The Real ‘Gulf Of America’ Is Between The News Outlets That Cover This Administration

Way back in the far more innocent times of 2012, we covered a brief but tense dispute between Google and Iran over the lack of a label for the Persian Gulf on Google Maps. Ostensibly so as not to upset anyone about the name of that body of water, given that there was some dispute over its name, Google just left it blank. Iran, not exactly known for its patience when it comes to perceived insults from the West, threatened to sue over it all. We had a bit of a laugh at that, wondering aloud both how any such lawsuit would work and, importantly, how any national government could be that petty about what appears on a map.

Fast forward to this week, when credentialed AP News reporters were barred from several press events in the White House. Why? Well, because the AP has refused to update its Stylebook, followed by a ton of other news outlets, to call the Gulf of Mexico by its newly decreed name, the Gulf of America.

The White House said Wednesday that news organizations that refuse to use President Donald Trump’s new name for the Gulf of Mexico were telling “lies” and insisted it would continue to bar Associated Press journalists from presidential events.

Trump has decreed that the international body of water — which borders Mexico, the United States and other nations — be called the Gulf of America. In its influential Stylebook, the AP said it would continue to use Gulf of Mexico, while also noting Trump’s decision, to ensure that names of geographical features are recognizable around the world.

This is all equal parts silly, dangerous, and twice an obvious infringement of the First Amendment. The silly portion of this is the most obvious. Taking any action against literally anyone simply because they don’t recognize that Trump put his scrawled signature on a piece of paper that renames an international body of water is beyond petty. That the Department of the Interior went along with this lunacy means nothing at all. That body of water has been named the Gulf of Mexico for something like four centuries. Trump’s EO doesn’t even rename the entire body of water; it intends only to rename the continental shelf portion of the body. Are you seeing how stupid this all is yet?

So why is it dangerous? Because the Orwellian themes are starting to be delivered at such a velocity that the term “Orwellian” is becoming stale. While the concept of “doublespeak” only tangentially comes from Orwell, it’s omnipresent in the administration’s comments on this whole dispute, as it also is with the talking heads the administration deploys to news outlets covering it. Calling the Gulf of Mexico by its historical name is not “telling lies.” In fact, saying so is a lie in and of itself, which is classic doublespeak. And we got even more doublespeak directly from Trump’s Press Secretary.

At a regular briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “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.”

This will result in a lawsuit, of that I have no doubt. The barring of reporters in retaliation for their protected speech is, as I said earlier, twice a violation of the First Amendment. It is both an attempt by a government body to regulate the protected speech , as well as an attempt to punish the press over that speech. All the constitutional lawyers and professors I’ve heard speak on this topic have spoken in unison: this is an open and shut case. CNN went through a similar issue when the first Trump administration revoked Jim Acosta’s press pass due to his tough questions (though a lame attempt to accuse him of pushing an intern’s arm was made as well), only to back down due to the lawsuit CNN filed.

Now, here’s where there is a real “Gulf of America”: among the press outlets covering this administration. While many news organizations out there follow the AP Stylebook, not all of them do. Here are some examples directly from the AP article, in fact.

—The New York Times said it would continue to use Gulf of Mexico, while noting Trump’s renaming in stories that discuss that issue. The gulf, which borders Mexico and Cuba as well as the United States, has been known as the Gulf of Mexico for more than 400 years.

—The Washington Post also said it would use Gulf of Mexico in most references because it “is not solely within the United States’ jurisdiction and the name of Gulf of America might confuse global readers.”

—Fox News said that, starting Sunday, it would use Gulf of America in all of its references.

In a real, well-functioning press pool, there would be an entirely different reaction to all of this. And that reaction would be for the different press outlets to band together and boycott Presidential briefings until the AP’s access and credentials were restored. All of these outlets live or die by the First Amendment, after all, and it should be the case that an attack on one of them is seen as an attack on all of them. Collective action is what we need here, but we are instead seeing collective inaction. If Fox News, for instance, wanted to act like an adult journalistic outfit, it would be joining other outlets and leading the damned charge on pressuring the administration to stop punishing other press outlets.

But if you can’t get that kind of action out of CNN, there’s fat chance of that happening.