RTDNA Demands TWH Reinstate AP Journalists

The Radio Television Digital News Association is calling on the White House to reinstate immediately full access to the Oval Office and Air Force One for Associated Press reporters and photographers,

Recently, the Trump administration revoked the AP’s press pool designation for events occurring in the Oval Office and the president’s aircraft. A few days ago, it also denied an AP photographer access to Air Force One.

The White House’s stated reason for the move is that the AP Stylebook, which is relied upon by the Associated Press and countless other news organizations in the United States and around the world, continues to use the term Gulf of Mexico, even though President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office last month renaming it as the “Gulf of America.” The stylebook does make an accommodation for the use of “Gulf of America” in certain contexts, however.

That said, new reporting by Axios this week shows the reasons for the administration’s punitive actions against the AP go much deeper. The newsletter quotes a high-ranking White House official as saying, “This isn’t just about the Gulf of America. This is about AP weaponizing language through their stylebook to push a partisan worldview in contrast with the traditional and deeply held beliefs of many Americans and many people around the world.”

In other words, Axios reports, because certain White House officials and supporters of President Trump object to the stylebook-suggested syntax in question it is, essentially, “fake news” and an “enemy of the American people” – terms often used during the 2016 presidential campaign and the first Trump administration.

RTDNA believes, as it has throughout its 79-year history, that journalists and news organizations should be free to make their own decisions regarding language used in coverage, so long as that language is fair, accurate and contextualized appropriately.

“The current White House moves targeting one of the world’s oldest and most respected news outlets are outrageous and unacceptable,” said RTDNA President and CEO Dan Shelley. “It is the Trump administration, and not the Associated Press, that is trying to contort facts so that they align with its often divisive, and sometimes completely erroneous, version of the truth.

“We protest the administration’s actions in this instance and object to its effort to shape shift legitimate fact-based journalism to better resemble its alternative versions of the truth."

President Trump Teusday doubled down on his ban of the Associated Press from key White House spaces, saying the news organization would be denied access until they refer to the body of water previously known as the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

"We are gonna keep them out until such time that they agree that it's the Gulf of America," Trump told reporters at a Mar-a-Lago press conference on Tuesday. "We're very proud of this country, and we want it to be the Gulf of America."

"The Associated Press just refuses to go with what the law is and what has taken place," the president said, referring to an executive order he signed earlier this month that changed the gulf's name.