A

AP

USA · Bias: Wire service

Owner

Nonprofit cooperative (member news orgs)

About

The Associated Press was born in 1846 when five New York newspapers decided sharing a Pony Express bill beat bankrupting each other. It's still structured as a nonprofit cooperative owned by its member outlets, which is why AP copy is engineered to be printable by a liberal city daily and a conservative small-town weekly alike. That neutrality is a product spec, not a personality trait — and it makes AP the closest thing journalism has to plumbing: invisible until it breaks, load-bearing always. Half the 'news' you read elsewhere started life as an AP feed.

Landmark Story

On May 7, 1945, AP correspondent Ed Kennedy witnessed Germany's surrender — then broke a military embargo (designed to let the Soviets stage a second ceremony) and reported the end of the war in Europe a full day before anyone else. Every word was true. AP's response: it fired him. He spent the rest of his career in small-paper obscurity. It took until 2012 for AP's president to formally apologize, calling the firing 'a terrible day for the AP.' The case still frames journalism's rawest question: who do you serve when truth and authority disagree?

Deep Dive

Is AP News Biased? Who Owns the Associated Press — and Why It Has No Owner to Please →

Recent Analyses

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