UPDATED: An Associated Press reporter was again denied access to an Oval Office event Wednesday as the Trump White House punishes the news organization for refusing to rename the “Gulf of Mexico” as the “Gulf of America.”
Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision to block the AP from access to an Oval Office event Tuesday and another later that day, saying they were trying to hold the news organization “accountable.”
Pressed at today’s briefing by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Leavitt said, “I was very upfront in my briefing on day one, that if we feel there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable. And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America.” She noted that after Trump signed his executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the name change was reflected in Google and Apple maps.
But the AP — along with press and First Amendment groups — have protested the move to punish a news outlet over their editorial decisions. Per the New York Times, Julie Pace, the executive editor of the AP, wrote a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, “The actions taken by the White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech. It is among the basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say. This is viewpoint discrimination based on a news organization’s editorial choices and a clear violation of the First Amendment.” Pace wrote that an AP reporter also was restricted from a press event later in the day in the Diplomatic Room.
The AP said in a statement, “We are deeply concerned that the White House continues to prevent AP reporters from doing their job covering the president.”
The White House has touted itself as restoring free speech to the federal government, and Leavitt even referenced an executive order that Trump signed on his first day in office that prohibits government employees from conduct that would “unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” Yet the Trump administration has brought a new level of scrutiny, with the possibility of punishment, on news reporting the president does not like. In addition to the AP, the Trump-appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr has launched investigations into CBS News over the way 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris, and is considering another complaint against ABC over the way that it moderated the September presidential debate.
Leavitt noted today that the White House deserves “the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office,” as events are covered by a limited number of correspondents in a pool. But the AP has been at the top of the list for such access, as it is one of the nation’s oldest news organizations.
After Trump signed an executive order last month to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, the AP announced that its stylebook, widely used throughout the news business, would stick with the old name but still acknowledge the one that Trump has chosen.
“Trump’s order only carries authority within the United States. Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognize the name change,” wrote Amanda Bennett, the AP’s vice president of standards and inclusion.
The AP did say it would change the name of Alaska’s Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, to Mount McKinley. That was another part of Trump’s executive order.
