Quote:

Tony Burzio
The AP is well known for reprinting propaganda pieces put out by companies without doing any research. Many times, the European-based organization will snipe at US industry at the behest of European governments or government-backed firms.

As a journalism student, I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at here--the AP is an American organization. Perhaps you're referring to Reuters (an English company) or Agence France Press?

AP is an association and member-owned cooperative of newspapers--I would assume primarily American newspapers, although perhaps many are European papers and this is why you say it's a European operation (I don't have information one way or the other).

I'm not disputing that AP often runs things that aren't necessarily true (as with all journalists, humans are fallible and writers on deadline often are missing or misunderstanding key facts). I wouldn't go so far as to say that they reprint commercial propaganda, however--as a non-profit, member-owned cooperative, they don't have a direct profit motive (although their member newspapers do--to sell more newspapers, but they're not paid by companies directly).