Days After Politico Memo Tells Reporters Not to Call Border Situation a ‘Crisis,’ Politico Calls Border Situation a Crisis

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Well, that didn’t last long. Just days after an internal memo revealed that Politico writing staff have been instructed not to call the situation at the southern border a “crisis,” Politico is back to referring to the situation at the border as a “crisis.”

To the consternation of many conservative media outlets, The Washington Examiner reported on an internal memo that instructs Politico staff not to refer to the influx of unaccompanied minors at the southern border as a “crisis,” similar to guidance released by the Associated Press several weeks ago:

“Avoid referring to the present situation as a crisis, although we may quote others using that language while providing context. While the sharp increase in the arrival of unaccompanied minors is a problem for border officials, a political challenge for the Biden administration and a dire situation for many migrants who make the journey, it does not fit the dictionary definition of a crisis,” the memo from deputy production director Maya Parthasarathy reads. “If using the word ‘crisis,’ we need to ask of what and to whom.”

President Joe Biden and his administration have conspicuously resisted the word “crisis” — with a couple of slip-ups — in defense of their policy not to turn unaccompanied minors away at the border.

After multiple news organizations pressured the administration to adopt the “crisis” nomenclature, the Associated Press issued guidance that the term should be avoided except in narrow circumstances.

A spokesperson for Politico referenced this guidance in a comment to the Examiner, saying ““This wasn’t a company-wide memo — it was an email to relevant employees sharing AP style guidance” — but Examiner‘s Joseph Simonson noted that “The memo referenced a number of style books aside from the Associated Press, including the Diversity Style Guide and the National Association for Hispanic Journalists Cultural Competence Handbook. The memo’s guidance did not track the Associated Press’s words verbatim.”

In any case, the day after Simonson published that memo, Politico was already back to calling the border situation a crisis. From Friday morning’s Playbook:

HOW TRUMP AND HIS ALLIES SAW BIDEN’S BORDER CRISIS COMING — A must-read this morning from our White House reporter ANITA KUMAR about how Trump and his allies anticipated the surge of migrants that President JOE BIDEN is now struggling to contain — and plotted to use it against Democrats in 2022.

That marks a return to form for Politico Playbook, whose authors — Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri, Eugene Daniels, and Rachael Bade — mocked the Biden administration at length for refusing to dub the border situation a crisis back in March, calling it “Orwellian.”