The top editor at the Associate Press says the ongoing dispute with the White House over the wire service’s refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” without caveat is “about something so much bigger” than what a body of water is called.
“This is about freedom of speech and that is a principle, a right that Americans across the political spectrum believe in deeply,” Julie Pace, who has been the AP’s executive editor since 2021, said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
“This is about whether the government can control the language that we use, that ordinary people can use, and it’s about whether the government can retaliate against you if you don’t use the language that they prefer.”
Before assuming her current role at the 179-year-old global wire service, Pace, 42, spent four years as the wire’s Washington bureau chief — a stint that overlapped with Trump’s previous term in the White House.
“We are standing up for that right, not just for the AP, but for all independent news organizations and for the public because we believe, again, that this is a principle, freedom of speech that all Americans, regardless of their political party, should believe in,” Pace said Sunday.
Shortly after Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order renaming the body of water the “Gulf of America,” the wire service issued guidance that said it would not update its influential stylebook to reflect the directive and that its reporters “will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”
The White House responded by restricting the AP’s access to the Oval Office and Air Force One. The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) and individual media outlets had come out in support of the AP.
The AP is challenging the White House’s actions in court, with a hearing expected later this month.
“We certainly hope that it results in us being allowed back into cover White House events because we’re there to be the eyes and ears for Americans and people around the world,” Pace said.
The Trump administration announced last week a major change to how it’s covered, taking over assignments to the press pool that covers the president. The WHCA blasted the move.
“This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps,” the organization said.
