Lots of lefty blogs have been going after AP's Ron Fournier lately, claiming that he's showing favoritism towards the Republican Party.

Now, FishbowlDC has learned that Ellen Hale, VP for Corporate Communications at the Assocaited Press, sent a memo to senior AP managers, in which she wrote: "As many of you know, some political groups and left-leaning blogs have aligned to organize a newspaper letter-writing campaign against AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier. The campaign started this weekend with an email writing push aimed at Kathleen Carroll and Mike Oreskes, but has now moved on to urge newspaper readers to write their local editors." As a result, Hale has distributed "talking points to help guide you as this issue plays out."

"In addition, later this week, Corporate Communications will go live with a robust new Elections page on ap.org that will provide some real estate to deal with these issues. It will highlight our Elections Team, include an archive of Ron's political analyses as well as those of other AP journalists."

For those who have the full talking points memo, feel free to shoot us an email (we'll protect you, don't worry) or drop it in our anonymous tips box.

UPDATE: "Politico, the blog" digs up the memo.