courtesy of Cagle Cartoons, Inc.
The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook has been around for more than 70 years.
First published in 1953, it was then a booklet of only 60 pages “distilled from a thousand suggestions and ideas, a stack of newspapers and a big dictionary.”
Today, the AP Stylebook has become “the essential tool for anyone who cares about good writing,” and is used by journalists, writers, institutions and schools around the world.
In her “History of a Grammar Nerd’s Bible: Evolution of AP Style,” Gretchen Hoffman describes the Stylebook as the ”seminal authority on everything from the lack of a serial comma (usually) and the proper use of hyphens to continually evolving guidance on race, tech terms, religion and more…”
I still use my 2007, dogeared copy of the venerable Stylebook I purchased for my first and only journalism course nearly 20 years ago.
It has become my “bible” for whatever formal writing.
In view of the recent controversy about the name of the Gulf of Mexico, I decided to look it up in my Stylebook.
I should have known. There was no such entry. There is nothing unique, or difficult, or controversial about it. It is a name that the Gulf has carried for more than 400 years.
But when, on January 20, Trump, with the stroke of a Sharpie, renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, the Associated Press issued a statement pointing out the following:
• The Gulf of Mexico] has shared borders between the U.S. and Mexico. Trump’s order only carries authority within the United States. Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognize the name change.
• The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen. 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.
The AP added that the AP Stylebook will be updated to reflect the decision.
Apparently the White House is not happy with that decision and barred one of the AP reporters from an Oval Office event on Tuesday because it has continued to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its original name.
In response, the Associated Press issued a statement from Executive Editor Julie Pace asserting that “As a global news organization, The Associated Press informs billions of people around the world every day with factual, nonpartisan journalism,” and finding it “alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism.” Pace added, “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,” Pace concludes.
The New York Times quotes Eugene Daniels, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association:
The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions…The move by the administration to bar a reporter from The Associated Press from an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable.
Just as unacceptable as so many of Trump’s recent executive orders.
Perhaps Trump should be thankful that the AP Stylebook has not yet included the name recently cited by some, “El Lago del Gringo Loco.”
