Into the memory hole

Little Green Footballs took note yesterday of a preposterous Associated Press cutline attached to one of the wire service’s photos of Muslims raging against Danish newspapers’ reprinting of the Muhammad caricatures that touched off the Cartoon Jihad in 2006:

“Pakistani human rights activists burn a Danish flag at a protest rally to show their anger over the reproduction of Prophet Muhammad cartoons in Denmark, Thursday, Feb. 21, 200, in Gujaranwala, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Aftab Rizvi)”

AP’s characterization of religious zealots demanding the curtailment of the human right to free expression as “human rights activists” elicited incredulity and raillery in the blogosphere – enough so to prompt a lame attempt by AP to cast the gaffe into the memory hole. The cutline now reads:

“Supporters of Al Fareed Welfare Society burn a Danish flag at a protest rally to show their anger over the reproduction of Prophet Muhammad cartoons in Denmark, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008, in Gujaranwala, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Aftab Rizvi)”

OK, so it’s SOP for news services to provide updated versions of items that prove erroneous. But why didn’t one of AP’s editors catch so egregious a misnomer in the first place?

Perhaps because it's also SOP to defer to the sensitivities of Muslim stringers.