UPDATE: AP and Malkin Continue Battle Over Jailed Photographer

By: E&P Staff An ongoing battle between The Associated Press and Michelle Malkin grew even more intense Thursday, with the AP composing a letter to newspapers that print her syndicated column, and Malkin replying, in a blog post, to their response to her latest charges.

In an unusual move, E&P has learned, Malkin's syndicator is sending out a "bonus" column to clients, comprised of the AP letter and her response.

Rick Newcombe, president of Creators Syndicate, said AP asked the syndicate for a list of Malkin's newspaper clients in order to send them a letter countering Malkin's commentary about AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who is being held in Iraq as an alleged insurgent sympathizer. "We never give out a client list," Newcombe told E&P. "It's proprietary information."

Instead, after consulting with Malkin, Creators will send the bonus column to Malkin's clients -- which number more than 150 newspapers, according to Newcombe.

"As a general rule, I'm not crazy about inter-media squabbles, but I love Michelle Malkin's column," said Newcombe. "I don't understand why the Associated Press refused to answer her questions. 'No comment' is hardly the best answer you'd expect from such a great news organization."

When contacted by E&P for a response, AP Director of Media Relations and Public Affairs Linda M. Wagner said in an e-mail: "Perhaps Mr. Newcombe has read only Michelle Malkin's columns and not the Associated Press stories and press statements released on and after Sept. 17. These explain why AP had little to say until Sept. 17. By then, AP had exhausted all efforts to obtain from the military any evidence that would back up its claims about Bilal. Also by then, it had conducted its own examination of the claims the military had presented, and those claims did not withstand scrutiny. It had also reviewed by then Bilal's work for AP, finding no indication that his contacts with insurgents were inappropriate for a working journalist."

Wagner added: "AP believes any evidence should be turned over to the Iraqi court system to determine whether it warrants criminal charges. If the evidence is insufficient or does not exist, Bilal should be released."

The whole issue goes back many months and revolves around the seizing and imprisoning of Hussein by the U.S. military in Iraq, allegedly for offering friendly help to insurgents. Malkin long ago claimed that Hussein?s published photos suggested he was in cahoots with the insurgents, a charge hotly denied by AP.

There it stood until last weekend, when the AP publicly called on the U.S. to either press formal charges against the still-jailed photographer ? or release him. This inspired another round of anti-Hussein commentary by Malkin and others in print and in the blogosphere.

AP then took direct action. According to Malkin, it contacted Creators and asked for her client list so it could send a letter to editors who ran the column. In a blog posting Thursday, Malkin reproduced what she said was the AP letter, and of course, provided her latest response, in what is now something like Round 5. It?s all at http://michellemalkin.com.

Here is the opening of the AP letter, written by Ellen Hale, vice president of corporate communications, as Malkin herself published it:

"Michelle Malkin?s incendiary Sept. 20, 2006 column about Associated Press is filled with innuendo, distortion and factual error. This is not surprising because AP has found numerous inaccuracies and misrepresentations in Malkin?s online blog references to AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been detained in Iraq for more than five months by the U.S. military without being charged. Malkin would deny Bilal due process and the rule of law by trying him in her column and assuming his guilt by mere association.

?Among other things, Malkin asserts in her column that Bilal took photographs ?before, during, and after the Iraqi desert execution of ... Salvatore Santoro.? This is absolutely false. The man identified as Santoro was already dead by the time anyone working for The Associated Press was brought to see him. The AP story, filed on December 16, 2004, explains that masked insurgents stopped Hussein and other AP journalists at a roadblock and took them to the site where the blindfolded body lay, already stiff with rigor mortis. ...

?AP has been asking the U.S. military to either charge or release Bilal, an Iraqi citizen whom they detained while he was working in Ramadi. While claiming his ties to insurgents are inappropriate, the military has not provided clear evidence or brought charges in a court of law.?

In her response, Malkin opens with, ?If my column and online blog references are so ?filled with innuendo, distortion and factual error,? why does the AP come up with a whopping one specific example? Let's dispense with this lone example concerning Hussein's Santoro photos--which AP undoubtedly hopes will distract readers from the fundamental issue of the news organization's news suppression.?

She then lists several allegedly unanswered charges, before closing by dubbing the AP ?Advocacy Press.?