Lester Holt, David Muir & Other TV News Anchors Avoid Saying ‘Gulf of Mexico’ During Astronaut Splashdown
It appears TV anchors and reporters across the United States are bowing to pressure from President Donald Trump over his proposal to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
As pointed out by former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy in Sunday’s edition of his Status newsletter, anchors and reporters across various networks avoided using the term “Gulf of Mexico” when covering the recent splashdown of the stranded NASA astronauts. It should never noted that they didn’t say “Gulf of America” either.
“Not one of the outlets could muster the courage to simply refer to it as the Gulf of Mexico, the water feature’s name since the 16th century,” Darcy wrote, per The Wrap. “Americans tend to believe the press is too independent and too proud to ever bow to government pressure. We assume that if a president ever tried to dictate language, the Fourth Estate would resist. We assume we’re immune from such pressures.”
Darcy went on to list examples of how reporters “danced around what precisely to call the body of water,” noting how they “tied themselves in knots, performing linguistic gymnastics to stay out of Donald Trump’s crosshairs while also tiptoeing around audiences who would have surely been incensed to see them bend the knee and call it the ‘Gulf of America.’”
On ABC’s World News Tonight, anchor David Muir referred to “spectacular images from off the coast of Florida,” while NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt took a similar approach, describing the astronauts as “splashing down off the Florida Gulf coast.”
CBS Evening News anchors kept it easy by referring to the Gulf of Mexico as simply “the Gulf.”
Jake Tapper on CNN came the closest to calling the body of water by its name when he pointed out how Trump’s administration refers to it as the “Gulf of America,” while the rest of the world calls it “the Gulf of Mexico.”
Meanwhile, on MSNBC, NBC News correspondent Tom Costello went as far to apologize to viewers when he talked about the “splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.” He immediately corrected himself, saying, “Sorry, however you want to call the Gulf. It will be splashing down in the Gulf.”
On January 20, President Trump signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. “I took this action in part because, as stated in that Order, ‘[t]he area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico has long been an integral asset to our once burgeoning Nation and has remained an indelible part of America,'” he wrote in a proclamation.
Summing up the news networks’ refusal to call the water the Gulf of Mexico, Darcy wrote, “Each of the outlets made a willful decision to forgo referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Mexico. While it may have been performed in a subtle manner, make no mistake: It was still an act of submission.”
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"It should never noted that they didn’t say “Gulf of America” either." 🙄
Why should they avoid mentioning the Gulf of Mexico? That's the historical name of the body of water. Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Mexico. No reason to shy away from it.
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Unfortunately, my Republican governor from Louisiana has now made it essential for schools to follow the Orange One's edict as has the entire Board of Education of the state...
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Well, AP refused to call it the Gulf of America, and they've been banned from the WH press room. So that's a reason.
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B
I find it cowardly for them to avoid calling what it has been for centuries “The Gulf of Mexico”
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C
They are children. Mental midgets!
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That are of the ocean is and always has been the GULF OF MEXICO and Trump is No King and can't change what he wants for himself. Trump is unfit to be a garbage man much less a President. Trump is a convicted Criminal on 34 counts by a Jury of 12 men and women, in a federal courthouse.
Stop bowing to what Trump wants if congress wants to change the name .let them do it ,it is not Donnie Criminal Trump to put demands on what he wants.
Trump is nothing but a communist lover of Putin and writes Love letter to a Dictator, in North Korea. Trump should be impeached and soon. He is a convicted Criminal and should be in Prison. And not the White House.
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Gulf of America is only 200 nautical miles offshore. The rest belongs to Mexico. This is something needs to be checked by google before Trump claims it.
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B
Once again History is being whitewashed. It’s simple. Name the country that you want to relocate to… America is great because it’s where people around the world want to live. Resist the insanity America is great because of immigrants even the white ones.
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Dionne has always got to win at something, no matter how silly. Wouldn’t it be better for your country, Donnie boy, to have egg prices where they used to be so families can actually eat eggs again, which were great for quick and cheap meals?
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THIS angers AND scares me.
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Martin have someone proof read your article before posting. "It should never noted that they didn’t say “Gulf of America” either."
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I don't care what it is called.
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Do you care about anything?
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B
Call it what you like. I myself, call it Gulf of America. I am proud of that. But if you want to call it Gulf of Mexico, it is your prerogative. Nuff said.
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And it's my prerogative that you're sucking to the current president's ego by deciding to call it that!
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