AP reports on the Democratic 'Massive Spending Bill'

Oh gee, it turns out that it's the budget the Republicans refused to pass last year....

Americablog:

The Associated Press just published a story about a "massive spending bill" those wild tax and spend Democrats are about to debate, you know, since they just love to spend our money.

Only problem? While that's what the title and first paragraph of the story imply, that's not what the story is about. In fact, the story is about how the Democrats are finally going to pass the budget that the Republicans refused to pass LAST YEAR - the budget that already went into effect last October.

So, the reason the spending bill is "massive" is because it takes all the budget bills that the Republicans failed to pass last year and lumps them into one big bill. So, yes, strictly speaking, it's a "massive" bill (because it's one bill, instead of the 13 separate bills (or so) that Congress normally passes to deal with appropriations). But by reading the AP headline, and the first paragraph, you get the impression that the Dems are feeding into their "big spender" stereotype, when in fact, they're not.

I don't think AP did this on purpose in order to slam the Dems. But I do think they did this on purpose in order to have a sensational headline and first paragraph. And putting aside the merits of sensationalism, you don't do it when it ends up misleading, and that is what it's doing.