Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken a series of steps this year to undermine journalists who cover the Pentagon, but he broke new ground in September when he told news organizations that reporters won’t be allowed 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 MS NOW (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 in a display of unity.
Real journalists continue to report to the public on DOD developments, but they have no choice but to do so from outside the Pentagon, at least for the foreseeable future.
One week after the correspondents’ exodus, 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. On Tuesday, they participated in their first briefing.
Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon’s press secretary, approached the lectern on Tuesday morning. ‘Welcome to the Department of War,’ she said. The greeting was wholly appropriate, considering that Ms. Wilson was speaking to a briefing room of people undergoing something of an orientation program this week at the Pentagon.
The event was akin to a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, except in this case, the caricature was real.
Former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s first choice to serve as U.S. attorney general, was among the credentialed “correspondents” on hand for the briefing. He was joined by assorted right-wing activists and personalities, including Laura Loomer.
Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College, described the event as “North Korean-style,” adding that the briefing featured “a Potemkin village of fake journalists.”
The assessment was more than fair under the circumstances, though there was a related element to this that stood out for me: For Team Trump, this was the platonic ideal of how journalism is supposed to work. Behind the podium was Wilson, who was described earlier this year in a Mother Jones report as “an overt internet troll with a long history of bigoted, xenophobic, and deliberately provocative s—posting.” The Defense Department spokesperson has also been accused of touting antisemitic views and Kremlin-like statements. On the other side of the podium was a group of Trump supporters who’d agreed to cover the Pentagon on the Pentagon’s terms. In other words, a press briefing featuring conservative activists asking a conservative spokesperson conservative questions. It wasn’t journalism, but it was entirely in line with what the administration likes to see. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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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