Media Playing Catch-Up on Van Jones Story

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Mum's the Word

The resignation of President Obama's green jobs "czar," Van Jones, might have come as a shock if you do not watch cable news. In fact, the "big three" evening news casts and two of the nation's most-prominent newspapers barely covered the story.

There was no mention of Jones by CBS, NBC, ABC, The Washington Post or The New York Times on Wednesday — the night Jones' first issued an apology for past statements.

The same was true on Thursday, although a Washington Post blog picked up the story. That night Jones again apologized for a slew of old remarks and the signing of that petition that alleged the Bush administration was behind the 9/11 attacks.

ABC and NBC failed to cover the story on Friday, although CBS finally did.

There was no mention from the "big three" evening newscasts or The Times print edition Saturday. But The New York Times blog finally addressed the story as did the print edition of the Post.

And on Sunday — the morning after Jones' middle-of-the-night resignation — it was too late for the papers, but the three evening newscasts filed reports.

The New York Times print edition finally ran its first mention of the story on Monday, on the lower-half of the front page.

Pleading With the Press

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has condemned the Associated Press' decision to release a photograph of a U.S. Marine wounded in Afghanistan, who later died from his injuries. The Marine's family asked twice that the photograph not be published. Gates pleaded with the AP's president writing in a letter: "Your lack of compassion and common sense... is appalling."

The leader of the largest veterans association also criticized the release as did former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin who called it a "despicable and heartless act by the AP."

Santiago Lyon, the wire service's director of photography, defended the decision calling it a "journalistic duty to show the reality of the war [in Afghanistan], however unpleasant and brutal that sometimes is."

Gotcha!

Two newspapers in Bangladesh were left red-faced after publishing a fake news story as fact. The papers ran an article from the satirical Web site The Onion stating that astronaut Neil Armstrong had admitted his 1969 moon landing was part of an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the government.

After both papers printed apologies, Hasanuzzuman Khan, associate editor of The New Nation, told the French Press Agency: "We thought it was true so we printed it without checking. We didn't know The Onion was not a real news site."

— FOX News Channel's Lanna Britt contributed to this report.