According to a recent press briefing by Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, the Associated Press (AP) reporters are prevented from attending Oval Office press briefings. This comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf America. While some organizations are adopting the change, the AP is not.
According to a statement from the AP, it is an international news outlet that decides the style of writing for most news sources internationally.
“It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that,” said Leavitt.
This has brought up the debate on whether or not this is a violation of the first amendment.
New England College adjunct professor and former reporter Andy Hershberger said this is significant because of how things have been done traditionally.
“The White House said- the president said the AP is no longer allowed into those Oval Office sessions, which is kind of a big deal, because that is where you get one-on-one access or twenty-on-one access to the president, whereas down in the briefing room you only get the Whitehouse spokesperson. It really is sort of cutting them off from direct access to the presidency,” said Hershberger.
On Tuesday, Leavitt said the White House “will determine” which news outlets are allowed to regularly have up-close access to President Trump. Traditionally, there is a pool of independently chosen news organizations that cover the President up close.
Hershberger says this move has larger free speech implications.
“Our country is founded on- people are allowed to criticize anybody who’s in power. And I think this is a sad day for America,” said Hershberger.
