The Associated Press Is Dumber Than a Box of Hair

: Image via CrunchBase

The members of the Associated Press are becoming the Soup Nazis of the internet.

Not only do they not see the benefit in people virally spreading their news stories via the web, they are now threatening those who do so - even when the alleged violator is an Associates Press affiliate and merely embedding a clip from the Associated Press' official YouTube channel.

Yes WTNQ, a country radio station located in Tennessee, received a cease-and-desist order from the Associated Press vice president of affiliate relations for posting video clips on it website from the Associated Press' own official Youtube channel.

The best part - wait for it - WTNQ is an Associated Press affiliate!

This is like General Motors telling Ford to stop ripping off its products...lol.

Apparently, nobody told the A.P. exec that the news organization had its own YouTube channel that the A.P. itself maintains control over.

Here is a tweet from Frank Stovel, an employee at the radio station who tried to reason with the Associated Press exec:

I was on the phone arguing w/ AP today. We were embedding their YouTube vids on our station’s site. We’re an AP affiliate.

He adds:

They asked us to taken them down. I asked, “Why do you have a YouTube page w/ embed codes for websites?” Still… they said NO.

Finally, here is a Skype interview with Stovel that underscores the absurdity of this whole mess. Let's hope the Associated Press gets a clue. Without the internet, they are as good as dead. Google knows it and Eric Schmidt has all but said so...