In December of 2022, the KR Foundation, a Danish activist group whose purpose is to "address the climate crisis by pushing for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels at a global level," wrote the Associated Press (AP) a check for some $300,000 to "significantly influence the media narrative around climate policy."
Ever since, Bill D'Agostino of the Media Research Center says the AP has consistently trumpeted a so-called "climate crisis" in its coverage.
"They've really abandoned the facade of neutrality," he observes. "All of it has been changed over the past … 10 to 15 years or so to require, basically, a left-wing framing of everything."
According to The Washington Free Beacon, the Associated Press has taken millions in contributions from groups that support liberal causes like packing the Supreme Court and defunding the police. The bias has shown up in the AP Stylebook, the "must-have reference" for writers, editors, students, and professionals and the last word in how to define and frame news stories.
For example, it now says the words "black" and "indigenous" should be capitalized when referring to race or ethnicity, but "white" should remain lowercase. Politically, it portrays conservative action on voting laws as the "Republicans' nationwide campaign to restrict access to the ballot."
In framing abortion as vital to women's rights – though, as The Daily Signal points out, the Left's ideology now makes it nearly impossible to define what a woman is – the new AP guidance reads, "Phrasing like 'pregnant people' or 'people who seek an abortion' seeks to include people who have those experiences, but do not identify as women, such as some transgender men and some nonbinary people."
"At this point, it's really difficult to look at anything the AP does and conclude that they are not irredeemably, extremely left-wing," D'Agostino says.
But the AP, he asserts, is not alone in this. Other mainstream news outlets are biased in their coverage, which is shaping public opinion and paving the way for acceptance of the Left's political agenda.
"Where it comes to sweeping legislation or executive policy or agency policy or what have you, that directly impacts, and probably makes worse – or at least less comfortable – a lot of people's lives," he submits. "The role of the news agencies is to basically prime people to be okay with it."
Only in the last day or two did the AP list the KR Foundation as one of its philanthropic supporters.
