Pressure of Truth
The news, with the spin made visible.
Outlet profile

Associated Press (via ABC/NBC affiliates)

U.S. center-left

Owned byNot-for-profit news cooperative collectively owned by approximately 1,400 U.S. newspaper and broadcast member organizations, including ABC and NBC affiliates; no single private or corporate owner
FundingSubscription fees paid by U.S. and international member outlets for access to AP content; no government funding, no advertising revenue, no single billionaire backer
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

The AP was founded in May 1846 by five New York City newspapers pooling telegraph costs to cover the Mexican–American War; it was initially known as the New York Associated Press. Competition from regional press associations forced a restructuring, and in 1892 it was reincorporated in Illinois as a genuine national not-for-profit cooperative. Over the following century it grew into the world's largest wire service, supplying text, photos, audio, and video to thousands of newspapers, radio stations, and television broadcasters globally. Its cooperative ownership model — members both contribute content and pay fees to access AP reporting — has historically been cited as a structural check against any single owner's editorial influence. Media bias trackers including AllSides (which moved the AP from 'Lean Left' to 'Left' after a 2024 review) and Media Bias/Fact Check (which rates it 'Left-Center') have documented a leftward drift in story selection, framing, and use of subjective qualifiers, particularly in the decade after 2015. The most consequential recent controversy began on February 11, 2025, when the Trump White House banned AP journalists from Oval Office and Air Force One pool access after the wire service refused to use the term 'Gulf of America' in place of 'Gulf of Mexico.' The AP sued, a district court ordered access restored in April 2025, but the Trump administration appealed and a D.C. Circuit panel upheld the restrictions in June 2025; as of late 2025 the AP was still pursuing the case in federal court while operating under continued White House access restrictions.

Sources

  1. Associated Press — Wikipedia
  2. Associated Press v. Budowich — Wikipedia
  3. Associated Press Bias and Credibility — Media Bias/Fact Check
  4. Associated Press Media Bias — AllSides
  5. AP Bias and Reliability — Ad Fontes Media
  6. Judge orders White House to give AP access to Oval Office — NPR
  7. Federal court upholds White House restrictions on Associated Press — JURIST
  8. In Gulf of America case, AP renews legal fight to end White House ban — Washington Post
  9. RCFP: White House's AP press access ban violates First Amendment
  10. Associated Press — Britannica

Profile compiled 2026-07-04; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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