I’m old enough to remember when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) ran ads on social media and radio spots that touted its objectivity and balanced coverage. Everyone saw through the ad campaign; the AJC has always been a largely left-wing rag since the slightly more conservative Atlanta Journal merged with the more liberal Atlanta Constitution in 2001.
Today, the AJC doesn’t bother with any pretense of objectivity — at least not when it comes to its social media ads. If you look at the AJC’s Meta ad library, you’ll see a slew of ads for anodyne articles that don’t have a political bent, but two ads prominently feature Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), and they read like press releases for the senator.
The first ad has been running since July 8, and it links to an article with the headline, “Back from paternity leave, Ossoff takes on Trump administration officials.”
The second ad featured a headline that reads, “Ossoff presses Georgia agriculture commissioner on Helene recovery money.” There must not be enough of it going to the neighborhoods around Emory University, where he lives (and where there wasn’t much damage).
“It is f***ing crazy,” an anonymous Georgia Republican told the Washington Reporter. “They are so in the tank for him. Half their stories are just ripping his press releases verbatim and putting the AJC masthead on it.”
The AJC isn’t currently running any ads that feature what Republicans in Georgia are saying or doing, save for one ad that links to an article in which Gov. Brian Kemp told state agencies to prepare for budget cuts. Another ad featured a story on a savings and loan corporation in metro Atlanta that defrauded its customers in a Ponzi scheme; the headline highlights the corporation’s ties to Republicans.
None of the AJC’s current ads feature the two Republicans running against Ossoff: Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins. Earlier this year, the AJC featured Team Ossoff’s survey that cherry-picked responses from pro-abortion OB-GYNs to dunk on Georgia’s pro-life law.
Related: Ossoff’s Pro-Abortion Survey of OB-GYNs Isn’t Quite the Flex He Thinks It Is
“The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has plenty of stories they could use for advertising, but instead they repeatedly boosted positive stories about a Democrat candidate for political office in one of the most competitive races in the country,” one state GOP operative told the Washington Reporter. “Providing cover for the most vulnerable Senate incumbent is not the ‘balanced environment for their readers’ that their mission statement promises.”
We probably should expect this from the newspaper that allowed an agenda-driven reporter with a history of prevarication to paste pieces of quotes together like a ransom note to push the patently untrue narrative that the University of Georgia’s football program was giving a free pass to players who abused women. The AJC also turned a tragic story of a football player’s death into tabloid fodder — with the same reporter co-writing that article, and the editor-in-chief condescendingly called the salacious reporting “asking accountability questions.”
This is the same paper that platformed Geoff Duncan, the one-term former lieutenant governor who left the GOP when Trump Derangement Syndrome. The AJC gave Duncan the space to write an op-ed in which he tried to convince Republicans to vote for Kamala Harris.
Needless to say, it shouldn’t surprise us that the AJC would fluff up Ossoff in its coverage. But to use ads on social media to subtly give him more favorable coverage is beyond the pale. I’d like to hope that the AJC would do better, but I’ve seen enough not to get my hopes up.
We reached out to the AJC for a comment or statement but received no response. If we do receive a statement, we’ll add it.
Tired of media bias? You’re not imagining it — and we’ve got the receipts. If you want more honest reporting and fearless commentary that holds the press accountable, become a PJ Media VIP today.
We’re offering 60% off with the promo code FIGHT — because that’s exactly what we’re doing: fighting back against the narrative.
