The Associated Press is at it again, proving once more that the mainstream media can’t resist bending the narrative to fit their agenda.
While reporting on the verdict in the Daniel Penny trial, the AP omitted crucial context and key facts that paint a much fuller picture of what actually happened on that fateful day in May 2023. Instead of giving readers a clear understanding of the events, the AP opted for a misleading headline on X (formerly Twitter), calling Jordan Neely simply a “subway rider.”
Here’s what the AP left out: Neely wasn’t an ordinary subway rider minding his own business. He was a career criminal with 42 prior arrests spanning nearly a decade. Those arrests included charges for assault, transit fraud, and criminal trespass, and at the time of his death, Neely had an active warrant for a 2021 assault. On that May day, witnesses reported Neely was threatening to kill passengers on the train. It was in response to this very real and immediate threat that Marine Daniel Penny stepped in to protect innocent lives.
This wasn’t some act of “vigilantism,” as the AP falsely described it in their reporting. It was an act of courage by a citizen willing to put himself on the line when others were in danger. Penny’s actions were not premeditated—they were a response to a man with a long history of violence creating a terrifying situation for everyone on that subway car.
BREAKING: Daniel Penny, the veteran who used a chokehold on subway rider Jordan Neely, has been acquitted in Neely’s death. https://t.co/IgpbkV2w7s
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 9, 2024
Adding insult to injury, the AP’s portrayal of Neely’s father as a grieving, devoted parent conveniently ignores the fact that Neely had reportedly been estranged from his family for years. It’s another example of the AP crafting a narrative that tugs at heartstrings while deliberately omitting facts that contradict their preferred storyline.
The Associated Press isn’t just reporting the news—they’re shaping it to fit a leftist worldview. By glossing over Neely’s criminal history and the immediate threat he posed, the AP implicitly villainizes Penny and whitewashes the reality of what led to Neely’s death. This isn’t journalism; it’s propaganda dressed up in respectable bylines, pumped out to hundreds of outlets across the country.
Jordan Neely’s father Andre Zachary, who abandoned him as a child, placed him in foster care after his mother’s murder when he was a teenager, and did not care about him while he was homeless says “I miss my son” and “this system is rigged.” pic.twitter.com/g6KMWNcXJE
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 9, 2024
The real story is one of a city grappling with rising crime, public safety, and citizens like Penny forced to make split-second decisions when the system has failed to protect them. The AP’s refusal to acknowledge this context doesn’t just mislead readers—it undermines the trust Americans should be able to place in a supposedly neutral press.
