I got a letter this week from a reader. It was a truly great letter.

So good, in fact, I was moved to write a column about it. And even though the letter writer was pretty hard on me and this newspaper, I had to agree with him.

The letter appeared in our "Letters" column on Friday. Perhaps some of you remember it. It was about Associated Press and their coverage of Bob Dole's speech at the Republican National Convention.

The letter writer, Ben Scripture of Warsaw, pointed out that the top part of the AP story quoted only eight fairly insignificant words from Bob Dole. Then the story gave Clinton staffer George Stephanopoulos a 28-word response. Christopher Dodd, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, got a 65-word response and the AP noted "Dole's uphill quest was fueled by a taxpayer-financed $62 million for his cash-strapped campaign."

Scripture's complaint was that the story told him very little about what Dole's speech was about. It told him more about what the Democrats had to say about Dole's speech, thereby putting a Democrat spin on the story.

I have long been a critic of AP's willingness to editorialize in its news stories. In fact, not long ago we had a visit from our Indiana AP bureau chief and I complained to him about it.

To be fair, I do not see the problem in our state report. But the stuff that comes out of Washington usually has a spin to it.

I remember in journalism school I was chastized for using the word "tragic" in a story about a child killed in an auto accident. The prof said it was not up to me to determine whether the event was tragic.

"But who would argue that it isn't a tragedy when a child dies?" I implored.

The prof told me - and I will never forget this - "You put the facts in the story. Let the reader decide if it's a tragedy."

That lesson was drilled into us at the Indiana State University J-school dozens of times by more than one prof. It also was drilled into me by the editor at my first "real" newspaper job.

I tell the staff here the same thing all the time and I try to expunge opinion from local news stories. Of course, nobody's perfect. It creeps in once in a while.

But the AP. Now there's a different story. It would be a full-time job editing opinions and observations out of the Washington "news" report.

I was writing this on Wednesday so I took a quick look at AP's offerings from D.C. The first story I called to the screen was a promo piece about the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

Anybody remember how the AP characterized the GOP convention as "divisive"?

Here's what they have to say about the Demos.

With not a whiff of controversy expected at the Democratic convention next week, union leaders see the meeting as a chance to gather their forces and underscore labor's agenda for the fall elections.

And...

The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers ... oppose a Dole-supported plan to provide vouchers to parents who want to send their children to private or parochial schools.

'Everything he's said for the last month, and specifically in San Diego, talks about the demise and weakening of public education," said Mary Elizabeth Teasley, the NEA's head of governmental relations. "His whole vision about public education is that the answer is to strip the resources from public schools and devote them to private and parochial schools."

Plus ...

Labor's campaign has targeted Republicans who opposed raising the minimum wage and who voted to slow the growth of Medicare. Republicans have directed withering criticism at the AFL-CIO's campaign, calling it a thinly veiled effort by "big labor bosses" to boost Democrats in congressional races.

That little, "withering" criticism comment was the only ink the GOP got in the story. There were no quotes from anyone connected to the GOP.

But if you remember, all the GOP convention stories were littered with quotes from Demos, as Scripture so succinctly states.

Scripture also takes me and the Times-Union to task. "I understand that the Times-Union does not have the resources, human and otherwise, to write all the articles it publishes every day; however, it is the editor's responsibility to read and edit what the Times-Union prints - at least the front page lead article! When the AP sends out Democratic Party propaganda, it should not be printed as news, it should be printed in the opinion section."

Guilty as charged.

On the day that story ran we had a ton of local. In fact, the Dole story was the only wire story on the front page except for a small "Newswrap." Page 2A rapidly filled up with jumps from all the local stories on Page 1.

I don't cut local stories. So in the heat of deadline, I cut from the end of the Dole story without editing, effectively leaving out the substance of Dole's speech.

Maybe the AP should have done a better job of getting the good stuff at the top of the story. But I should have done a better job of editing.

I will not pretend that the Times-Union can reverse the spin the Associated Press puts on its Washington report.

But in the words of a certain politician we all know and love, "We can do better." [[In-content Ad]]