This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
For decades the AP stylebook, promoted widely to the world's news industry, had been advertised as a standard go-to source for spelling, punctuation, and appropriate references to a wide range of issues.
Then, a few years ago, it turned left, insisting that "they" was grammatically correct for a single person, that "a person's sex and gender are usually assigned at birth by parents or attendants" and that can be "inaccurate."
It warns against writing things that could "cause feelings of gender dysphoria" to resurface.
On the topic of the Second Amendment, it insists on calling semiautomatic rifles "assault weapons," even though that term already was used for "fully automatic weapons used by the military."
It insults those who don't accept the propaganda about global warming line for line as being "doubters."
The New York Post once reported that its "progressive bias is out of control."
The report explained, "While it may have started out as an objective source, as with so much of the media it serves, the Stylebook has long since discarded fairness for a liberal bias that betrays the goal of its authors and tilts the playing field against conservatives."
And now we're learning that dispute is at least a part of President Donald Trump's battle with the legacy wire service.
The AP's refusal to go along with Trump's by-the-book name change of the Gulf of America, from the former Gulf of Mexico, prompted the White House to limit AP access to some Oval Office and Air Force One events.
The wire service immediately complained of First Amendment violations but while the First Amendment protects what it writes, and still does, there's nothing in the First Amendment specifically giving the AP access to those presidential locations.
Taylor Budowich, deputy White House chief of staff, said, "This isn't just about the Gulf of America. This is about AP weaponizing language through their stylebook to push a partisan worldview in contrast with the traditional and deeply held beliefs of many Americans and many people around the world."
According to a report at RedState, the White House moves have "a lot to do with how they've (AP) conveniently adjusted their stylebook over the years to accommodate leftist dogma."
"By spotlighting AP, Trump is amplifying Republican and conservative criticisms that the AP Stylebook, a first reference for most U.S. news organizations, shapes political dialogue by favoring liberal words and phrases concerning gender, immigration, race, and law enforcement."
The report noted AP may resort to courts to force "a change back to the status quo at least as far as press access goes."
But the report explained, "In the meantime, Trump and his team are shining a mega-spotlight on a big problem with the media outlet over the fact that they really aren't neutral observers and recounters of current (and past) events and haven't been for quite some time."
