This is a column about football, but not really. It’s a column about Brett Favre, but it could just as easily be a column about the state of awareness of our entire citizenry.

Today, a lot of people think that Minnesota Vikings quarterback Favre has informed the Vikings he is retiring. But he hasn’t. The reason they think this is that the Associated Press reported it. There was the headline, right there on the front page of Yahoo! News: Favre informs Vikings he will not return.

They know nothing.

One problem with this headline: That never happened. The AP reported that it happened because the AP used its typically sloppy method of journalism in dealing with the story.

Did the AP hear this from Favre? No. Did they hear this from Vikings head coach Brad Childress or from a member of the team’s front office? No. Did any of the above make an announcement concerning Favre’s plans? No.

Instead, the AP quoted “a person with knowledge of the situation,” and this person claimed to have information that Favre had sent texts to some of his teammates reading, “This is it.”

That’s it. That’s all the AP had. That’s it. Second-hand, ambiguous innuendo from a source too cowardly to even give his name.

If you’ve had the first week of journalism 101, you know that this is not enough to run with anything. You’ve granted anonymity to a source with no compelling reason to deserve it, who can’t even back up his supposition about what his supposed information means.

Hey, AP: You. Had. Nothing.

But the AP’s standards of reporting have sunk so low, it not only employs these abominable methods, it clings to its “reporting” like grim death even after it’s become obvious it was wrong. Because the rest of the media still repeats the AP’s drivel for some reason, yesterday became a a non-stop FavreFest, with everyone from ESPN to NFL Network to the Minneapolis-area newspapers treating the Favre retirement meme as if it were stone-cold fact, even though Childress had told them flat out he had heard nothing from Favre.

Finally, late in the day, NFL Network’s Steve Mariucci reported having spoken directly with Favre, who told him he had made no decision. Not only that, but when asked directly if he would play if his surgically repaired ankle proved health enough, Favre replied, “Sure.”

But the AP is never wrong, so today the AP is reporting these latest developments as some sort of “flip flop” on Favre’s part. Why, yesterday he was retiring, and now he’s flip-flopped!

No. Yesterday he said no such thing. Yesterday you reported – erroneously – that Favre was retiring. You were wrong! Your take on today’s news should not be “Favre flip flops” but rather, “AP wakes up with egg on its face.”

Now, why does this matter beyond the football world? It matters because this is how the AP reports all other news, too. This is how the AP reports economics. This is how the AP reports business news. This is now the AP reports on politics and policy. It is constantly quoting “people with knowledge of the situation” without telling us who these people are, what their credentials are, or why it was necessary to allow them to be anonymous.

And while the AP is by far the worst offender, it is certainly not the only offender. The world of journalism has changed in some very troubling ways, to the point where media outlets today value being first on a story without the slightest regard for whether the story is accurate, or whether there is even a story at all.

Just think back to the crafting of ObamaCare, when it seemed the “facts” were changing by the hour about what would be in the bill, what would be out and who was supporting what. That was because any source would do, and any source was welcome to leave his or her name out of the story to protect his or her ability to peddle complete bullshit without any repercussions whatsoever.

The AP was once the gold standard for just-the-facts reporting. It is sadly still treated with the kind of reverence it once deserved by other media who pick up its stories, but haven’t picked up on the complete collapse of its journalistic standards.

The AP’s “person with knowledge of the situation” is the most untrustworthy person in America. He is a coward. He is usually out of the loop. He invariably has an agenda. And he is impossible to hold accountable.

And yet the AP trusts him implicitly, and the rest of the legacy media trusts the AP in just the same way, which is why you should trust their stories even less than you trust a Brett Favre retirement announcement. Because at least with Favre, the truth will come out one way or the other when the season starts. The media will hide behind its works of fiction forever.

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