The AP's voting policies: inconsistent?

A few years ago, the AP withdrew from the process that selects the BCS national championship participants. Its rationale was that journalists don't make news; they report it. Fine. I agree.
Yet the organization apparently still votes on individual players awards such as the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year citation. This became relevant when Brian Cushing won the award and failed steroid tests. Some are calling for the award to be rescinded. According to this Peter King Twitter post,


http://twitter.com/SI_PeterKing/status/13733098908

it appears that such a decision would come from AP HQ.

This begs the question: If the AP withdrew from helping select the college FB champion, why does it remain a player in selecting individual awards? The very existence of the Cushing award discussion is news. Another issue is clauses in many player contracts calling for bonuses for awards won. Don't these things constitute journalists making news?

Curious to hear others' thoughts. ...

 

Naming the players on an all-America team is akin to recognizing players on an all-state or all-county team. There's no harm in the recognition.

If your newspaper is choosing who's playing in the state championship game - that's an issue.

 

The problem with "recognizing," zebra, is that sometimes there's big money bonuses involved in those pro league awards. I would say AP is being inconsistent, at best.

 

Are they going to rescind Shawn Merriman's defensive player of the year award from the season when he sat out the first four games after testing positive for steroids?

The NFL's drug policy is an absolute joke. I'd bet 90% of all linemen and LBs are juicing.

 

AP writers are not allowed to vote for baseball's annual awards (MVP, CY, etc.)

 

There is a difference between voting for national championship participants and individual awards. I can understand the logic behind it, but I still don't agree with the Associated Press' actions. When the AP pulled out of the BCS, they shouldn't have continued voting for individual awards. If you claim that you can't become involved in one story, you can't turn around and openly vote in another event. It's an oxymoron.

 

But the AP picks its own player of the year, manager of the year, etc. Just as Cushing was the AP Defensive ROY, not chosen by the the fb writers assn.

 

Doesn't the AP have a policy that anyone with a contractual bonus for winning one of its awards is automatically ineligible? Or am I thinking of another organization?

 

The AP awards are chosen by various types of media, beat writers from papers, national writersn etc. The AP simply compiles the votes. The AP itself, writers, editorsn etc., do not participate in the voting.

 

Not inconsistent in the least. The awards you are referring to are the AP's awards, not league-sanctioned awards. AP actually does name a college football national champion -- the No. 1 team in the final AP poll. What it won't do is the work for any other organization or be involved in picking the teams that participate in any league's or organization's championship playoff.

 

I'm against journalists voting on anything because it can be time consuming for me to keep up with an entire state's prep teams for the polls and I dread the complaints each time I have to pick an all-area team.

 

I would say naming a person as the best at what he or she does is not the same as choosing which teams will play in a game. There's a bit of a difference there. In one scenario, you're bestowing an accolade. In another, you're organizing an outcome.