The AP Raises Eyebrows For Politicizing Young Conservative Writer’s Death

Earlier this week, we shared with you the heartbreaking story of Bre Payton’s death.

Payton, a conservative journalist for The Federalist and Fox News regular, passed away suddenly after being found unconscious last Thursday. Doctors suspected she contracted “H1N1 flu and possibly meningitis.”

She was only 26.

Payton, who was based in Washington, was in California this week guest-hosting a show on the One America News Network. On Wednesday, Payton told her Twitter followers to tune in that night to see her on television.

But the next morning, according to the CaringBridge post, a friend found her “unresponsive and barely breathing.”

“She immediately called 911 and Bre was taken to the hospital where she was admitted to the ICU, sedated & intubated, and doctors began working up a diagnosis,” the post said. “After a CT scan and hours of testing, they have determined she has the H1N1 flu and possibly meningitis.”

The Federalist staff wrote in a post:

Bre brightened the lives of everyone around her. She was joyful, hard-working, and compassionate, and she leaves behind friends and colleagues for whom she brought nothing but sweetness and light.

Though we are heartbroken and devastated by Bre’s death, we are comforted in the knowledge that she was a woman who lived a life marked by deep Christian faith, trusting in her Savior, Jesus Christ – in the God who promises the way our story ends is that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.”

Now, many are horrified by the fact that the AP would politicize her tragic and untimely death.

Why is this necessary @AP? Bre Payton died suddenly at a very young age and you’re politicizing it? pic.twitter.com/P1sn7x7FwW

— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) December 29, 2018

They knew exactly what they were doing when they reduced her body of work to that particular comment. One might even call it a dog-whistle. I feel sorry for them.

— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) December 29, 2018

I don’t. I am disgusted by them.

At this point I feel pretty immune to media bias rage, but this just disgusting.

— Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) December 29, 2018

Though the AP reduced @Bre_payton ‘s journalistic output to “condemned fake news media,” she should be remembered as a prolific writer as well as a pundit; see her fantastic article on the homeless problem in DC’s NoMa, where both of us lived https://t.co/SAUjZiCld5

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) December 29, 2018

By reducing @Bre_Payton’s work to nothing but this, they actually manage to live up to the monicker TBQH. https://t.co/NemKFDfZuH

— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) December 29, 2018

And they mention it in the 4th paragraph before any positive quotes about her. Shameful.

— Patrick Hauf (@PatrickHauf) December 29, 2018

Of course. Because they don’t want their readers to lose interest before they know what “kind of person they’re dealing with here.”

AP just proved Bre Payton’s point.

— 🎄 Klasical Liberal🎄 (@KlasicalLiberal) December 29, 2018

Yup.