from the not-that-the-Party-of-Free-Speech-cares... dept

At least the last time this many journalists fled an oppressive regime, the military actually offered to give them a ride.

That’s not the sort of thing that’s happening these days. In fact, the current administration is more like the current Vietnam government than it would care to admit, especially when it rails against socialism while taking controlling interests in US companies. I mean…

The National Assembly is a rubber stamp unicameral legislative body. 

[…]

Although the constitution provides for independent judges and lay assessors (who lack administrative training), the United States Department of State maintains that Vietnam lacks an independent judiciary, in part because the Communist Party selects judges and vets them for political reliability.

Anyway, we’ve finally reached the end of the insanity introduced by DoD Secretary Pete Hegseth late last month. The rebranded (but not by Congress) “Department of War” dropped a new set of guidelines for journalists that not only restricted which areas of the Pentagon they could access and who they could talk to, but made it clear (without saying in so many words) that the only press agencies that would be given access would be those that printed whatever the government said without asking too many questions or doing too much editorializing.

The fallout is over. There’s nearly no one left in the Pentagon press office. Every legitimate news agency has left, along with a few unexpected ex-pats.

Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wednesday rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power. The nation’s leadership called the new rules “common sense” to help regulate a “very disruptive” press.

News outlets were nearly unanimous in rejecting new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they sought to report on information — classified or otherwise — that had not been approved by Hegseth for release.

Among those you may not have expected to reject direct control of the press include longtime Trump bullhorns Fox News and Newsmax. Only 15 journalists (out of hundreds) signed this access journalism pledge. Eleven of those were reporters for foreign-based news organizations and a couple of entities whose only news outlet appears to be social media posts.

The ones that remain are the ones you would expect to:

Of those signatories, two are from the pro-Trump cable channel, One America News; one is from right-wing website The Federalist; and another is from ultra-conservative newspaper The Epoch Times.

OAN is even further right than Fox or Newsmax. It’s half-content farm, half-conspiracy theory factory. The Epoch Times is nothing but a conspiracy theory factory, but with ties to the Chinese Falun Gong religious movement. And The Federalist… well, just click through and doom scroll through the headlines and you’ll see for yourself. It’s basically the Trump administration after a few writing classes.

The Federalist has defended itself (I mean, I imagine it thinks it has) with a long, not-at-all unhinged post by editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway on X, because of course it did. According to Hemingway, it was the ultimate act of bravery to agree to allow the Defense Department to tell The Federalist what it can and can’t print. It’s a super weird thing to go on main and declare yourself proud to be a propagandist, but then again, it’s not every day someone discovers they have a fetish for boot heels and they’ll be damned if anyone’s going to criticize them for it.

Say what you will about the sorry state of the US press in general, but this nearly-universal walkout is a heartening show of solidarity against the power grabs of an authoritarian regime. The truth will still manage to make its way out of the Pentagon, despite these efforts. And anyone still working from the inside has already demonstrably proven they can’t be trusted to handle the truth.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, censorship, defense department, fascism, free speech, pete hegseth, trump administration
Companies: abc news, associated press, cbs news, epoch times, federalist, fox news, new york times, one america news, pentagon press association, wall street journal