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.
Many of the reporters waited to leave together at a 4 p.m. deadline set by the Defense Department to get out of the building. As the hour approached, boxes of documents lined a Pentagon corridor and reporters carried chairs, a copying machine, books and old photos to the parking lot from suddenly abandoned workspaces. Shortly after 4, about 40 to 50 journalists left together after handing in badges.
Sadly, I think it’s a win-win for the fascists.
The press only had a presence in the pentagon because it was advantageous to have them there. The media isn’t disappearing just because they are no longer given easy access. They will just have less of a relationship with the department of defense. Yes, it’s bad for the journalists, but it’s worse for the administration. Those reporters had been there so that they could spread the official talking points. Letting reporters become dependent on their easy access and maintaining a reasonable working relationship makes it a lot easier to seed stories, to ask for small favors and to give off the record comments that shape narratives. Ol’ Whiskeyleaks is failing at coercion and in the process is sacrificing influence. That he doesn’t understand this is amazing considering he was (theoretically) a journalist until less than a year ago.
As with so many things, they are destroying what their predecessors spent the last century building by being both malicious and incompetent.
As the guy said on NPR, people have phones. The reporters can still do their jobs without being physically present in the building.