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Tag: Associated Press
June 6, 2025
William Upton
Lawfare
Media

Court Says Trump CAN Ban Fake News AP From White House.

PULSE POINTS:

❓What Happened: A federal appeals court has stayed a lower court order that forced President Donald J. Trump to allow the Associated Press (AP) to have White House access. The judicial panel found that the Trump White House is likely to ultimately succeed against the litigation brought by the AP.

👥 Who’s Involved: President Donald J. Trump, the Associated Press, and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

📍 Where & When: The ruling was issued on Friday, June 6, 2025.

💬 Key Quote: “The White House is likely to succeed on the merits because these restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion,” the justices found.

⚠️ Impact: The stay order means the Trump White House can move forward with their decision to bar the Associated Press from White House events and press pool privileges on Air Force One and other presidential venues.

IN FULL:

A federal appeals court has ruled that President Donald J. Trump can ban the Associated Press (AP) from White House access. On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down an order staying a lower court ruling that had ordered President Trump to restore press access to the AP, stating: “The White House is likely to succeed on the merits because these restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion.”

“The White House therefore retains discretion to determine, including on the basis of viewpoint, which journalists will be admitted,” Circuit Court Justices Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas write, adding: “Moreover, without a stay, the government will suffer irreparable harm because the injunction impinges on the President’s independence and control over his private workspaces.”

The ruling follows a Federal District Court decision in April to issue an injunction against the Trump White House’s ban on the AP. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, at the time, determined that the ban was “contrary to the First Amendment” and ruled that the Trump White House must “put the AP on an equal playing field as similarly situated outlets, despite the AP’s use of disfavored terminology.” The AP was initially banned from the White House over the publication’s refusal to use the official government term, the “Gulf of America,” instead of the “Gulf of Mexico.”

Friday’s decision marks a significant legal win in the ongoing lawfare efforts by the Democratic Party and allied organizations to undermine President Trump and his agenda. Federal judges have controversially intervened in the America First leader’s efforts to deport dangerous and criminal illegal immigrants from the country, with Trump allies accusing the courts of overstepping their constitutional authority and interfering with executive branch powers.

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February 25, 2025
William Upton
Politics

‘The Winning Continues,’ WH Press Sec. Declares After Judge Rejects AP Lawsuit.

U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden has rejected an Associated Press (AP) emergency motion to restore their access to the White House press briefing room and Air Force One. Following the ruling, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declared, “The winning continues.”

The AP has been barred from White House and Air Force One access for nearly two weeks after the corporate media outlet refused to update its style guide to reflect President Donald J. Trump‘s order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Notably, major tech companies that provide map and direction apps, like Apple and Google, have made the change. The AP remains an outlier in refusing to make the name change even among their corporate media colleagues.

“The judge’s denial of the Associated Press’s request reinforces what I said from the podium last week and what President Trump has been saying, covering the American presidency—and the most intimate and limited spaces in this White House, in the Oval Office, on Air Force One—is a privilege,” Leavitt said following Judge McFadden’s ruling. “It is not a legal right.”

While Judge McFadden refused to grant temporary relief to the AP, he has set another hearing in the matter for March 20. The AP contends that the White House ban is an infringement on their First Amendment press rights and the requirement to use the Gulf of America is an infringement on their First Amendment speech rights.

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U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden has rejected an Associated Press (AP) emergency motion to restore their access to the White House press briefing room and Air Force One. Following the ruling, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declared, "The winning continues." show more
September 6, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Media

AP Deletes Tweet Falsely Claiming JD Vance Belittled School Shooting.

The Associated Press (AP) has deleted a disingenuous article claiming former President Donald J. Trump‘s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, described school shootings as “a fact of life.” The supposedly impartial news wire service had taken the Ohio lawmaker grossly out of context, with his full quote on the subject of a recent shooting in Georgia being, “I don’t like this. I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life, but if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you’ve realized that our schools are soft targets, and we have got to bolster security at our schools.”

Vance also said, “If these psychos are going to go after our kids, we’ve got to be prepared for it,” stressing: “We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it.”

AP acknowledges it provided only a “partial quote”—eagerly seized upon by the Kamala Harris campaign—in a social media post sharing its replacement article. However, it has stopped short of issuing an apology.

REPUTATIONAL DAMAGE.

The news agency received heavy criticism for its misleading reporting. The scandal follows X (formerly Twitter) owner and tech mogul Elon Musk stating, “AP stands for Associated Propaganda,” in response to another questionable report on “Right-wing influencers [being] duped to work for [a] covert Russian influence operation.” This was illustrated with a photograph of Donald Trump, despite the fact that most of the influencers were not Trump supporters.

The “fact of life” article is not the first article on Vance that AP has had to delete. In July, a gratuitous “fact check” centered on a false claim about the vice presidential hopeful having “sex with a couch” was taken down, with the new agency admitting the article “didn’t go through our standard editing process.”

“This is yet another case of the fake news media brazenly lying about a Republican politician,” Vance’s spokesman William Martin told The National Pulse.

”Senator Vance said exactly the opposite of what the Associated Press claimed. It should come as no surprise that the AP lost any and all credibility it had years ago, because they will lie about literally anything in order prop up the Democrats. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has called for all police officers to be removed from schools, putting children all over America at risk. It’s yet another example of how Kamala Harris’s weak, failed, and dangerously liberal agenda makes her unfit for office.”

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The Associated Press (AP) has deleted a disingenuous article claiming former President Donald J. Trump's running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, described school shootings as "a fact of life." The supposedly impartial news wire service had taken the Ohio lawmaker grossly out of context, with his full quote on the subject of a recent shooting in Georgia being, “I don’t like this. I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life, but if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you’ve realized that our schools are soft targets, and we have got to bolster security at our schools.” show more
June 10, 2024
William Upton
Media

CNN Layoffs Loom As Network Inks Deal With Associated Press.

The consolidation of the corporate media entities continues apace, with CNN set to feature Associated Press (AP) content on its website for the first time in nearly 15 years. CNN staffers fret that the move, pushed by the network’s CEO Mark Thompson, is a prelude to layoffs as the corporate news organization moves away from original reporting.

The CNN-AP deal is the latest in a line of schemes to revive the network’s collapsing audience. In late May, it was revealed the network logged its lowest primetime ratings since 1991. According to Nielsen data, the network’s 8 PM to 11 PM programming from May 13 through May 19 attracted only 83,000 viewers among the coveted demographic of 25-to 54-year-olds.

Since taking over the corporate news network late last year, Mark Thompson has bounced between cost-cutting measures and revenue schemes seemingly aimed to accelerate CNN’s descent into irrelevance. The National Pulse reported in January of this year that the network is considering ways to make people pay to watch news clips on their cell phones as people increasingly turn away from cable news. In February, Thompson announced drastic cuts to staff salaries, including some of their top newsroom talents.

MEDIA MONOPOLIES.

While CNN’s content deal with the AP is unlikely to push the audience needle in the network’s favor, the move does highlight an ongoing concern regarding consolidation in American media. As media ownership becomes increasingly concentrated, the political bias of the corporate media will likely become more amplified—as will their ability to censor conservative and populist voices. Even more concerning, local and independent outlets are not immune from the Democrat’s media monopoly.

Billionaire globalist George Soros is trying to gain a controlling interest in Audacy, America’s second-largest radio broadcaster. A successful takeover would give Soros a 40 percent stake in the financially distressed company’s senior debt. This sizable stake could grant him significant control over the company as it resurfaces from bankruptcy.

In addition to the Audacy play, Soros has invested millions in buying Hispanic radio news stations and popular podcast platforms. In addition to the Soros investments, Democrat dark money groups like Arabella Advisors have also jumped into the media game, making significant investments in state and local newspapers and radio ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

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The consolidation of the corporate media entities continues apace, with CNN set to feature Associated Press (AP) content on its website for the first time in nearly 15 years. CNN staffers fret that the move, pushed by the network's CEO Mark Thompson, is a prelude to layoffs as the corporate news organization moves away from original reporting. show more
May 13, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Culture
Media

West Virginia Town May Get Transgender Mayor.

The Associated Press is pushing the mayoral campaign of Wheeling City Council member Rosemary Ketchum, the first openly transgender public official in West Virginia. While the press agency presents Ketchum as a nonpartisan figure focused on paving roads and other brass tacks local issues, he has a history of trashing Donald Trump on social media and executing far-left stunts in office.

The AP claims Ketchum’s focus is “address[ing] the community’s concerns, ranging from accessible public transit to support for small businesses,” and jabs at “GOP lawmakers’ focus on books bans and bathroom access.”

It concedes in passing that the City Council during Ketchum’s tenure declared racism a “public health crisis” in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, however, and symbolically banned “conversion therapy” of homosexual and transgender persons.

As for Ketchum’s claimed rapport with Trump voters and people “uncomfortable” with “gender nonconformity,” the official has an extensive history of attacking Donald Trump and his supporters online.

Ketchum, who was transitioned as a minor, supported Trump’s impeachment, branded his administration “hateful, vicious, and dangerous,” and claimed his supporters lack “critical thinking skills, self-awareness, and empathy.” He also attacked First Lady Melania Trump as a “complicit, lying, birther” and pushed the hoax story alleging the former president called America’s First World War dead “losers.”

After then-President Trump excluded transgenders from the military in 2018, Ketchum penned an article demanding he be allowed to serve. However, two years later, believing war was a real possibility, he posted on social media celebrating the fact he could not be conscripted, with the hashtag #NoDraftPlease.

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The Associated Press is pushing the mayoral campaign of Wheeling City Council member Rosemary Ketchum, the first openly transgender public official in West Virginia. While the press agency presents Ketchum as a nonpartisan figure focused on paving roads and other brass tacks local issues, he has a history of trashing Donald Trump on social media and executing far-left stunts in office. show more