6 events in Passaic County with a date

Trump treatment of The Associated Press is chilling.
Take it seriously

By: Rob Miraldi
Guest columnist

..... The 620,000-square-mile body of water that borders Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas has been called the Gulf of New Spain, Gulf of Florida and Gulf of Cortes. but by the 17th century, the name "Gulf of Mexico" had widespread acceptance standardized on maps world wide.
..... A tale of cultural exchange and colonial ambition has played out in the Gulf ever since Ponce de Leon sailed in from Spain in 1513, but this watery tapestry reached a new moment on February 18 [2025] when the president of the United States surprised the mapmakers - and the public,.
..... From what used to be a pulpit and is now a throne, Donald Trump decided to make America imperial again, renaming the gulf.
..... "We're very proud of this country, and we want tit to be the Gulf of America," he said in announcing an executive order.
..... Google, the search monster, went along with the change. But the not-for-profit Associated Press did not.
..... The AP, one of the largest news-gathering agencies in the world, reaching 4 billion people a day, got into a food fight with the sensitive new president. No, this is not a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. It is the Trump administration.
..... We can scratch our heads, laugh or ignore this latest edict form the man who calls himself the king. But when The AP decided not to go along with the name change, the president rebelled.
..... He banned the Associated Press from entering the White House press-room and booted its reporters off Air Force One. If you're not in the White House, you can't ask questions or hear the presidential edicts, perspicaciousness or profound statement about rest of the world. But The AP - with 235 bureaus in 94 countries - - got the boot.
..... The AP sued, summing up its grievance in what ought to be the fear of all teh press: "The White Houise ahs ordered The Associated Press to use certain words in its coverage or else face an indefinite denial of access. The press and all people in the United States have there right to chose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government. The constitution does not allow the government to control speech. allowing such retaliation is a threat to every American's freedom."
..... A federal judge set a march 20 [2025] hearing date, refusing a temporary restraining order on Trump, but implying that his punitive actions are unconstitutional an implying he would rel against the president, calling it a "good idea to censor another change."

A president cannot veto the press

..... Don't get me wrong. What goes on a map can be arbitrary, depending on who's drawing up the map. But it has been the gulf of Mexico for a long time, and nothing compelling has changed to alter the name. The press needs to decide what makes sense and what will be most easily understood by the pubic.
..... What to call something is always problematic for the press. when I began as a reporter, I wrote about a state-run, scandal-ridden facility on Staten Island called the Willowbrook State School, which we called a "home for the retarded." advocates protested the word "retarded,' which was a pejorative and not accurate. "We switched to "developmentally disabled." Semantics are tricky.
..... The president can disagree with the press choocies, but he cannot veto the choice. the AP deicdes waht will be in its famous AP Stylebook, a guide for much of the press'. He's not editor in chief., the Constitution made sure his role was different form that of the press, especially when it comes to criticism. Not using the phase "Gulf of America" is an implied criticism of the imperialist idea.
..... And both the letter and spirit of the First Amendment declare that the press and the citizenry can disagree with the president - and bark a him. Truth is, the president was harboring a grudge, telling reporters The AP "has been very, very wrong on the election, on Trump and the treatment of Trump."
..... Is this the start of the president's promised retribution against the press? Can he punish a speaker for words he doesn't like? The answer is long settled. It's censorship. he was punishing The AP for what it wrote. And the First Amendment is twofold: It stops the government from blocking opinions it disfavors. And it forbids punishment.
..... What we fear, of course, is that this anti-press fervor will be contagious. In Clarksdale, Mississippi, a judge ordered a local newspaper to remove an editorial that criticized the mayor after he asked the judge to do so. After an uproar, the town backed down.
.....Both the mayor and the judge do not stand a chance. but are public officials emboldened? will they feel that the president is on their side? Will they think that every time a news agency is critical of their policies, they can silence the critics?
..... After the flap with The AP, the president announced he was chancing the White House "pool," a rotating group of 13 reporters who follow the president at all times and report back to the press corps."
..... "This move threatens the independence of a free press," explains Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents' Association. "It suggests the government will choose who overs the president.
..... Softball question only.
..... None of this surprise observers of Trump. Last July [2024] i wrote a column in this space, warning of what was to come. I talked with Barty Baron, who for nine years observed Trump while editor of The Washington Pres. Baron was clear.
..... Trump would not only go after freedom of the press.
..... "Any effort to eliminate freedom of press," he warns, "is the first step to eliminate freedom of speech."

Trump's authoritarian impulses are real

..... And it is often the first move by authoritarians to scuttle debate or difference of opinion.
..... That is, after all, what kinds do. They don't let minions speak. Only the king speaks, because on the king knows what;s right.
..... This is an old authoritarianism mantra. I am the ruler, I know best, and I therefore I decide who talks. Most of the world is still authoritarian. And bows to the Putin. We never though it could happen here. But now the question is, after a month or so of the Trump administration, whether the First Amendment is under the most sever attack is has ever seen.
..... Of course, there are always threats to freedom of speech. But they are resolved in orderly fashion with a government that accepts the role the press plays in a democracy that relies on dialogue to reach decisions.
..... Our colonial forefathers left their countries because the King silence people who disagreed with him. For the person who spoke dangerously, his tongue was cut off. Fro the writer who disagreed with the authorizes, his and was cut off.
..... I"m not suggesting Trump will do these things, But a principle is emerging. the president knows best, and you will listen. if you disagree, you will be punished.
..... Undoubtedly, you will say Miraldi is getting carried away. but hold your horse; the Trump administration is just beginning.
..... And remember the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Baron: "He'd like to see reporters in jail. We should take him at his word. He will push the limits of is peer."
..... Censorship comes in various shapes,. But when you deny the press is saying about how it's certainer public policy, when you close the door in their face - that is censorship. the public loses and the courts need to reel the president his is not king.

..... Rob Miralidia's First Amendment writing has won numerous awards. He taught journalism at the State University of New York for many years. Email: rob.miraldi@gmail.com

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