Associated Press reporters are defending their scoop this week that Iran would be allowed to self-inspect its own facilities under the nuclear agreement, after some in the media trashed that story and openly accused the AP of being duped.
Several media figures suggested Friday that the story is erroneous, with a few going so far as to suggest on social media that AP had been duped by Israeli agents. “Could it be that #Israel stands behind leaking this document to #AP?” asked Said Arikat of Al-Quds, a pan-Arab daily newspaper.
Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council said in reference to the language of the text provided by AP, “The only one who refers to Iran as ‘Islamic State of Iran’ is Netanyahu. And strangely, [AP’s] dubious ‘draft’ of the IAEA-Iran agreement.”
These suggestions came even after AP made the text of the draft agreement between the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran available online Thursday evening.
“Most troubling fact remains on AP story: Refusal to provide context on how monitored inspections work, but rush to get angry GOP quotes,” Vox’s Max Fisher said Friday, suggesting that AP had committed a heinous act of journalistic malpractice.
The fervently pro-Clinton activist group Media Matters for America followed suit, claiming that AP had botched the story, in an article titled “Conservative Media Run With Flawed AP Report To Claim Iran Will Conduct Inspections On Its Own Facilities.”
A handful of AP writers were deeply unimpressed with these suggestions Friday, and some of them pushed back hard on social media against the insinuation their newsroom had dropped the ball.
“For record,” said U.S. foreign policy reporter Bradley Klapper, “I tweeted 4 key points in IAEA/Iran side deal. No one disputing veracity of these, but some want 2 insist [AP] story wrong.”
Responding directly to suggestions Israel may be behind AP’s scoop, he added, “When all else fails, blame the Jews.”
Intelligence reporter Ken Dilanian said in a note of his own, “Just sitting here wondering how anyone thinks the Obama folks would be sitting silent if the Parchin side deal the AP published was fake.”
AP diplomatic writer Matt Lee was particularly aggressive Friday, using his usual bulldog approach to combating suggestions AP failed its readers.
“So, how’s the hunt going for someone to back up the fraud claim?” he asked in response to Max Fisher suggesting AP reported false information. “I am going to ask again,” he said. “Who is backing up the claim you repeated that the text is a forgery?”
Fisher of Vox refused to answer his questions and instead accused Lee of having a “meltdown.”
“Your article repeats claims from a former IAEA official who accuses the AP of publishing a fraudulent document,” Fisher wrote.
Lee responded, “Fine. Just post your story when you get confirmation that the text of the agreement the AP published was a fraud. Until then…” He even addressed the Media Matters story, writing, “This is pathetic. And MediaMatters should know it. AP did not backtrack on its story.”
“Bottom line is that our story was right,” he said Friday.
Confusion over the AP scoop stems from the news group amending its original story several times Wednesday and Thursday without offering any formal explanation.
AP’s original Aug. 19 report contained language suggesting Iran would be allowed to self-inspect. However, late Wednesday afternoon, AP suddenly deleted the inspection language from the article. Later, the news group inserted the deleted language into a separate Aug. 20 article on the same subject. On Thursday, however, AP removed the language from the Aug. 20 article.
No explanation for the seemingly endless and unexplained edits has been offered.
An AP spokesman declined to comment when the Washington Examiner asked for an explanation. He referred the Examiner to an AP editor who offered to explain the group’s filing procedures in an off-the-record phone call.
