The New York Times gets its fair share of criticism.

So does CNN.

So do the major broadcast networks.

The Washington Post and L.A. Times have their own detractors.

In fact, these days, nearly everyone recognizes press bias, incompetence and arrogance when they see it in the major media.

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Yet, it is my considered opinion that one news agency gets off nearly scot-free from criticism despite being the worst purveyor of political propaganda and distortion.

I refer to the largest news-gathering organization in the world – the Associated Press.

I have more than a few observations about the AP in my new book, "Stop The Presses." It may offer up one of the best indictments ever of the AP.

For the life of me, I don't understand why there haven't been books written about this pervasive information virus in our midst. Where are the exposes on the AP? Why does the New York Times get so much more attention than a news organization far more powerful and, in its own way, deceitful?

Let me give you a few recent examples from my own observations:

• Last month, AP staff writer Jennifer Dobner filed this report from Salt Lake City: "While Mitt Romney condemns polygamy and its prior practice by his Mormon church, the Republican presidential candidate's great-grandfather had five wives and at least one of his great-great grandfathers had 12."

  Now, I don't have any use for Romney as a presidential candidate, but is it fair to blame a son for the sins of the father – or, in this case, the great-grandfather? Of what relevance is this to life in these United States in 2007?

  As if to underscore the point, here's the second paragraph of the story: "Polygamy was not just a historical footnote, but a prominent element in the family tree of the former Massachusetts governor now seeking to become the first Mormon president."

  Are the family trees of other presidential candidates going to be fair game now, too? I just wonder.

  This is what I call an error of commission. It's a non-story. It should simply not have been written. There's no news or public policy justification for it. On the same weekend it was being reported, AP decided not to publish a story of huge national interest. I call this an error of omission.

• A day before releasing that Romney non-story, AP refused to pick up this one from one of its clients – the Washington Times: "Federal authorities yesterday charged the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, who serves as a leader of youth sports organizations in the state, with receiving and possessing child pornography."

  Here is an actual living person doing something – as opposed to news about grandfathers and great-grandfathers – and AP shows no interest. Charles Rust-Tierney, a former public defender in the nation's capital and local leader of the ACLU busted for kiddie porn.

  Now, why is it so significant that AP did not "pick up the story"? Because AP is the major disseminator of news throughout our country and our world. Even with the Internet, if it doesn't make the AP wire, a story is going to have limited readership. Someone in AP's Washington bureau made a conscious decision to "spike" the ACLU kiddie porn connection.

• AP has many activists on its 30,000-member staff. They don't call themselves activists. They call themselves journalists. But activism is their real calling. It's where their hearts are. How sick and twisted can this activism get? Try this on for size.

  "He has a gaggle of bodyguards and a silver Mercedes, but to the people of this refugee camp, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas is still just 'Abul Abed,' the neighbor who shares electricity from his generator during power cuts and attends their wedding and funerals."

  If it sounds like AP writer Karin Laub has fallen in love, brace yourself. The object of her affections is a cold, calculating killing machine of a terrorist.

  "Haniyeh's down-home style – he walked home through Sahti's alleys after Friday prayers – has helped to make him one of the most popular Palestinian politicians, despite Hamas' strife-ridden and lackluster year in power."

  More adjectives: "folksy, modest, nice." Those are not likely words to be associated with Republicans in the U.S. by the AP, but terrorists in the Middle East are another story.

There is something seriously wrong at the AP. There are other newspapers besides the New York Times. But there are no other wire services of any consequence besides the AP. It is a virtual monopoly and insulated from accountability to the public because of its nonprofit status and the fact that it answers only to its "members" – newspapers that pay a fortune for its content.

Nevertheless, something must be done. Consider my new book, "Stop The Presses," the opening salvo.

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