One of President Donald Trump’s first-day executive orders renamed two important geographical landmarks: Mount Denali in Alaska will be known as Mount McKinley and the Gulf of Mexico will be known as the Gulf of America.
While the federal government is now working on changing the maps, News 6 plans to follow the direction of the Associated Press, which is keeping the Gulf of Mexico, for now.
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Trump’s executive order directs the secretary of the interior to “take all appropriate actions to rename” both Mount Denali and the Gulf of Mexico within the next month, and update the Geographic Names Information System, a database that standardizes geographic names throughout the country.
Some organizations are making changes. For instance, Google says that once the federal government makes the renaming official, it will update its maps for American users. The state of Florida has also already adopted the name change.
WKMG News 6, and parent company Graham Media, have chosen to follow the AP’s guidance.
“The Associated Press Stylebook has long been the standard for newspapers, digital news and broadcast news operations for source for establishing guidelines for names, grammar, spelling and punctuation,” said Sean McLaughlin, vice president of news. “Graham Media Group has long used this reference as a guide for consistency in all of our media hubs. There is no compelling reason to deviate from their guidance on these two matters.”
The AP’s official guidance says that it will continue to call the gulf off the Florida coast the Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf has had that name for more than 400 years. The U.S. is the only country that is planning to follow the name change, while other countries and international organizations will continue to call it the Gulf of Mexico.
“As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” AP wrote in its guidance.
So in our News 6 newscasts, on ClickOrlando.com and on our other platforms, we will continue to call it the Gulf of Mexico.
Like the AP, News 6 will include an acknowledgment of the Trump administration’s name change, where applicable: “Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The order only carries authority within the U.S. Other countries and international institutions continue to use the name the Gulf of Mexico.”
Since Mount Denali is within the United States, the AP will follow the federal government and refer to the mountain as Mount McKinley once more, and so will we.
Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, was named after President William McKinley in the late 1800s.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama renamed it Mount Denali to honor Alaska’s native heritage. At the time, the name change was popular with Alaskan residents as well.
If the Associated Press changes its decision on the name changes, we intend to follow the AP’s lead.