Why would AP give Moon cover?

You may recall the "Moon jumps the shark" story below. The Moon organization will now pay a hefty fine for poaching a rare breed of the animal. But the real oddity is the way the story has been covered by Associated Press.

Here's how the AP piece originally read:

In a recording of a 2003 sermon, Thompson unabashedly told his congregation just how far he believed that dominion extended, boasting that members of what he called the "Ocean Church" had spent more than a decade catching and selling baby leopard sharks to pet stores.

"We want the smaller the better," Thompson said.

Thompson bragged that a fellow church member had one day discovered a leopard shark pupping ground in mud flats along the bay and had returned with more than 100 baby sharks. He said pet stores would pay $20 per shark and sell them for home aquariums for $75 each.

Moon himself became excited when he learned about the shark-catching operation, Thompson claimed in the sermon.

"He told me, you know you need 20 boats out there fishing," Thompson said. "He had this big plan drawn out."

And here is the rewritten version of the story which AP distributed later in the day:

Moon didn't know about Thompson's operation, said the Rev. Phillip Schanker, a spokesman for the church.

(Emphasis added.) Ummm...I thought the press agency owned by Moon was UPI. Was I wrong? A news story was revised to cover-up an admission of Moon's culpability. Now that's power.