Associated Press (AP) is major media cooperative that operates as a newsgathering nonprofit organization. ¹ AP operates in all 50 states and at 250 locations in 100 different countries, ^{2 3} publishing 2,000 stories per day and sharing more than one million photos per year. ⁴

Since 1953, ⁵ the Associated Press has published the Associated Press Stylebook, which serves as a reference guide for writers, journalists, editors, and others in the publishing industry. ⁶

The AP Stylebook has shifted to favor left-wing terminology and thinking since 2013, ⁷ recommending that writers stop using the phrase “illegal immigrant,” ⁸ arguing that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, ⁹ prohibiting the use of “pro-life” to characterize people who oppose abortion, ¹⁰ and suggesting writers use the word “unrest” instead of “riot” to describe occasionally violent demonstrations that occurred in the summer of 2020 following the police-custody death of George Floyd. ^{11 12}

History and Leadership

The Associated Press (AP) was founded on May 22, 1846, ¹⁴

Daisy Veerasingham is the president and CEO of the Associated Press. ¹⁵ Previously she was AP’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. Before joining AP, she worked in various roles at Lexis Nexis and the Financial Times. ¹⁶

U.S. newspaper members elect a board of directors to provide AP with corporate direction according to its bylaws. ¹⁷ Gracia C. Martore is the AP’s chair. ¹⁸

Activities and Funding

The Associated Press is major media cooperative that operates as a operates as a newsgathering nonprofit organization, ¹⁹ publishing news in English, Spanish, and Arabic. ^{20 21}  As of May 2023, the AP publishes 2,000 stories per day, 70,000 videos per year, and more than one million photos per year. ²²

AP has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization in the categories for which it can compete, including two Pulitzer Prizes in 2022 for its coverage of the critical race theory-influenced concept of racial justice. ^{23 24} The organization operates in 250 locations in 100 different countries, ²⁵ and operates in all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. ²⁶

In 2022, Associated Press appointed Tom Verdin ²⁷ as its democracy editor to cover issues such as democracy, voting rights, and election processes. ²⁸ Previously, he managed AP’s statehouse coverage. ³⁰

AP is a member of the British state-funded media company British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) Trusted News Initiative, which seeks to tackle what its members identify as medical- and democracy-related disinformation in real time. Other members of this initiative include Google and its video platform YouTube, social media network Meta (formerly Facebook), Microsoft, Twitter, and the Washington Post. ^{31 32}

In December 2022, AP received the equivalent of a $300,000 grant from Copenhagen-based philanthropic fund KR Foundation for their, “Global Scholars Network.” ³³ According to the Washington Free Beacon, AP did not add KR Foundation as a philanthropic supporter on its website until January 2024. ³⁴

Associated Press Stylebook Changes

Since 1953, ³⁵ the Associated Press has published the Associated Press Stylebook (usually referred to as the AP Stylebook), which serves as a reference guide for writers, journalists, editors, and others in the publishing industry. ³⁶

Immigration Terminology

Since 2013, the AP Stylebook has shifted towards favoring left-of-center thinking and terminology in various issues of political debate in the United States. ³⁷ That year, AP Stylebook stopped sanctioning the use of the term “illegal immigrant” and the use of the adjective “illegal” to describe a person not lawfully present in the United States. In its place, AP suggested the use of phrases such as “a person living in another country illegally” and other terms such as “undocumented” to refer to individuals illegally residing in the United States. ³⁸ The same AP Stylebook announcement also instructed writers to use the term “temporary resident status” to refer to those illegal immigrants who entered the country as children and are under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. ³⁹

“Riot” and “Protest”

In 2020, AP Stylebook updated its guidance regarding its use of the words “riot” and “protest” after nationwide, occasionally violent demonstrations following the police-custody death of George Floyd. AP defined the term “riot” as a violent disturbance of the peace involving a group of people “that suggests uncontrolled chaos and pandemonium.” AP’s guidance suggested the use of “unrest” instead of riot as a vaguer, milder, and less emotional term for a condition of angry discontent and protest on the verge of violence. AP also defined “protest” and “demonstration” to refer to actions involving any number of people such as marches, sit-ins, rallies, or other actions to register dissent that can be either legal or illegal, organized or spontaneous, or peaceful or violent. ^{40 41}

In the event of civil disturbance, the AP Stylebook directed editors and journalists to choose the term that in their judgment best applies. ⁴² Despite this, AP discouraged American newspapers from reporting on mass urban violence in October 2020 for fear that it would be “stigmatizing.” ⁴³

Abortion

The AP Stylebook has also politicized its terminology in relation to abortion. The Stylebook approves the use of the modifiers “anti-abortion” and “abortion-rights” while prohibiting the use of “pro-life,” “pro-choice,” “pro-abortion,” and “abortionist” unless they are in direct quotes or proper names. ⁴⁴

The guide also instructs writers to avoid terms such as “fetal heartbeat bill,” “heartbeat bill,” and “six-week abortion ban” on their own without explanation. It also does not sanction the use of “fetal cardiac activity” in the context of abortions that take place before ten weeks. The AP Stylebook also sanctions the use of “pregnant people” and “people seeking abortions” in the case that someone who does not identify as a woman—those identified transgender men and gender-nonbinary people who were natal females—are seeking abortions. The Stylebook also does not recommend the use of the terms “crisis pregnancy centers,” “pregnancy resource centers,” or “pregnancy counseling centers” to describe facilities that aim to discourage pregnant mothers from having an abortion. ⁴⁵

Race-Related Terminology

AP Stylebook issued updated guidance to capitalize “Black” in the weeks following violent protests and riots that occurred after the death of George Floyd. The Stylebook editors wrote that the capitalized term conveyed a racial, ethnic, or cultural sense, and conveyed an essential and shared sense of history, identity, and community among people who identify as Black, including those of the African diaspora and within Africa. At the same time, AP decided to capitalize “Indigenous” as a term to refer to original inhabitants of a place while keeping “white” in lowercase for racial, ethnic, and cultural senses. ⁴⁶

As a part of its justification, AP said it believes that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, and that AP wants to robustly explore those problems. AP also feared that capitalizing the term risks conveying legitimacy to white supremacy. ⁴⁷

In 2020, AP’s race and ethnicity writers claimed that teachers trying to incorporate critical race theory into their lessons faced scrutiny from conservatives for centering education around race, gender, and sexuality. Other members of the AP’s race and ethnicity beat claimed that the United States faced a “retrenchment” from willingness to address what the AP has identified as racial inequality in 2022. ⁴⁸

Funding

Associated Press is a nonprofit cooperative. Revenue from licensing of AP’s broadcast, online, and photography materials is the cooperative’s main source of funding. ^{49 50}

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