GRAPEVINE, Texas (RNS) — Normally more likely to voice support for President Donald Trump’s decisions, attendees and speakers at a gathering of conservative Christian broadcasters expressed ambivalence this week about the White House’s resolve to bar The Associated Press from presidential events.
Speaking during a panel on “values-driven media” at the National Religious Broadcasters conference on Wednesday (Feb. 26), Cheryl Chumley, an opinion editor at The Washington Times, said she was “optimistic” after hearing the Trump administration was “booting a lot of the legacy media” out of the White House press corps and “opening the doors for alternative media.”
But fellow panelist Raymond Arroyo, a prominent host on the Catholic-focused Eternal World Television Network and occasional host of Fox News programs, disagreed, saying, “I’m not so sure I like that idea.”
Arroyo, who worked for AP early in his career, added later, “I would prefer seasoned reporters. A podcaster coming in, a comedian sitting in the chair once occupied by the AP, I don’t think that’s a good tradeoff.”
Arroyo said he once wrote for newsroom veteran Bob Novak, whom he described as “the dean of the Washington press corps,” and said Novak told him: “These people are your sources. They’re not your friends. Don’t forget that.”
“I never have,” Arroyo concluded. “When you get too close to the power of the source, it corrupts your vision.”
Earlier this month, the White House banned the outlet’s reporters from access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and events held at the White House because AP announced it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its traditional name, rather than the Gulf of America, the name Trump designated for it in a Feb. 9 executive order, signed as the president flew over the gulf on his way to the Super Bowl. (In a previous order, signed on Inauguration Day, Trump had directed the secretary of the Interior to “take all appropriate actions” to rename the gulf.)
The AP updated its style guide soon thereafter to clarify that, while “acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen,” it plans to refer to the region as Gulf of Mexico. In response, the White House blocked an AP reporter from covering certain Oval Office events, and on Friday AP filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the ban.
Some conservative outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax, have joined an effort to defend AP, signing a confidential letter addressed to the White House, according to Status News.
“The First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions. Any attempt to punish journalists for those decisions is a serious breach of this Constitutional protection,” the letter reads.
(RNS frequently partners with The Associated Press as part of a global religion reporting effort.)
On Tuesday, the White House also announced it would no longer allow the White House Correspondents’ Association to decide which organizations can take part in the designated press pool on Air Force One and at other events that can accommodate only a few reporters, saying a wider range of outlets, such as podcasts and streaming services, should be included in the pool, which traditionally draws only from major newspaper and TV outlets and wire services.
