Establishment media are weighing whether or not to boycott White House events to support the Associate Press’s feud with the White House press office, allowing “Breitbart … to take their places,” CNN reported Friday.
Because the AP refuses to recognize the “Gulf of America” as its official name, the White House barred its reporters from covering three events in the Oval Office, causing the AP to threaten legal action.
WATCH — “Even Bigger than the Super Bowl” Trump Signs Proclamation Creating Gulf of America Day:
“Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president of the United States questions,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. “If we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter, who falsely claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation, wrote Friday that many of his media colleagues have suggested a “mass boycott” of White House coverage, allowing “Breitbart … to take their places”:
President Donald Trump designated the “Gulf of America” name change in January, and Google Maps and Apple Maps updated their maps to reflect the new Gulf of America designation, but the AP remains stubborn.Many readers have asked me what other news outlets are doing to support The AP. Some have suggested a mass boycott is in order. Consider the possibility, however, that the Trump White House wants this fight. Wants journalists to act like opponents instead of observers. If the entire press pool skipped a Trump photo op in solidarity with The AP, wouldn’t the White House welcome Breitbart and One America News to take their places?
My sense is that The AP’s editors and their peers at other media institutions are having backchannel conversations about what to do. “We have to be strategic,” one top editor told me, and keep covering the White House without just accepting how The AP is being treated.
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The AP, meanwhile, is moving ahead with a potential legal challenge. As one staffer remarked, “it’s hard to come up with a clearer case of viewpoint discrimination.” The AP, this staffer said, would argue that “motive has already been established” through Karoline Leavitt’s comments to Kaitlan Collins at the press briefing on Wednesday.
The AP’s decision to spurn the name change is contrary to its past updates to its style guide. In 2020, for instance, it updated its style guide of “black” people to “Black” people.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
