The Associated Press Gets Exposed

Corporate media pearl-clutching has reached a new climax in recent days following the White House’s decision to bar Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One over the outlet’s refusal to recognize the name change of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. But while this may seem like a petty squabble, the incident has drawn broader attention to the AP’s blatant liberal bias, shredding the outlet’s veneer as an independent, nonpartisan news source.

The saga began on the first day of Trump’s second term, when the 47th president signed an executive order implementing the name change. Then, earlier this month, the federal Board on Geographic Names formally changed the name of the body of water in question to the “Gulf of America.” On February 9, as Trump was en route to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, he declared it the first-ever “Gulf of America Day.”

The name change quickly became a hit with the public, with several companies selling “Gulf of America” themed merchandise. Google and Apple also both changed “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” on their maps applications.

But the AP stubbornly refused to acknowledge the change, continuing to refer to the “Gulf of Mexico” in their stories. The outlet says its guidance “will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”

In response to the AP’s decision, the Trump administration barred AP reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One – special privileges granted to only a select few outlets. “Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the President of the United States questions,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “That is an invitation that is given.”

“The Associated Press continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change of the Gulf of America,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich added on X. “This decision is not just divisive, but it also exposes the Associated Press’ commitment to misinformation. While their right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting is protected by the First Amendment, it does not ensure their privilege of unfettered access to limited spaces, like the Oval Office and Air Force One.”

The AP unsurprisingly has remained indignant about the move. “It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” the news wire service stated. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”

Of course, nothing in the First Amendment guarantees any reporter or outlet direct access to the president.

Moreover, as Isaac Schorr recently argued in an opinion piece for The New York Post, the AP is hardly the “independent, nonpartisan” outlet it claims to be.

“In both its journalism and its stylistic edicts, the AP is neither independent nor nonpartisan,” Schorr writes. “Indeed, its product bears a closer resemblance to those of other left-wing infotainment companies like MSNBC and CNN than the buttoned-up wire service it presents itself as.”

One need only look at the AP’s coverage of Trump’s second inauguration to see that Schorr is exactly correct. “Beneath a veneer of calm, Trump’s inauguration holds warning signs for U.S. democracy,” a January 21 headline reads, adding later in the piece that “the head-spinning developments of Trump’s first day back in power suggested there will be no lack of controversy during his second term.”

The Associated Press Stylebook, which is the de facto authority on language and style for most academic and journalistic endeavors, is also awash in liberal bias and blatant misinformation.

For instance, the Stylebook instructs reporters to use the modifiers “anti-abortion” and “abortion-rights” but to not use “pro-life,” “pro-abortion,” or “abortionist.”

The Stylebook also says reporters shouldn’t “use the terms illegal immigrant, unauthorized immigrant, irregular migrant, alien, an illegal, illegals or undocumented (except when quoting people or documents that use these terms).” Instead, “acceptable variations include living in or entering a country illegally or without legal permission. For people: immigrants lacking permanent legal status.”

This change was on full display last year following the gruesome high-profile murder of nursing student Laken Riley by criminal illegal alien Jose Ibarra. According to the AP, the killer was simply an “Athens man.” (But perhaps this should be unsurprising given the AP’s 2021 instructions to not refer to the situation at the border as a “crisis.”)

The Stylebook has likewise embraced the transgender movement’s crusade to twist and distort language to meet its ideological ends. In 2017 the AP Style Blog published an article “making a case for the singular ‘they.’” In 2022, the Stylebook issued an official update claiming that “gender is a spectrum, not a binary structure consisting of only men and women, that can vary among societies and can change over time.” So-called “preferred pronouns,” no matter how absurd, are now the official mandate of the Stylebook as well.

That the AP is now choosing to dig its heels in over renaming a body of water off the coast of the United States as “the Gulf of America” underscores just how ideologically captured the outlet has become.

Regardless, millions of people still turn to the AP for their news and hundreds of outlets reprint AP stories because of the outlet’s reputation as a fair and unbiased source of information. But the Trump White House may have finally exposed the truth.

AMAC Newsline contributor Matt Lamb is an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.