For my latest posting at Substack, I rise in defence of the historic US news agency Associated Press, which has been stripped on President Donald Trump’s orders of White House press access. Its crime? To stick to its style book and continue to call the Gulf of Mexico by that centuries-old name ….
A person’s common law name, I remember being taught decades ago, is the name by which he or she is known. Billy Fox can accordingly become, legally, Jimmy Knox simply by persuading everyone that’s now what he should be called.
If US law also sees it that way, Donald Trump’s weird executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America may be above formal reproach. If still weird.
No matter that for 400 years or more, the world has come to no harm by referring to that body of water as the Gulf of Mexico. Americans, or those who settle for saloon bar brawling in place of statesmanship, naturally welcome the change
Alterego's phoyo of the logo on the former AP building in New York
But what about an internationally respected American news agency that serves democracy so well by delivering solidly impartial coverage of current affairs from 94 countries?
Associated Press chose to stick with its universally recognised style book. It would acknowledge the White House’s renaming but continue to call the gulf what it always has.
Now this seems a classic case of a great institution acting in line with the new administration’s vociferous attachment to free speech. Haven’t Trump’s sidekicks and fanboys been busy insulting and lecturing Europeans on the very subject? In other words, AP was exercising the right to disagree that the president’s apologists have been loudly advocating.
Not so, decreed the president, promptly having AP reporters barred from White House media events and the press groups that fly with Trump on Air Force One. This a scandalous way treat a not-for-profit agency that has been serving society since 1846, collecting 59 Pulitzer awards along the way. Not-for-profit? Must be woke.
For Trump and his quislings, led by the deeply unappealing JD Vance, his vice president, free speech is people voting far right to stop immigrants or defying lawfully established buffer zones to “pray” outside abortion clinics, a form of worship that too often feels like crude harassment or worse to the women being “prayed” at.
AP is fighting back by suing three named White House officials: the chief of staff Susan Wiles, her deputy Taylor Budowich and the press secretary Karolîne Leavitt.
The writ cites the US constitution’s first amendment safeguarding freedom of the press, speech and religion and prevents the government from obstructing it.
The AP writ states: “The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government.
“This targeted attack on the AP’s editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment. This court should remedy it immediately.”
Trump’s team is perhaps too busy establishing its scarily authoritarian banana republic and sucking up to Putin, rewriting recent history so that the invaded becomes the aggressor, to care too much about domestic press freedom.
But in the interests of democracy, decency and accountability, the rest of the world should care a great deal - and say so.
The Donald in effigy form heading for a fittingly fiery end at the 2021 Lewes Bonfire
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