An AP reporter Wednesday was barred from attending White House events for the second straight day, as Donald Trump’s administration sought to justify its actions against media that refuse to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
A day earlier the Associated Press said its reporter was blocked from covering an Oval Office signing because the AP “did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order” that renamed the body of water as the Gulf of America.
On Wednesday the reporter for the 180-year-old media organization was again prevented from attending an Oval Office event, the swearing in of new Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Asked about the restriction, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration was guarding against media “lies.”
“We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office,” Leavitt told reporters, describing the act of asking questions of the US president an “invitation” and not a right.
“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.”
She noted how the US secretary of interior has officially designated the new name, and that Google and Apple have both complied with Trump’s executive order and made the changes on their popular map applications used in the United States.
In the Tuesday statement, Associated Press Executive Editor Julie Pace called the White House’s decision “alarming.”
“Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment” right to freedom of speech.
Trump has also ordered changing the name of North America’s highest peak from Denali to Mount McKinley, reversing then-president Barack Obama’s 2015 decision to officially recognize the name used by Alaska Natives for centuries.
In a style note last month, AP said Trump’s executive order “only carries authority within the United States.”
“As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” it added.
However AP said it would refer to Mount McKinley since it “lies solely in the United States and as president, Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country.”
