Everyone hates the Associated Press

I had never read Matt Yglesias' takedown of Associated Press reporter Nedra Pickler until now, when he points out another absurdity in her reporting.

However, in the defense of newspapers, I feel I should also point out that quite a few of them have their own problems with the Associated Press.

Secondly, I should also point out that despite declining budgets and disappearing Washington bureaus, newspapers have options besides the AP. The LA Times, NYT, McClatchy and Reuters all run wires and a lot of papers prefer NYT and McClatchy's product to the Associated Press'.

This isn't to excuse the poor coverage or deny that declining quality has led people to turn away from newspapers. But I do think Matt overstates the amount poor quality has to do with declining circulation, at least at the level of the NYT, WaPo, etc. At the same time, I think most "real" journalists underestimate the amount declining quality has to do with declining circulation.