Associated Press reacts to White House decision to limit access: “a grave disservice to the American people”
The AP, Reuters, and other news agencies could see their access to the White House cut, which some in the media say represents “a grave disservice to the American people.”
Earlier in the second Trump adminstration, the Associated Press, or AP, had access to the White House cut because the outlet had not updated its Style Guide to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The AP has challenged the decision in the courts, as the case works its way through the judicial system, interim rulings have ordered that the outlet’s access be reinstated. However, the White House has argued that “the ability to pose questions to the President of the United States in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One constitutes a privilege extended to journalists, rather than a legally enshrined right,” and has not complied.
What are wire outlets and why have they been cut from the White House press corps?
This week, the White House took matters further by eliminating the seat in the press pool for newswires or news agencies.
The AP, Reuters, and Bloomberg are news agencies, meaning they operate a business selling breaking news copy to other organizations, which they can publish or incorporate into their own original reporting.
CNN’s Chief Media Strategist Brian Stelter posted on X that by “removing the wire position in the daily press corps rotation altogether,” the White House can side-step the orders of a federal judge.
The curtailing of the AP and other wires hampers the ability of other outlets that rely on their wire copy for their reporting, as is the case for many small local papers, which may not be able to afford having a reporter in Washington, DC.
Local papers could suffer as news agencies are eliminated from the White House press pool
The AP responds: “a grave disservice to the American people.”
On Tuesday, after the decision was announced, the AP released a statement describing the actions taken by the Trump administration as a “grave disservice to the American people,” and attacked the White House for what they see as “disregard [for] the fundamental American freedom to speak without government control of retailation.”
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