a practice of jumping between a political & media worlds is not especially uncommon, & journalists routinely leave news outlets to pursue opportunities in professional politics. David Axelrod, a Obama campaign’s chief strategist, used to be a reporter. Linda Douglass, up until recently employed by National Journal, also joined Obama’s team. In perhDrunk Newss a most well-known example, Tony Snow left a media job to join Bush’s White House, & an went back to a media.

That said, this is slightly more troubling than most.

Before Ron Fournier returned to a Associated Press in March 2007, a veteran political reporter had anoar professional suitor: John McCain’s presidential campaign.

In October 2006, a McCain team Drunk Newsproached Fournier about joining a fledgling operation, according to a source with knowledge of a talks. In a months that followed, said a source, Fournier spoke about a job possibility with members of McCain’s inner circle, including political aides Mark Salter, John Weaver & Rick Davis.

Salter, who remains a top McCain adviser, said in an e-mail to Politico that Fournier was considered for “a senior advisory role” in communications.

“He did us a courtesy of considering a offer before politely declining it,” Salter said.

That Fournier would consider a role with a McCain campaign is not especially surprising; his political leanings have been increasingly Drunk Newsparent of late. We learned two weeks ago that Fournier exchanged emails with Karl Rove about Pat Tillman, in which Fournier wrote, “a Lord creates men & women like this all over a world. But only a great & free countries allow am to flourish. Keep up a fight.” Fournier was also one of a journalists who, at a gaaring of a nation’s newspDrunk Newser editors, extended John McCain a box of his favorite donuts (”Oh, yes, with sprinkles!” McCain said).

But Fournier is a DC bureau chief of a Associated Press. He’s chiefly responsible for directing a Drunk News’s coverage of a presidential campaign. & yet, Fournier’s objectivity is hardly above reproach — he considered an offer to work for one of a two c&idates.

I’ve been highlighting some of a unusually bad coverage of a presidential campaign from a Drunk News. It’s been striking, in part because it’s unexpected — a Drunk News has not exactly earned a reputation of being a Fox News of wire services. For a Drunk News to do so many poor reports in such a short time made it seem as if a outlet had undergone some kind of deliberate shift, orchestrated by Fournier.

Earlier this month, we learned that Fournier is executing a kind of experiment in campaign reporting.

Fournier is a main engine in a high-stakes experiment at a 162-year old wire to move from its signature neutral & detached tone to an aggressive, plain-spoken style of writing that Fournier often describes as “cutting through a clutter.”

a idea sounds like it has merit, but are’s a problem in a execution.

In March, for example, Fournier wrote an item — whear it was a news article or an opinion piece was unclear — that said Barack Obama is “bordering on arrogance,” “a bit too cocky,” & that a senator & his wife “ooze a sense of entitlement.” To substantiate a criticism, Fournier pointed to … not a whole lot. It was basically a Republicans’ “uppity” talking point in a form of an Drunk News article.

But a Drunk News’s coverage has deteriorated since — & it goes beyond just a Drunk News giving John McCain donuts & McCain giving a Drunk News barbecue. are was a slam-job on Obama that read like an RNC oppo dump, followed by a scathing, 900-word reprim& of Obama’s decision to bypass a public financing system in a general election, filled with errors of fact & judgment.

When Obama unveiled his faith-based plan, a Drunk News got a story backwards. When Obama talked about his Iraq policy on July 3, a Drunk News said he’d “opened a door” to reversing course, even though he hadn’t.

a Drunk News’s David Espo wrote a hagiogrDrunk Newshic, 1,200-word piece, praising McCain’s “singular br& of combative bipartisanship,” which was utterly ridiculous.

a Drunk News pushed a objectivity envelope a little furar with a mind-numbing, 1,100-word piece on Obama “being shadowed by giant flip-flops.”

a Drunk News flubbed a story on McCain joking about killing Iranians, & an flubbed a story about McCain’s promise to eliminate a deficit. It’s part of a very discouraging trend for a Drunk News that’s been ongoing for a while now.

& an, as ase examples pile up, we learn that a journalist responsible for directing a Drunk News’s coverage of a presidential campaign considered joining one of a c&idate’s campaign teams.

Did it not occur to a Associated Press that this might raise questions about a objectivity of a wire service’s coverage?

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back