A newly-filed Associated Press lawsuit targets three Trump Administration officials who’ve barred the AP from attending White House events.
An Associated Press lawsuit filed last week over the “Gulf of America” dispute is asking a federal judge to stop the Trump Administration from blocking access to journalists. It specifically names White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Among President Donald Trump’s first executive orders was one to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech. Specifically, Trump officials want the AP to follow suit in referring to the body of water as the Gulf of America.
The AP maintains its Associated Press Stylebook, a style guide journalists around the world use. The purpose of that guide — like all others — is to create a sense of consistency among its users. That becomes important as news outlets share stories with fellow AP members. If they all follow the same style guide, there is less confusion and more consistency in style.
While the body of water has had several names over the past few centuries, the first reference of “Gulf of Mexico” on a world map dates back to the year 1550. That is the name people most commonly used since the mid-17th century.
Trivia master and Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings said the push to call the body of water the “Gulf of America” seems to have begun in 1999. That’s the year the U.S. Board on Geographic Names began receiving proposals for the new name.
Trump’s executive order governs federal organizations. Non-governmental organizations like Google announced they would rename the Gulf for American customers. For the rest of the world, their maps would keep the Gulf of America name.
That would make sense because outside of the United States, most people — if they have heard of the body of water at all — would know it by its long-standing name.
Associated Press sets reasonable AP Style rule on the new name
When questions came up about how to handle the name change, the Associated Press made a perfectly reasonable judgment. Since their style rules are global, not just in the United States, they tried for the best of both worlds:
The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.
As I pointed out, they’re not ignoring Trump’s order. In fact, they’re flat-out saying that users should refer to Trump’s order and, in doing so, mention the new name.
It’s not like they’re boycotting “Gulf of America.” But they’re also writing for an audience outside the 50 states that has never heard of anything other than “Gulf of Mexico.”
If anything, their solution helps educate the global community that the name change has been recognized by the USA. Otherwise, with no such explanation of Trump’s order, simply using the alternate name would confuse international readers.
That should be common sense.
But that, apparently, wasn’t good enough for the White House. Earlier this month, the White House began restricting access to AP journalists.
It’s petty and it violates the First Amendment
The American people have a right to know what’s going on in the White House. Journalists provide that critical access to the activities and actions of the government.
You can argue all day whether some “journalists” actually are journalists. Should podcasters, for example, who do little more than spread one-sided propaganda, have the same access that more traditional journalists legitimately have? That’s not for this post. You can debate that on your own blog.
The point is that traditional journalists like the Associated Press do and should have that right. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of the press, speech and religion and bars the government from obstructing any of them, the Associated Press lawsuit argues.
Trump himself said on Tuesday, “We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” the AP reported.
About 40 news organizations have signed onto a letter organized by the White House Correspondents Association, urging the White House to reverse its policy against the AP.
And get this: They included outlets like Fox News Channel and Newsmax, where many of the on-air commentators are Trump supporters.
Even they recognize there’s a problem with this.
That should tell you something.
