“Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office,” Pace wrote.
“Barring a journalist from an official event because their newsroom refuses to conform to government-imposed language is more than an attack on one reporter or outlet — it is an assault on the First Amendment and the public’s right to know,” National Press Club president Mike Balsamo said, adding that the administration’s decision was “a direct attack on press freedom.”.
‘Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask a president of the United States questions,’ the White House press secretary fumed.
“So the question here is – is this setting a precedent that this White House will retaliate against reporters who don’t use the language that you guys believe reporters should use, and how does that align with the First Amendment commitment you were just talking about?” Collins pressed the White House spokesperson.
When asked if the White House’s actions were “retaliatory in nature” and how they aligned with a commitment to freedom of the press, Leavitt insisted that the administration was merely holding “lies accountable” by blocking access to the AP.
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