If you find yourself listening to WBHM, and suddenly someone refers to the “Gulf of America,” it’s not their fault.
October 1 saw enforcement of the Gulf of America Act, which requires every state employee and institution in Alabama to use that term in place of the actual name used by rational people, Gulf of Mexico. And while pretty much any other news outlet could tell Governor Kay Ivey and bill sponsor Rep. David Standridge to get stuffed, WBHM doesn’t get that freedom — as the station is licensed through the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which is a state institution, their staff members are all technically state employees.
But wait, you might be asking, wouldn’t that be a violation of their First Amendment rights? You’d sure think so, wouldn’t you. In general, a state can’t compel speech from its employees, except when it falls within the scope of their official duties, and reporting the news is certainly within the scope of WBHM reporters’ official duties, however the First Amendment specifically forbids any law that would abridge the freedom of the press, so…
No one’s ever accused the Alabama government of having their shit anywhere close to together.
Shockingly, the bill is extremely poorly written, lacking any enforcement mechanism, leaving employees to wonder what the penalty for violation would be — now-former WBHM GM Will Dahlberg speculated in his announcement that penalties could potentially include termination. And it doesn’t specify that the law refers only to references made in a professional context, not guaranteeing employees wouldn’t also be penalized for personal speech. And if you’re back to, No, seriously, that has to be a First Amendment violation, like, we’ve been over this.
Standridge said during hearings on the bill earlier this year, “I think this is an opportunity to make a patriotic statement. I think the president would embrace it.”
The job of the (ostensibly) free press is not to make patriotic statements. And it’s not to make the President of the United States happy — the press is supposed to be questioning and even adversarial, because their responsibiltiy is to the people who rely on it to know what’s going on in our government. And the job of our elected legislators is not to make the President happy — the Constitution actually places Congress as a check to the president’s power, in a sometimes-adversarial position to make sure laws are made to uphold the best interest of the people and not the whim of the Executive.
But in the year of Dolly Parton two thousand and twenty-six, we don’t get to have an adversarial legislature, and WBHM can be forced to say “Gulf of America” to be patriotic and please the president. I guess that’s just how it works now.
Okay, the fait is not quite as accompli as all that — press advocacy groups are pointing out that, in fact, yes, the First Amendment doesn’t allow the state to dictate the content of the media, even if it owns the platform, all of which will be addressed… whenver someone has the opportunity to file a legal challenge, at some point, until which “Gulf of America” — or, more likely, just “Gulf,” straight-up — is it.
So if you’re listening to WBHM today, or in the near future, and it sounds a little bit stupider, cut the reporter some slack. It’s not their fault.
Our world has just gotten that much stupider. Just a whole lot stupider.