Fox’s Brit Hume Posts Brutal Slam on Trump Ban of AP as ‘Attack on Press Freedom’
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume posted a brutal critique of President Donald Trump’s decision to ban the Associated Press that described it as an “attack on press freedom” and “unconstitutional” — and added “I agree.”
Trump signed an executive order on Inauguration Day changing the name of The Gulf of Mexico to The Gulf of America — an edict with which several organizations have begun to comply.
But the AP has thus far resisted, and this week Trump punished them for it by banning the wire service from several White House events.
The move drew widespread criticism, including from Hume, who posted a scathing statement from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) that read:
Punishing journalists for not adopting state-mandated terminology is an alarming attack on press freedom. That’s viewpoint discrimination, and it’s unconstitutional.
President Trump has the authority to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf. But he cannot punish a news organization for using another term. The role of our free press is to hold those in power accountable, not to act as their mouthpiece. Any government efforts to erode this fundamental freedom deserve condemnation.
“I agree,” Hume wrote above the statement.
Many users who commented on Hume’s post were supportive, with one writing “Even Fox News can’t abide by this one”:
Even Fox News can’t abide by this one. https://t.co/0YyVSFWTLy
— Joe (@htown_Joe) February 12, 2025
When you’ve lost @brithume, now-a-MAGA-apologist-but-once-a-respected-journalist-for-ABC, you’ve really stepped over a line. https://t.co/0dJhwGqtoa
— Sree Sreenivasan (Bsky ·Threads: @sreenet) (@sree) February 12, 2025
Just to be clear, as someone who has been both a journalist and a government employee, it is not ever, in any way, shape or form, the *government’s* job to hold the free press “accountable.” Free press beholden to government is not free press, period. https://t.co/gQVL4Mcia9
— Nick Lima (@NickLima7) February 12, 2025
Thank you, Brit, for you leadership in speaking out here. Important all members of a free and plural press stand together to #holdtheline now and in the future. https://t.co/ahlypQPlUi
— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) February 12, 2025
As of this writing, Fox News personalities have not commented about the ban on the air.
