OPINION: Trump Trying To Force World’s Biggest News Org To Bend To His Will

Maybe you don’t care that the president of the United States is punishing The Associated Press, but you should.

WASHINGTON ― Today The Associated Press, tomorrow ABC News.

Or CBS. Or CNN. Or Politico. Or The New York Times.

If you’re a normal American with a normal life and normal day-to-day worries, you probably haven’t heard that Donald Trump and his White House are punishing The Associated Press, the world’s premier wire service, for not getting in line and calling the Gulf of Mexico, as it’s been known for centuries, the “Gulf of America,” as per the new presidential decree.

The White House has barred the AP’s reporter from participating in the White House pool since Tuesday. On Thursday, the administration upped the punishment to keep the AP out of a news conference open to the entire press corps. And Friday, it announced that the banishment is now indefinite and has expanded to the AP’s traditional seat on Air Force One.

The AP’s crime? Updating its widely used style manual to advise that while Trump’s renaming of Alaska’s Mt. Denali back to Mt. McKinley was within Trump’s purview because the peak is wholly in U.S. territory, the Gulf of Mexico is another matter, and other countries are not referring to it as the Gulf of America.