For about a week now it has been hair-igniting couch-fainting news that the Associated Press has been disinvited from attending President Trump’s semi-regular press meetings inside the Oval Office. Based on the reactions one would think the landscape of the press industry has been shifted irreparably and the Bill of Rights used to start a weekend barbecue in the Rose Garden. Making the mewling all the more hilarious is the AP now proving this was a wise move made by the White House.
First, allow one to humbly dissuade the hysterics from destroying their necklace of pearls; there is no censorship taking place. Just because The AP was told they cannot sit at the Cool Kids table does not mean its freedom of expression is being violated. Proof of this? Somehow the news syndicate was free to issue a statement declaring it was being silenced, seen by the world, that no one halted from release.
That this outrage in media circles is overblown is rather evident. What goes unsaid in the claims of the AP being a vital news source that cannot be deterred is that multiple newspaper chains dropped the AP in the past year. Also, if not attending these impromptu pressers is a violation then what is to be said of the past four years when Joe BIden held none of these, and barely addressed the media? Additionally, Trump’s meetings are provided in pool format and the videos made available so the AP is free to report after watching. Standing in the room is not a requirement, nor an entitlement.
The news organization has just issued a report that makes the decision to exclude it from these briefings a salient choice. In an article about recent jobs cut at the Federal Aviation Administration we get multiple examples of journalism ethics violations. It would be laughable if it were not so degrading in effort for a source used by many other news outlets. It is a classic example of the very misinformation these same outlets pretend to decry.
In its coverage reporter Tara Copp begins with hysteria, and then delivers the misinformation. The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It takes a few paragraphs before we get to the details that these were not air traffic controllers or other vital staffers.
Deeper in the piece we get quotes from one fired employee, but not before Copp repeats the insinuation that air traffic safety can be affected: The firings hit the FAA as it is facing a shortfall in controllers. Again, the controllers were not affected. As for this shortfall, that is something the FAA has been facing for years now, as the agency has rested on a DEI hiring program that has severely winnowed the field of available workers. Then we get to the meat of the disinfo campaign.
This fired worker details how he had been critical of Elon Musk, and this led to him receiving direct threats from Musk’s DOGE team on Facebook.
[Charles] Spitzer-Stadtlander suggested he was targeted for firing for his views on Tesla and X, formerly Twitter, not as part of a general probationary-level sweep. Both companies are owned by Elon Musk, who is leading Trump’s effort to cut the federal government.
Spitzer-Stadtlander is Jewish and was angered by Elon Musk’s straight arm saluting at Trump’s inauguration. On his personal Facebook account he urged friends to get rid of their Teslas and “X,” or Twitter, accounts in response.
That post drew the attention of a DOGE Facebook account, which reacted with a laughing emoji. Soon after, he saw the same account reacting to much older posts through his personal Facebook feed. “The official DOGE Facebook page started harassing me on my personal Facebook account after I criticized Tesla and Twitter,” Spitzer-Stadtlander wrote in a post over the weekend on Linked In. “Less than a week later, I was fired, despite my position allegedly being exempted due to national security.”
This would be where we need to ask if Copp ever asked for and/or received any proof of these postings. We ask, because it has been revealed, including from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, that DOGE does not have a Facebook account. We see now that the reporter has been caught, as the article shows some striking revisions.
Spitzer-Stadtlander said that post drew the attention of a Facebook account labeled “Department of Government Efficiency,” which reacted with a laughing emoji. Soon after, he saw the same account reacting to much older posts through his personal Facebook feed.
There are at least a half-dozen Facebook accounts labeled “Department of Government Efficiency,” and it’s unclear who operates any of them. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt wrote Monday on X, “DOGE doesn’t even have a Facebook page.”
So gone is the declaration of that being the official DOGE social media page, changed to the former employee “said” this was the case. Copp includes the link now to the account that responded, and added in the quote from Leavitt denying an official account exists.
Despite these heavy revisions, as well as a completely new headline, no “Editor’s Note” or Corrections indication is seen in the altered article.
Amusingly, dispatched NBC pundit Chuck Todd weighed on Karoline Leavitt’s comments; not surprising that when you involve the press, the Trump administration, and Chuck things will go sideways. Todd was berating Leavitt for stating no ATC employees were fired and for denying that DOGE has a Facebook account.
The original text called the Facebook account “official”, and even the revised content still has the employee declaring that to be the case, Chuck. And the details about air traffic controllers among those fired? The headline has also been changed, as the original made that very statement.
It is fair to say that removing the AP is not quite the disaster the rest of the press is trying to claim.
Either Chuck is tripped up by @AP deceptively editing its piece (without notification) or is playing along with the deceit.
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) February 18, 2025
The report did say it was the official DOGE Facebook account, now it is altered.
As for air traffic controllers fired - it was in the original headline. https://t.co/Py7UpGNeqK pic.twitter.com/TLYH1FlcAJ
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