The AP had better not take this as an idle threat. Powerline is written by three very sharp lawyers.
Tom Hays Is Still In Hiding
Tom Hays, the Associated Press reporter who fabricated the false report that Republicans in West Allis, Wisconsin, booed the announcement of President Clinton's hospitalization, and "President Bush did nothing to stop them," has gone to ground. He has not responded to our many emails; nor has he responded to the hundreds of emails that Power Line readers have sent to him at thays@ap.org.
We told Mr. Hays that if his report was anything other than a naked attempt to help the John Kerry campaign by lying, we'd be happy to print his defense. Apparently, he has no defense. We can only conclude that Mr. Hays is a Democratic operative, working underground as an AP reporter, who deliberately lied in hopes of damaging President Bush.
His wish was probably realized. Mr. Hays' AP story was circulated all around the world, and reproduced in hundreds if not thousands of newspapers and television news shows. The AP issued a correction after it became evident that Hays' story was a lie, but the correction didn't begin to catch up with the original story.
So by fabricating a lie about the West Allis rally, Mr. Hays achieved his objective of benefiting the Kerry campaign. Now we'll see whether we can achieve our objective: getting Tom Hays fired from the Associated Press, as a warning to "journalists" everywhere that if they publish falsehoods to advance the interests of their political party, their jobs are in jeopardy.
Tomorrow, our campaign moves to the upper echelons of the Associated Press. Stay tuned.
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