Associated Press / Bloomberg

U.S. wire service, broadly nonpartisan

Background

Founded in 1846 by a group of New York newspapers to share the cost of covering the Mexican-American War by telegraph, AP grew into the dominant U.S. wire service, supplying syndicated news, photos, and video to thousands of papers, broadcasters, and websites worldwide. As a nonprofit cooperative, it has no outside shareholders; member outlets elect its board, and it earns revenue mainly by licensing content rather than through advertising or subscriptions to a general public audience. Its stylebook and house norms (datelines, attribution, inverted-pyramid writing) became an industry standard for 'objective' wire reporting, and many outlets across the political spectrum republish AP copy verbatim. AP has faced periodic controversies, including a 2012 Justice Department seizure of its phone records during a leak investigation and recurring criticism from both the left and right over wording choices in political coverage. In February 2025, the Trump White House revoked AP's access to the Oval Office, press pool, and Air Force One after AP declined to exclusively use 'Gulf of America' instead of 'Gulf of Mexico'; AP sued, a federal judge ruled the ban unconstitutional, and the dispute remained in appeals as of 2026. Despite that specific standoff, AP's broader coverage of the administration has continued to follow its traditional wire-service balance rather than a consistent editorial lean for or against it.

Sources

1. Associated Press - Wikipedia
2. Judge orders White House to lift restrictions on Associated Press over use of Gulf of Mexico - CBS News
3. Trump can bar The Associated Press from some White House events for now, appeals court rules - NBC News
4. AP sues Trump White House officials over 'Gulf of America' ban - NPR

Profile compiled 2026-10-02; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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