Petrelis Files

Recent Donations by Two AP Reporters to Politicians

The Associated Press does not have an ombudsman to handle complaints about the wire's stories or questions about the ethics of its reporters making political donations, on the rare occasions when such contributions come to light.

If the AP decided to come into the modern media age and appoint an ombudsman, I'd ask that person about the propriety of AP writers giving money to politicians, even if the writers don't cover the people they've donated to.

Federal Election Commission records show on October 3, 2005, AP writer Hilary Roxe gave $1,000 to Rep. Christopher Shays, (R-CT). Click here for the actual FEC form, or go here to see Roxe's donation, as posted by NewsMeat.

After a quick search, the California secretary of state's campaign disclosure web page reveals AP writer Pedro Zayas donated $350 on March 17, 2006, to Democrat Joe Baca, Jr.'s campaign for state senate. Zayas' contribution is also found here.

The donations from these two AP reporters are just two more reasons why the AP ought to create an ombudsman's position.

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[Update and correction from the AP]

Michael Petrelis
Blogger
Mpetrelis@aol.com
415.621.6267

As I said in my voicemail to you a little while ago, thanks for the e-mail last night and your afterhours voicemail. We've checked out the information in your Sunday, April 9 article. Here's what we found:

Hilary Roxe left the AP before the Oct. 3, 2005 donation cited in your posting.

The Pedro A. Zayas of Los Angeles you cite in your posting as making a March 17, 2006 donation ($350 in your story, $250 on the site you link to) does not work for the AP.

Please correct your posting on both counts asap.

I'd appreciate a call to see where you got your information from, how you independently corraborated it and if you know of others who have used your erroneous data so we can set the record straight with them, too.

By the way, there's a link to The Associated Press Statement of News Values and Principles on the front page of our corporate Internet site. The direct link is http://www.ap.org/pages/about/whatsnew/wn_112905.html

Jack Stokes
AP Corporate Communications
212.621.1730