marks," emails AP New York Bureau Chief Howard Goldberg.

Gov. Corzine asks the state treasurer to review the new stadium deal for the Jets and the Giants, even though it is supposedly entirely financed by the teams. The Associated Press reports: "Corzine said he is concerned about the financial terms of the deal, brokered by his predecessor, and about whether building a stadium without a roof limits its use." -Matthew Schuerman

The liberal media-watching group Media Matters seems to share my view that the AP's attack on the Democrats for ... misstating Associated Press excerpting policy (?) ... was more of a commercial dispute than a news story.

Here's the summary: "Using an unfair and misleading comparison, the Associated Press accused the New York State Democratic Committee of editing AP articles the committee reprinted on its website."

There was something a bit odd about this story the AP moved yesterday, slamming the state Democrats for attaching the phrase "excerpted per AP policy" to excerpts on its Web site, when in fact the AP's policy (under seige by the Web) is that they sell news, don't give it away. This was compared to the Weld campaign passing off cleaned-up excerpts as full stories, which seemed a little odd; the question of whether the Democrats mis-stated Associated Press excerpting policy seems of interest only to Associated Press salespeople. State Party consultant Howard Wolfson was diplomatic on Fred Dicker's radio show in Albany this morning: "Earlier this year the AP called the state party and said that they were unhappy with the fact that the state party was placing their stories in full, that it was in violation of AP standards or what the AP was happy with...The AP contacted the state party yesterday with concerns that the stories were excerpted, and I think probably the best thing for the state party to do at this point would be to not run any of the AP stories on their website."

Next: A lengthy Poliitcker analysis on the Daily News policy on crediting other news organizations. A matter of wide public interest today.

The AP reports:

"Billionaire B. Thomas Golisano will not seekthe Republican nomination to run for governor of New York, an adviser to the businessman told The Associated Press on Tuesday."

The unnamed adviser cites "personal reasons."

The Associated Press picked up a story Monday that we also posted about an unwanted rodent, who was thrown into a fire by a homeowner. Apparently, the mouse managed to claw his way out, scurry back to the house while still aflame and set it ablaze. The AP even had a quote from Luciano Mares, the homeowner, confirming the incident.

Yet, something seems to have gone awry in that newsroom.  read more »

Mares now tells local KOAT-TV, that the mouse was already dead when dropped into the flames. The actual cause of fire? High winds. (Albuquerque Journal) Some ideas for protecting your house from fire, and beyond, to start the new year right. (CNN) - Riva Froymovich

You’re forgiven, coach, although it would help all concerned if you would explain what it was  read more »

You’re forgiven, coach, although it would help all concerned if you would explain what it was you  read more »

A few advances in stories you first saw here or in the Observer:

The Washington Post's politics blog notes our Shrum book scoop and adds rumor -- and Shrum denial -- that the semi-retired consultant is whispering in Arnold's ear.  read more »

The Associated Press tracks the Democrats' response to Pirro spokeswoman Andrea Tantaros's undergrad musings, but omits her (rocking) Wawa-smokes defense.

And the Times reports on Bill Weld's Kentucky trouble. You may recall that Jess had the story and relevant documents here yesterday, but using a complex algorithim involving the number of hours by which you get beat and the distance your reporter travels, the usually-gracious Times declines to credit. (We, of course, blame Arthur Sulzberger for this.)

A reader passes on the results of the Associated Press's general election test run, which has Freddy up 40-37. In other test news, Bernie Goetz picked up a remarkable 40% against Betsy Gotbaum.  read more »

To the Editor:    read more »

Experts say the biggest problem in the newspaper industry is capturing readers between 18 and 34 years old, and now The Associated Press is looking to tackle that problem head on.
On Monday, the 157-year-old wire service is to start its "younger audience service," offering articles and "experiences" in multimedia formats, with audio, video, blogs and wireless text aimed at reaching readers between 18 and 34 years old. The service, one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by The A.P., is called asap, pronounced letter by letter, meant to evoke the wire service's legendary speed. - A.P. Fashions a News Feed for the Young, by Katharine Q. Seelye, The New York Times, Sept. 14, 2005.

AP: Roberts: Congress Can Bar Discrimination, Sept. 15, 2005, 11:22 AM  read more »

asap: —Matt Haber

There was a fair amount of amusement over Mayor Bloomberg's (quickly corrected) entry in the Associated Press Day Schedule for today:

11 a.m. _ Announces something; Staten Island Mall, 2655 Richmond Ave., Staten Island.

NOTE: Press availability follows; enter through main entrance between Macy's and Sears; press van leaves east gate of City Hall at 10 a.m. and returns after 1 p.m. event.

1 p.m. _ Announces something; Church Street at Dey Street, Manhattan.

The Politicker loves surprises!  read more »

Just as The Politicker was weighing the relative merits of two child-rearing manuals, Hillary Clinton's It Takes a Village and Rick Santorum's competing It Takes a Family, the two authors staged a little debate in the basement of the Capitol:

"It takes a village, Rick, don't forget that," Clinton called out, according to the Associated Press.

"It takes a family," he countered.

"Of course, a family is part of a village!" she replied.  read more »

The two, the AP reports, continued on in opposite directions.

So who's the FBI informant inside Democratic fundraising circles?

Well, we still don't know for sure. But given the clues we listed, we sure are struck by today's guilty plea, in a bank fraud case, of Raymond Reggie.

According to the Associated Press today:

"Reggie is the son of Edmund Reggie, a former judge and longtime friend of former Gov. Edwin Edwards. The younger Reggie's sister, Victoria, is married to U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass....  read more »

"As a political consultant, Raymond Reggie has worked on the campaigns of several well-known Democrats, including President Bill Clinton and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, and the presidential campaign of former Vice President Al Gore."

So, God help us, Howard Dean made these fashionable, and so why shouldn't Gifford Miller, Fernando Ferrer, Eliot Spitzer and many others have their own. Maybe not quite the Bloomberg Way...but it's a taste of how this mayor's race and all the other local ones will pick up all the tools and fads that burst out in the Democratic presidential primary.

So far, the candidate blogs are scrubbed clean of personality. Gifford's is, cleverly, written by wife Pamela and brother Marshall, but that's where the fun ends. "Over the last few days, Gifford led the City Council in taking a number of important steps..."

Freddy's and Eliot's are written by the candidates, and mostly travelogues and chronicles of every Genesee Assemblywoman they've encountered. Eliot's offers two highlights: free access to his recent New Republic piece which offers a glimpse of a more populist politician than he used to be; and an extremely lively discussion section with uncensored comments.

"Eliot Spitzer is, I am afraid, a fraud," read one recent item, and today's entertaining Associated Press story notes both Spitzer '08 presidential speculation and the porn somebody posted to the site the day Spitzer declared he was running for governor.  read more »

We're impressed that the people at 895 Broadway are being so laid back about this.

As for Freddy, he hasn't been doing much blogging, but in general he's all about being an everyman and his photos certainly back that up. A favorite.

Early in October, thousands of frat boys e-mailed what looked like a CNN.com Web page to thousands m  read more »

During the first Gulf War, most New York editors could sleep soundly at night in their 400-count she  read more »

New York seems to be heading toward a political train wreck involving five or six parties.  read more »