AP Entertainment Editor Institutes Ban on Paris Hilton Coverage

The Associated Press decided to give up a major vice last week: its addiction to stories about Paris Hilton. In the past year, Hilton has appeared on the wire an average of twice a week.

The wire service's entertainment editor Jesse Washington sent a memo to staffers on Feb. 13 that said, barring any major events, the AP would not run any mention of Paris Hilton on the wire, according to the memo, which was obtained by the New York Observer.

In the Observer article Washington was quoted as saying, "There was a surprising amount of hand-wringing. A lot of people in the newsroom were saying this was tampering with the news." Washington added that one editor's response was: "This is a great idea -- can we add North Korea?"

The AP was largely successful in the experiment, but Washington said that, unfortunately, her name did pop up in a couple of stories.

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