Blocking reporters from covering news events at the Oval Office. Ousting journalists from their working spaces in the Pentagon. Investigating public media companies that are often the targets of conservative attacks.
In the three weeks since he returned to the White House, President Donald Trump and his administration have moved beyond his usual anti-news media rhetoric to take a variety of actions that have limited some outlets’ access while hitting others with lawsuits and directives that critics say are naked attempts to bend news coverage to his will.
“I don’t know if Trump himself has a ‘game plan’ per se, but it is clear that the overall picture is of an Administration that disdains a free press,” Rebecca Hamilton, a law professor at American University, said in an email. “Their view — and this is evident from Trump’s rhetoric, his prior lawsuits, the Pentagon office space memo, and the FCC investigations — is that any media outlets that don’t align themselves with Trump’s agenda are the enemy. This reflects a fundamental disrespect for the principles underlying a democratic commitment to a free press.”
In what may be the most glaring example of that, Associated Press reporters were blocked from covering Trump at White House events for two days in a row after the AP continued to refer to the body of water just south of the United States as the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Gulf of America, the new name Trump gave it in one of many executive orders he has signed since he took office. The AP Stylebook, which many news outlets use, including NBC News, published an update two days after Trump renamed the gulf on Jan. 21 that said the AP will continue calling it the Gulf of Mexico “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”
“Punishing journalists for not adopting state-mandated terminology is an alarming attack on press freedom,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit group that advocates for First Amendment rights, said in a statement. “President Trump has the authority to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf. But he cannot punish a news organization for using another term. The role of our free press is to hold those in power accountable, not to act as their mouthpiece.”
But Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was unapologetic Wednesday, saying: “It’s a privilege to cover the White House.”
“And 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,” Leavitt said.
The White House didn’t reply to a request for comment.
The AP battle is only the most recent in a series of actions that Trump and his administration have taken, a significant escalation even beyond his first term, when he mostly kept to verbal barbs — though he did ban CNN’s Jim Acosta from the White House in 2018.
This time, Trump has been using the full power — and pushing the limits — of the presidency, installing some administrators who appear keen to act on his behalf.
Most active has been Brendan Carr, the newly installed Federal Communications Commission chair, who has wasted no time launching investigations against many of the media companies Trump often criticizes.
Carr has launched investigations into NPR and PBS — two media companies often targeted with conservative rhetoric over perceived liberal bias and their government funding — over on-air recognition of financial sponsors and into a San Francisco radio station over its broadcast of the live locations of federal immigration agents. The FCC has also reopened a probe of CBS for “news distortion,” which are rules around the “intentional falsification of the news” that it has rarely tapped in the past, and it reopened a probe of ABC over how it handled a debate between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Carr has also opened an inquiry into Comcast, the owner of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, over its promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“The FCC will be taking fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act … including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” Carr said in a letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, according to Reuters.
A Comcast spokesperson said in an email: “We have received an inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission and will be cooperating with the FCC to answer their questions. For decades, our company has been built on a foundation of integrity and respect for all of our employees and customers.”
Trump has long demonized DEI programs, most recently implying they were somehow responsible for the deadly collision of a commercial airliner and a military helicopter last month over the Potomac River.
Experts said pressure is mounting.
“The idea of the FCC investigating a media outlet for its DEI programs is certainly in line with President Trump’s orders” cracking down on DEI within the federal government, said Daxton “Chip” Stewart, a journalism professor at Texas Christian University. “I do think it’s extremely concerning. But Mr. Carr seems eager to launch investigations into any media that is not appropriately deferential to President Trump.”
Trump has in the past threatened to revoke broadcast licenses, which the FCC doles out (it decides which local TV stations can broadcast but doesn’t license the major networks themselves).
While the government doesn’t license national networks, it does license local TV and radio stations that use public airwaves (which include NBC affiliates). And even the threat of action by the FCC could make reporters who don’t have the resources to fight back pull their punches, experts said.
“Also important to recognize here is that whether or not any broadcaster is stripped over their license, or any reporter is sued, the mere threat of such action, backed by the power of the State, impinges on the ability of the press to report freely, and risks the emergence of self-censorship,” Hamilton wrote.
Media watchdogs and other journalists have already accused some of the country’s most respected news outlets of bending to Trump’s will.
Before the election, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times were harshly criticized for shelving their planned endorsements of Harris for president.
After the election, ABC agreed to pay $15 million as part of a legal settlement with Trump and put to bed a dispute that centered on an interview in which, Trump alleged, anchor George Stephanopoulos defamed him. Trump has also sued CBS in a personal capacity over its airing of an interview with Harris on “60 Minutes,” which Trump claimed was deceptively edited. CBS denied the allegation.
Meanwhile, CBS, under pressure from Carr and the FCC, disclosed the transcript of the “60 Minutes” interview.
On Jan. 31, the Defense Department announced that it was instituting a new “annual media rotation program” and dislodged several news outlets, including NBC News, from their Pentagon office spaces.
Taking their spots were three conservative news organizations and a progressive news outfit that doesn’t even have a Pentagon correspondent.
“There is no doubt that President Trump has an intimate understanding of the significance of the relationship between the media and the public,” Hamilton said. “That is why he is consistently shrinking the access of outlets whose reporting he doesn’t like and expanding the space for outlets with coverage he does like.”
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