This is so typical of right-wing “media criticism: Yelling, 'Biased!' without having any evidence to back it up. We've seen it most recently in the phony debate over NPR, and now NewsBusters take a swing at Associated Press for its allegedly unfair news coverage.

But oops, NewsBusters can't be bothered to cite a single AP example to prove it's point. (Telling, don't you think?)

Headline:

AP's Expired Contract May Explain Much of Its Union-Sympathetic Wisconsin Coverage

In fact, the NewsBusters item is about how the News Media Guild's contract with AP expired in November and that negotiations between AP and its unionized workers continue. The item also highlights various provisions of the expired contract, which still applies to AP workers while negotiations continue. Period. That's it.

What about the claim that that expired contract has tainted AP's journalism, and specifically its reporting from Wisconsin, as alleged in the NewsBusters headline?

Nope. There's not a single reference to AP's Wisconsin union coverage, let alone any claims AP was “union-sympathetic” while reporting that story. None. NewsBusters simply concocted that attack for the headline.