GRAPEVINE, Texas (RNS) — Normally more likely to voice support for President Donald Trump’s decisions, attendees and speakers at a gathering of conservative Christian broadcasters expressed ambivalence this week about the White House’s resolve to bar The Associated Press from presidential events.
Speaking during a panel on “values-driven media” at the National Religious Broadcasters conference on Wednesday (Feb. 26), Cheryl Chumley, an opinion editor at The Washington Times, said she was “optimistic” after hearing the Trump administration was “booting a lot of the legacy media” out of the White House press corps and “opening the doors for alternative media.”
But fellow panelist Raymond Arroyo, a prominent host on the Catholic-focused Eternal World Television Network and occasional host of Fox News programs, disagreed, saying, “I’m not so sure I like that idea.”
Arroyo, who worked for AP early in his career, added later, “I would prefer seasoned reporters. A podcaster coming in, a comedian sitting in the chair once occupied by the AP, I don’t think that’s a good tradeoff.”
Arroyo said he once wrote for newsroom veteran Bob Novak, whom he described as “the dean of the Washington press corps,” and said Novak told him: “These people are your sources. They’re not your friends. Don’t forget that.”
“I never have,” Arroyo concluded. “When you get too close to the power of the source, it corrupts your vision.”
Raymond Arroyo speaks during a “values-driven media” panel at the National Religious Broadcasters conference, Feb 26, 2025, in Grapevine, Texas. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Earlier this month, the White House banned the outlet’s reporters from access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and events held at the White House because AP announced it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its traditional name, rather than the Gulf of America, the name Trump designated for it in a Feb. 9 executive order, signed as the president flew over the gulf on his way to the Super Bowl. (In a previous order, signed on Inauguration Day, Trump had directed the secretary of the Interior to “take all appropriate actions” to rename the gulf.)
The AP updated its style guide soon thereafter to clarify that, while “acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen,” it plans to refer to the region as Gulf of Mexico. In response, the White House blocked an AP reporter from covering certain Oval Office events, and on Friday AP filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the ban.
Some conservative outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax, have joined an effort to defend AP, signing a confidential letter addressed to the White House, according to Status News.
“The First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions. Any attempt to punish journalists for those decisions is a serious breach of this Constitutional protection,” the letter reads.
(RNS frequently partners with The Associated Press as part of a global religion reporting effort.)
On Tuesday, the White House also announced it would no longer allow the White House Correspondents’ Association to decide which organizations can take part in the designated press pool on Air Force One and at other events that can accommodate only a few reporters, saying a wider range of outlets, such as podcasts and streaming services, should be included in the pool, which traditionally draws only from major newspaper and TV outlets and wire services.
That decision too was opposed by liberal and conservative-leaning outlets alike, with a Fox News White House reporter blasting the decision on social media.
On Monday, a federal judge allowed the White House’s ban to stand for now, though more legal action is promised by AP. “As we have said from the beginning, asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right,” the White House press office said in response to the ruling.
Some of those at the Gaylord Texan convention center this week backed the White House’s ban, expecting it would be temporary. NRB member Jeffrey Anderson, who has worked in Christian broadcasting for more than a decade, said that while he supports freedom of the press and free speech, he remains frustrated by what he described as liberal media.
“The Associated Press, they been very liberal for decades, and the Trump administration, I believe, is just giving them a swift kick in the butt,” he said, adding that he expected the outlet would be back in the press room within weeks.
But while most NRB members who were approached for comment declined to be quoted, claiming either ignorance about the situation or not being authorized to speak on behalf of their media organization, they nonetheless described unease with Trump’s actions.
Thomas Graham, CEO of Crosswind Media in Austin, Texas, said that while he celebrated the White House’s decision to grant podcasters, influencers and other content creators access to the halls of power, singling out one outlet for punishment can be a “slippery slope.”
“Anytime you get in a role where you’re pushing or punishing someone for reporting their view of the facts, that is not freedom,” he said, noting his background as a reporter. “Freedom should be freedom of speech, freedom of the press.”
Graham added that he opposed a “punitive approach, rather than open-expression approach.”