AP Bureau Chief To Rove: "Keep Up The Fight"

Buried in a 50-page report titled "Misleading Information From The Battlefield" on Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch is this nugget:

"Karl Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line "H-E-R-O." In response to Mr. Fournier's e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this," to which Mr. Fournier replied, "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

Fournier is now the AP's Washington Bureau Chief.

***UPDATE 8:24pm ET, July 14, 2008***

In a story that crossed on the AP wires, Fournier is quoted as saying he was simply interacting with a source in the course of his duties as a political reporter, and regrets the "breezy nature of the correspondence."

From the AP story:

The committee cited one exchange between White House political chief Karl Rove and Ron Fournier, then a political reporter for The Associated Press.

In a chain under the subject line "H-E-R-O," Rove replied to an e-mail from Fournier by saying, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this?"

Fournier replied, "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

Fournier, now the AP's acting Washington bureau chief, said Monday: "I was an AP political reporter at the time of the 2004 e-mail exchange, and was interacting with a source, a top aide to the president, in the course of following an important and compelling story. I regret the breezy nature of the correspondence."

Comments

[Kassandra]

Actually, KKKKKarl wanted to know how to STOP America from producing women and men like this!

[S1m0n]

Pat Tillman? Isn't he they guy they had shot for not sticking to the company line?

Think Rove still thinks he's a H*E*RO now that his awareness of how he was lied to exploited has been made public?

[badtimes]

TPM had some info on AP/Fournier today.
I've noticed a lot of right-wing slant coming from AP lately.

[laocoon]

The title is totally misleading. this kind of misleading title seems to happen almost every day. we are not amused.

[Gasparilla]

What's misleading. Keep up the fight means keep doing what you're doing. Which I guess would mean helping to out CIA agents.
BUT, but but....he didn't. Wrong. He was giving her name to other reporters beside Novak BEFORE Novak wrote his column. The security oath that Rove took did not allow him to discuss or confirm classified information, which her name was, unless it was positively known that it was DECLASSIFIED. And Bush moved the goal posts on firing Rove. He originally said he would fire anyone "involved", and then when it became clear Rove was involved, Bush changed that to anyone charged.

[NC4Obama]

Explains all the pro McCain and Obama hit jobs the AP has been doing.

[Wildcatdiva]

WTF...Is Murdoch their boss too?

[whiteboyblues]

Whoa, I didn't know d o u c h e b a g s talked!?

[Blurp]

Surely he meant Lord Vader, yes?

[phlounder]

Is this the f!*king "liberal media" that we here so much about?

[rfstevens]

The new media sold out this country long ago.

[RTIII]

While it has always had completely pro-government propaganda elements, I believe that the shift to ONLY completely pro-government propaganda elements during Reagan's first term, oh, '82 or thereabouts.
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