Fox News analyst Brit Hume addressed the White House’s war with the Associated Press in a curt Tuesday night tweet supporting the newswire’s refusal to use “Gulf of America” in its editorial guidelines.
“I agree,” wrote Hume, reposting a statement by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which condemned the White House’s decision to deny access to several AP reporters over the newswire’s editorial policy.
“Punishing journalists for not adopting state-mandated terminology is an alarming attack on press freedom,” the foundation wrote in an X post. “President Trump has the authority to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf. But he cannot punish a news organization for using another term.”
It added, “The role of our free press is to hold those in power accountable, not to act as their mouthpiece. Any government efforts to erode this fundamental freedom deserve condemnation.”
After President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico waterway as the “Gulf of America,” the AP announced that it would stick with the waterway’s 400-year-old former name so its global audiences can easily recognize it.
In response, the White House banned several AP reporters from covering events, prompting pushback from journalists. But Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down on the ban.
“I was very upfront in my briefing on day one that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable,” Leavitt said. “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, but that is what it is.”
In a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, AP executive editor Julie Pace said “the actions taken by the White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech,” according to The New York Times. “It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say.”
