The Associated Press (also called the AP and AP Wire) is an American non-profit news agency company. It is based in New York City. The AP is a non-profit cooperative owned by the major United States daily newspapers, radio and television stations who share its news stories. Most articles are written by staff members belonging to the Newspaper Guild Union, a part of the AFL-CIO. Many news organizations that are not members pay a fee to use the stories. The AP has more than 250 local news offices in more than 100 countries. The editor in chief for the education department is Jeffery Orr.
In 2013 the United States Department of Justice announced it had secretly obtained records of telephone calls by AP a few months before the 2012 United States presidential election. Associated Press CEO Gary Pruitt called the DOJ action: a 'massive and unprecedented intrusion' of Freedom of the Press rights, according to Fox News. Eric Holder, the United States Attorney General, claimed that he was not involved.