The AP's voting policies: inconsistent?

AP will release who its voters are when the first poll of the year is issued in college football and basketball. It's generally a couple of senior writers in the area covered by each AP bureau (For example, in Northern California it's Ray Ratto of the SF Chronicle and Jon Wilner of the SJ Mercury-News in football). I've seen similar list when they issue the All-Pro teams ... again, beat writers from throughout the country, not AP staffers. AP even encourages its poll voters to share their ballot via blogs or columns ... which is certainly more than can be said for the coaches' poll!

 

Spnited make Jason Taylor, who actually won the award that year, sad.

 

I've always thought it was hilarious that the leadership of one of the largest newsgathering organizations on the planet was unaware that its poll was being used to determine who played in the national championship game for about five years.

 

Not only does the AP hand out awards; they also apparently take them back.
http://deadspin.com/5535741/associated-press-to-punish-brian-cushing-for-making-its-voters-look-bad?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+deadspin%2Ffull+%28Deadspin%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

 

Very slippery slope here.
If the award is rescinded, does Cushing have to give back the bonus money that came with it?

 

Based on what I'm reading, it appears that the AP is throwing out the original results and is holding a second round of voting. Still, I'm not sure how they could collect Cushing's bonus money without facing a big legal fight.

 

You know the best way to make sure re-voting doesn't become more prevalent: have the folks who voted for Cushing before vote for him again. That would send a message, but one that probbly gets too close to the truth. I think most fans and some - not all -- sports writers could care less if an athlete uses their body as a lab for science experiments. Let's just get it out there and we can stop with the charade of being ticked off when someone is caught doping.

 

Love it when AP gets high and mighty about ethical issues.

Try these two on for size:

*Suburban beat writer breaks the story that the local team is about to sign an important player to a long contract extension. AP takes his story, slaps "The AP has learned..." on it and passes it off as original work. The weak explanation? AP guy says he was working the story independently at the same time. Except the GM and agent swear they never got a call from AP guy.

*Local pitcher is working on a no-hitter. AP is stringing the game. Sixth inning, AP staffer shows up in the press box, ready to "cover" the no-hitter even though he hasn't seen the first six innings. Essentially he'll take the stringer's story and put his byline on it. Why? Because AP wants to show they staffed a big event, even though that's a fraud.