[Infowarrior] - Spy Agency Stole Scoop From Media Outlet And Handed It To The AP

[Richard Forno]

Spy Agency Stole Scoop From Media Outlet And Handed It To The AP
Posted: 08/05/2014 2:16 pm EDT Updated: 08/05/2014 8:59 pm

WASHINGTON -- The Associated Press dropped a significant scoop on Tuesday afternoon, reporting that in the last several years the U.S. government's terrorism watch list has doubled.

A few minutes after the AP story, then consisting of three paragraphs, was posted at 12:32 p.m., The Intercept published a much more comprehensive article. The original article, which has since been updated and expanded, appears below:

The government, it turned out, had "spoiled the scoop," an informally forbidden practice in the world of journalism. To spoil a scoop, the subject of a story, when asked for comment, tips off a different, typically friendlier outlet in the hopes of diminishing the attention the first outlet would have received. Tuesday's AP story was much friendlier to the government's position, explaining the surge of individuals added to the watch list as an ongoing response to a foiled terror plot.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/05/terror-watch-list_n_5651757.html?&ir=Media&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000021

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