THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WAS A RESPECTED NEWS ORGANIZATION - ONCE UPON A TIME!

They have become scum-sucking, bottom-feeding whores who have about as much to do with real journalism as my cat!

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.”

The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.

Then these cretins wonder why they are losing so much money and nobody wants to read their product any longer. They've self-destructed in a very real and public way, starting with the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. All of them and many others are mere shadows of their former admirable selves and do not deserve the trust and attention of honest Americans! This particularly saddens me because I was trained as a journalist during my undergraduate days. We were taught that ethics and fair dealing were qualities to be prized, and sensationalism was to be avoided. Clearly the AP hasn't learned this lesson, else they would not have found it acceptable to distribute this photograph nationwide over the objections of the Marine's father.

Shame on them. Shame on the newspapers who found it acceptable to use those photographs either online or in their print editions!

The hell of this is, due to their utterly despicable lack of ethics, the newspapers that were once essential to keeping our governing class honest, will be no more. It's up to the "new media" now, folks!