How does the AP’s dispute with the Trump administration end?

Last week, I spoke with longtime media writer Paul Farhi for the latest edition of “The Poynter Report Podcast.” That episode debuts today.

We were talking about this major showdown between Donald Trump and The Associated Press. The AP is calling the body of water between Florida and Texas the “Gulf of Mexico.” Trump wants it called the “Gulf of America.” And, Trump says, until the AP agrees with him and changes the name, the AP won’t be welcomed on Air Force One and other certain media events at the White House

We recorded the podcast last Wednesday when Farhi told me, “The AP eventually will exhaust its appeals and it will sue.”

That’s exactly what has happened.

Last Friday, the AP filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Washington alleging the ban violates the First Amendment and the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.

“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP said in its lawsuit, which named White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Leavitt said, “We’ll see them in court.”

In “The Poynter Report Podcast,” Farhi told me this is about more than what the AP is calling a body of water.

He said, “It's about hassling the press and showing who's boss and pushing around the ‘lame stream media,’ as he likes to call it. As I've been explaining to people — it's the first real constitutional, First Amendment case in which it comes down to a single word out of a style book. It's really not about that. It's just asserting who's the big dog, and ‘you all take orders from me,’ and you know that's the Trump model. It's also the authoritarian model. If you can push around the AP on a single word and the usage … what pretext would you have to push around The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, etc?  He could do the very same thing. And he invites the confrontation. He invites the crisis.”

Farhi and I go into much further detail about the AP case, including why Farhi thinks it is not a good idea for other media outlets to boycott Trump press conferences.

We also have an interesting conversation about the past, present and future of The Washington Post — a place Farhi worked at for 35 years before taking a buyout at the end of 2023. If you have been following the Post drama over the past year, you will be very interested in Farhi’s thoughts.

Farhi continues to write frequently about the media for such places as the Columbia Journalism Review, The Atlantic and Vanity Fair. So be sure to check out our conversation on “The Poynter Report Podcast.”

Follow “The Poynter Report Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or  Amazon Music (and don’t forget to leave us a rating and review).

A slam dunk?

What about this AP lawsuit? Will the AP win?

Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said the suit “should be a slam dunk” for the AP. In a statement to The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr, Stern said, “We welcome the news that the AP is fighting back and not capitulating as others have. There is no gray area here — it’s plainly unconstitutional for presidents to deny news outlets access based on their word choices. But this type of case shouldn’t even need to go to the court of law.

Joy Reid’s show out in MSNBC shakeup

These are tumultuous times at MSNBC, and they got a whole lot more turbulent on Sunday with a major programming shakeup.

The big move: Joy Reid’s show, “The ReidOut,” has been canceled after nearly five years on the air. Reid is one of the network’s most recognizable personalities, but her 7 p.m. Eastern weekday show will come to an end this week. In its place, according to reports, a new roundtable show featuring MSNBC weekend hosts Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez.

This is the first major move since ​​Rebecca Kutler was named the network’s permanent president on Feb. 12. Kutler had been serving as interim president since Rashida Jones announced she was stepping down in January.

There’s more.

You might recall that Rachel Maddow, who had been hosting MSNBC’s 9 p.m. Eastern show just on Mondays, returned to hosting five days a week and planned on doing so for Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. During that time, Alex Wagner, who had been hosting the 9 p.m. show four nights a week, would be out reporting on Trump. After Trump’s first 100 days, the plan was for Maddow to again step back and for Wagner to return to hosting.

But The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin reported, “That is no longer the case. Instead, MSNBC is planning to appoint a new anchor to fill Ms. Wagner’s spot, the two people said. A likely candidate for that hour is Jen Psaki, a former White House press secretary in the Biden administration, who hosts shows on Sunday at noon and 8 p.m. on Mondays, the people said, though adding that this decision hadn’t been finalized. Ms. Wagner, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is expected to remain at MSNBC as an on-air correspondent.”

Puck’s Dylan Byers had previously reported changes were coming to MSNBC and that Psaki would take a higher profile on the network, while Wagner almost certainly would not return to hosting. Variety’s Brian Steinberg also reported Psaki’s rising stock with Kulter in charge.

There also could be more changes, with several reports saying MSNBC could offer on-air positions to Politico’s Eugene Daniels, as well as Melissa Murray, a professor at the New York University School of Law.

As all this is going on, MSNBC is being spun off from Comcast.

So why all the moves?

As Mullin wrote, “Ms. Kutler has been drawing up a new programming lineup to jump-start the network’s ratings, which have outperformed rival CNN but lagged behind the longtime ratings leader, Fox News.”

But you have to wonder how news of Reid’s show being canceled might go over with some MSNBC viewers, seeing as Reid has been one the more outspoken critics of Trump. It’s not immediately known what’s next for Reid.

Breaking up

Last week, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred sent a memo to MLB owners saying the league and ESPN had “mutually agreed” to terminate their TV contract after the upcoming season. Manfred further wrote, “We have not been pleased with the minimal coverage that MLB has received on ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage.”

But, from all indications, the decision was far from mutual. It was ESPN’s decision to end the deal. CNN’s Kyle Feldscher wrote, “But a source with knowledge of ESPN’s approach to the negotiations disputed the idea that the split was mutual. The source told CNN that ESPN opted out of the contract and was surprised by Commissioner Rob Manfred’s note to MLB owners that the league and network had mutually agreed to end their relationship. The source noted that ESPN had an opt-out clause in the contract and decided to exercise it.”

Major League Baseball was getting about $550 million per year from ESPN, which had been carrying MLB games since 1990.

So what happens now?

The Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes and Ben Strauss wrote, “The split offers an opportunity for Manfred to continue reshaping MLB’s broadcast distribution in keeping with a plan he has outlined publicly for several years: Regain control of the local broadcast rights to as many teams as possible to allow for a blackout-free MLB streaming product and claw back some national profile by rethinking national broadcast partnerships.”

The split doesn’t necessarily mean the relationship is over for good between the MLB and ESPN. Janes and Strauss wrote, “The two sides, in fact, would seem like natural partners as ESPN launches a direct-to-consumer version of the network later this year and Manfred continues to look for partners to distribute MLB’s local broadcasts.”

ESPN had already been cutting back on live MLB game coverage in recent years and canceled a nightly edition of the highlights show, “Baseball Tonight,” in 2017.

Media tidbits

• I teased this story in last Friday’s newsletter. “CBS News Sunday Morning” and correspondent Seth Doane profile the Fox News reporter severely injured in 2022 covering the war in Ukraine: “Benjamin Hall on embracing the challenge of recovery.”
• Writing for The Daily Beast, Maurício Alencar with “Fox News Pundit Lashes Out at Musk for ‘Vendetta’ Against Civil Servants.”
• The Associated Press’ Vadim Ghirda talks about his cool photo: “AP photographer captures a bagpiper emerging from surreal green smoke during military exercises.”
• Washington Post sports media writer Ben Strauss with “What Democrats talk about when they talk about Stephen A. Smith.”

Hot type

• The New York Times’ Emily Baumgaertner Nunn writes about a teacher who was at Parkland High School in Florida for the deadly 2018 mass shooting: “The Teacher in Room 1214.”
• The Wall Street Journal’s Alexander Saeedy with “The Long Nights and Drug Addiction That Drove a Banker to Insider Trading.”
• Ken Dryden is a Hockey Hall of Fame goalie from the Montreal Canadiens, a member of the Canadian Parliament and a cabinet minister. He also has written several books, including what might be the greatest hockey nonfiction book ever: 1983’s “The Game.” He now writes about last week’s 4 Nations Cup tournament and Canada’s victory over the United States for The Atlantic: “Canada Needed That Win.”
• Oh, one more, this one from my favorite sports columnist. The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins with “The PGA Tour’s thirst for Saudi money is as sad as LIV Golf’s product.”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].