Second-Term Press Attacks: AP Banned, Journalists Arrested, Press Pool Restricted

Overview

The Associated Press has covered every presidency since 1865. It was excluded from the White House briefing room and press pool because it refused to change the words it uses for a body of water.

The administration's position was that its editorial preferences were a condition of access. The AP's position was that conditions of access cannot determine editorial content.

A federal court agreed with the AP.

The Gulf of Mexico

Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America." The order applied to federal agencies and federal documents. It did not and could not govern what news organizations called things.

The Associated Press follows the United States Board on Geographic Names, international conventions, and established usage. It continued using "Gulf of Mexico." The White House excluded it from the briefing room.

The exclusion was not about security. It was not about credentials. It was about which words the AP chose to use in its reporting — a question the government has never before successfully claimed authority over.

What Exclusion Means

The press pool is the mechanism through which journalists accompany the president, attend briefings, and gather information that is distributed to news organizations around the world. Exclusion from the pool doesn't just mean AP reporters can't attend events. It means the information gathered by pool reporters — the transcript of what the president said, the photographs, the video — reaches the public through organizations whose access was conditioned on their content.

A government that can condition access on editorial compliance can effectively control what information reaches the public about its own conduct.

The First Amendment Case

The AP's lawsuit argued what constitutional law has long established: government cannot condition access to public forums or government officials on the content of speech. The First Amendment's protection of editorial freedom extends to news organizations' decisions about terminology.

A federal court issued a preliminary injunction ordering AP's access restored. The litigation continued.

Meanwhile, the White House briefing room saw an influx of media organizations more sympathetic to the administration's preferred narratives, and reporters from traditionally credentialed outlets reported patterns of differential treatment in questions, access, and responsiveness.