AP Eats Itself

The Associated Press is seriously trying to corner the market in news, and making sure that no one sees it. AP is going after anyone and everyone that uses content they’ve sucked up from their affiliates -and that includes their affiliates! WTNQ-FM received a cease-and-desist notice from AP for embedding a video from the AP’s YouTube channel.

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.

Frank Strovel of WTNQ explained the situation to the vice president of affiliate relations at AP, but still had to take the videos down. Do you think the radio station will renew its contract with AP? Why pay for a service you can’t use? If this sort of thing continues, we’ll never find out what’s going on in the world. But then again, no news is good news.

[via reddit]