By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
Traditional journalism is pretty simple, really. If you’re writing about a complex issue, make sure to include all of the sides.
For example, most political stories usually involve two sides. A good reporter will include both sides in their fair and balanced story and then let the readers decide whom to believe. If the journalist only includes one side in their story, it becomes advocacy instead of journalism, which should be avoided.
No one should know this better than the Associated Press, which was founded in 1846—15 years before the start of the Civil War. During the AP’s vast 180-year history, they’ve had a bit of experience producing good journalism, at least until now it appears.
AP reporters Josh Funk and Claudia Lauer published a story Thursday titled: “Amtrak may make it easier to bring guns on its trains despite the alleged attempt on Trump’s life.”
Quite frankly, it needed a bit of work.
Their story only includes comments from one side, John Feinblatt, whom the reporters only identified as the “president of the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.”
The AP reporters never mentioned that Feinblatt is also president of the Trace, which is paid to produce anti-gun propaganda, or that both anti-gun groups are funded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Certainly, these omissions would have helped Funk’s and Lauer’s readers put Feinblatt’s comments into better context.
Feinblatt, of course, used the story to further erode our Second Amendment rights.
“Just days after a man took an Amtrak train to Washington with a shotgun and pistol and tried to assassinate the president and other federal officials, the Trump Administration is trying to open the floodgates for firearms on every Amtrak route, while also moving to hollow out the agency responsible for enforcing gun laws and preventing gun trafficking. This will only make Americans less safe and Congress must step in before the next tragedy,” the AP quoted him as saying.
A pro-gun voice could have pointed out Feinblatt’s dual anti-gun roles, or that millions of riders have safely carried firearms aboard Amtrak for years, or that Congress has far more important things to occupy its time than turning trains into yet another anti-gun zone.
Funk, who was evidently the lead reporter, did not return emails seeking to interview him about his story. Unfortunately, that was expected, since the AP is not nearly what it used to be.
Since the mid-19th century, the AP served a vital role for newspapers, but not anymore. Print readership has tanked. The two largest newspaper chains in the country, Gannett and McClatchy, both dropped AP in 2024. The third largest newspaper firm, Lee Enterprises, announced it will be dropping AP at the end of this year.
Just last month the AP announced it was offering buyouts to a large number of its U.S. staff. They did not publish the number of staffers who would be losing their jobs.
Takeaways
One thing is certain: There will always be a market for factual and accurate journalism, but by publishing only one side of an important issue with layoffs looming, the Associated Press may get what it certainly deserves.
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