Retro Garlic: Associated Idiots

I tell ya, we already brought attention to it, but when they do the casting call for the "Idiocracy, The Sequel" it is going to be enormously over-crowded.

For now, you have to have the Associated Press showing up for it.



A.P. Exec Doesn’t Know It Has A YouTube Channel: Threatens Affiliate For Embedding Videos

Here is another great moment in A.P. history. In its quest to become the RIAA of the newspaper industry, the A.P.’s executives and lawyers are beginning to match their counterparts in the music industry for cluelessness. A country radio station in Tennessee, WTNQ-FM, received a cease-and-desist letter warning from an A.P. vice president of affiliate relations for posting videos from the A.P.’s official Youtube channel on its Website. See update below.

You cannot make this stuff up. Forget for a moment that WTNQ is itself an A.P. affiliate and that the A.P. shouldn’t be harassing its own members. Apparently, nobody told the A.P. executive that the august news organization even has a YouTube channel which the A.P. itself controls, and that someone at the A.P. decided that it is probably a good idea to turn on the video embedding function on so that its videos can spread virally across the Web, along with the ads in the videos

I wish I could say I made this up, it so supremely, unbelievably, incredibly stupid.

We even gave thought, for a moment, of changing the name to our on-going series "Ignorant Dolts" to "Associated Idiots", or some such moniker.

The Retro part of this?

No AP Here!

Back last summer, the Associated Idiots were going around, dunning bloggers, firing warning shots, not to use AP content, if it wasn't paid for, regardless if it was only a paragraph, and with a link back to the original AP content.

Then, they tried to walk it back;

The Associated Press, kind of, realized, they screwed the pooch (Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs"), which, is like calling someone an asshole, and then apologizing with "I'm sorry that you are an asshole".

So, to review, the Associated Idiots doesn't want their content used, or have their videos (complete with embedding code) posted.

I guess, they intend to pioneer the new frontier of journalism, and go with a rumors, or, a word-of-mouth campaign, to distribute their news.

Good luck to you on that, baby ...

And, don't forget to read your own content, keep your eyes peeled, for that "Idiocracy, The Sequel" call


Bonus "The Whole World Knows AP Screwed Up Royally" Riffs

John Aravosis (DC): AP is now threatening to sue people who embed AP's YouTube videos that, of course, have their own embed code that AP declined to turn off

Kos: AP ups stupidity quotient another 16,000 notches

Nicole Belle: AP Exec. Doesn't Know AP Has YouTube Account; Goes After AP Affiliate For Using AP Videos

Cory Doctorow: Associated Press threatens AP affiliate over YouTube channel