Thanks again, AP

AP Story on Saturday's PGA from Whistling Straits:

"Gary Player was at the 2007 Presidents Cup watching his International team when he began chatting about the future of the game, raving about a teenager who was hitting the ball 400 yards in the air. Sure, the Black Knight can be dramatic to make a point. But that teenager in question was Tony Finau, a rookie on the PGA Tour.

And he can smash it. Finau’s driving distance average at Whistling Straits is 306 feet; the rest of the field is averaging 290.

— The Associated Press

306 FEET???? Thanks, AP. The story has been uncorrected for over three hours.

 

Agreed. One night I waited 40 minutes between the AP news now and the 1st lede of a baseball story. Also, when the stringers are doing games you're lucky to get 9 inches on the first lede. When the regular guys are staffing the games at least you'll get 12-15.
Plus add to the fact we're in Ohio and there is no AP sports writer in Columbus as the college football season is heating up. They haven't replaced Rusty Miller who is retired but riding out a long string of sick and comp time. They won't hire someone till he's off the payroll apparently.

 

I used to be a frequent poster on this thread and ones like it. I recently moved to a new shop that is not a member. I'm so, so sorry.

 

Details, man!

 

It's just with Reuters and TNS, the pickings are so much slimmer.

 

Like non-existent slim. And the fact that they go almost seven hours in the middle of the day without updating the main wire. Or the fact you're stuck with the same papers, so you get five straight stories about the Detroit Lions that your readership doesn't care about.

 

I really liked MCT (now TNS) when it had access to Rivals.com college football content from Mike Huguenin and baseball from Milwaukee and the really good pro coverage from Dallas - especially Dallas - and St. Louis. Seems like all that stuff is gone now and what's left is pretty eh.

 

Here's an FBN update from the AP:

"Ward ... was suspended because of a May 2014 incident in which he was charged with misdemeanor assault and disturbing the piece for his alleged role in an incident at a Denver strip club."

Now, that might not be entirely inaccurate. But I'll bet it was spelled differently on the court docket.

 

Well, yeah. He disturbed that piece of ass at the strip club!

 

We dropped AP Photos a couple of years ago because of the expense and went with MCT. I quickly developed a love-hate relationship with it.
Mostly hate.
On the positive side, it's better than nothing and the archives are great. They have easily-accessible photos back to the 2000s, so when a coach dies or you need an old photo on someone like Brett Favre it's not hard to dig up.
On the downside, the pickings are slim if you're looking for a game not in one of their markets (and most of our teams are not in those markets) and there's a lot of times when they don't shoot things they should or said they would. Several times last football season, including once for a bowl game, there were things on their photo budget for a month before game day. We planned on having those, so didn't make arrangements elsewhere. Then the photos never showed up on the wire.
Assholes.
We still have AP for copy, so I've never really delved into their print offerings.

 

Another TV agate screw up. Just exactly who is West Carolina, AP?

 

Sigh.
– SOC--CRUYFF-CANCER – Dutch soccer great Johan Cancer, 68, has lung cancer. By Mike Corder. SENT: 400 words, photos.