The White House barred a reporter for the Associated Press from the Oval Office on Tuesday as the outlet continues referring to the Gulf of America as the “Gulf of Mexico.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office renaming the body of water, noting the significance of the Gulf of America to the history and economy of the United States.
But the Associated Press has continued calling the Gulf of America by its former name, even after the Department of the Interior officially renamed the geographic feature.
The decision was reflected both in official government sources and in popular map applications made by Google and Apple.
The outlet revealed that an unnamed reporter tried to enter the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon and “was turned away.”
Another reporter “was barred from a late-evening event in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room.”
“The highly unusual ban, which Trump administration officials had threatened earlier Tuesday unless the AP changed the style on the Gulf, could have constitutional free-speech implications,” the Associated Press contended.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt affirmed that the White House made the right decision, rooting the new policy in the administration’s desire to hold legacy media outlets accountable for refusing to report truthfully.
“I was very upfront in my briefing on day one, that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable,” Leavitt said during a Wednesday news briefing.
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“It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I am not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that, but that is what it is,” she added.
“And it’s very important to this administration that we get that right, not just for people here at home, but also for the rest of the world.”
Julie Pace, the senior vice president and executive editor of the Associated Press, wrote a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles complaining about the policy.
“The actions taken by this White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech,” Pace wrote, per ABC News.
“It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say,” she continued.
There are other outlets, like The Washington Post and The New York Times, that will similarly continue saying “Gulf of Mexico” while noting that Trump made the name change.
But the style guide published by the Associated Press is highly influential, which may be why the White House is making sure that particular outlet understands the new approach toward the media.
In any case, we are seeing the Associated Press try to toe the line and simply losing anyway.
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