Over the course of the year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken a series of dramatic steps to undermine journalists covering the Pentagon, but he broke new ground last month when he told news organizations that reporters won’t be able to cover the department unless they agree only to report information, including unclassified information, authorized for release by the Trump administration.
Outlets that refused to agree to his absurd terms, Hegseth added, would lose their access and have their press badges confiscated.
Practically every major news organization refused, including MSNBC (my employer) and Fox News (Hegseth’s former employer). The result was an exodus of Pentagon correspondents, each of whom refused to accept absurd administrative restrictions, exiting the Pentagon en masse last week in a display of press unity.
Real journalists will continue to report to the public about DOD developments, but they’ll have no choice but to do so from outside the Pentagon, at least for the foreseeable future.
One week after the correspondents’ procession, Hegseth’s team has announced the “next generation” of media figures who will now cover the Defense Department, having accepted the administration’s journalistic limits. The New York Times reported:
The announcement, posted on X by Sean Parnell, the chief Defense Department spokesman, did not name the journalists or outlets. But numerous right-wing, pro-Trump online outlets said they were among those that had agreed to the rules, including The Gateway Pundit; Human Events; LindellTV; Frontlines, an arm of Turning Point USA; and The National Pulse.
Alex Jones’ InfoWars soon after said that it, too, had joined the new club.
In his online announcement, Parnell, a failed former Republican congressional candidate, accused independent news organizations of reporting what he described as “lies.” These correspondents, he added, will be replaced by “journalists” representing “a broad spectrum” of outlets.
That’s true, in a way. The “spectrum” now includes Pentagon correspondents from the right, the far right and the conspiratorial fringe.
“We look forward to beginning a fresh relationship with members of the new Pentagon press corps,” Parnell concluded. Of that I have no doubt. If I ran a cabinet agency, I would also look forward to my relationship with media figures who are not only predisposed to agree with everything I say and do, but who also signed onto restrictions that I wrote to help guarantee coverage that I like. When actual DOD reporters turned in their press badges, the Pentagon Press Association said in a statement that the developments marked “a dark day for press freedom that raises concerns about a weakening U.S. commitment to transparency in governance, to public accountability at the Pentagon and to free speech for all.” A week later, the conditions appear even worse.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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