The Pentagon has told the press corps that covers it, there are some new rules to follow – that is, if they want to keep their official credentials that allow them to report from inside the building. It is worth noting, the move came at the end of a week where the Trump administration took aim at First Amendment rights on several fronts.
President Trump tried to sue The New York Times. ABC took late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the airwaves after the chairman of the FCC threatened the network’s stations unless they acted against the longtime Trump critic. Trump also warned that broadcasters who air the voices of critics like Kimmel should lose their licenses.
Joining us to explain what this latest move at the Pentagon means for reporters and for the rest of us is NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Hi, David.
FOLKENFLIK: Well, you know, Pete Hegseth came in as the Pentagon chief. He’s a former “Fox & Friends Weekend” host, and he promised that it would be the most transparent Pentagon in history. Instead, they’ve had very few press briefings, and now – and they threw out, by the way, a number of media organizations from their slots at the Pentagon, including NPR and the Washington Post, The New York Times. And now they’re saying that reporters who want to report from inside the building have to pledge never to divulge or even gather any information that the Pentagon hasn’t authorized for release, and that’s including unclassified information.
DETROW: I mean, that just doesn’t sound like reporting.
FOLKENFLIK: It doesn’t sound like reporting. It doesn’t sound like the kind of reporters you and I know. I mean, these are people who often have done this for many years. Many of them have, you know, covered military conflict and wars in faraway zones and have gotten to know military personnel from the grunts to the multistar generals and commanders and, you know, have gone through corridors and hallways, knocked on doors not only to get scoops, but just to get expertise and understanding of the kinds of stories they’re trying to bring to the American public and to the military personnel themselves.
DETROW: How are the news organizations that cover the Pentagon responding to this?
FOLKENFLIK: You know, Scott, I think it’s very striking that none of the TV networks that I’ve reached to – out to, including Fox News itself, CBS, NBC, CNN, have said anything publicly, issued any public statements. Meanwhile, our new editor in chief, Tommy Evans, as well as Matt Murray, the executive editor of the Washington Post, and The New York Times corporately have released strong statements saying that this goes against First Amendment principles.
There’s something called prior restraint, that is that the government preventing the press or broadcasters from reporting the news before it’s actually reported. That was taken more than 50 years ago to the Supreme Court, which upheld the idea that the government cannot do that in the Pentagon papers case involving the Nixon administration.
DETROW: I mean, this makes it harder for us, the reporters who cover Washington, to do our jobs. David, why do you think people who read the news, who listen to the news, who watch the news or just see it scroll by in their social media feet should care about this development?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, reporters are trying to give the American people an accurate understanding of what our military is doing, what is – you know, how our military are treated and what’s being done with their taxpayer dollars.
Take the attacks by the, you know, Trump administration and Defense Department against what they’ve characterized as Venezuelan drug boats. There’s been some question about that, and there have been some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, both parties, who’ve raised questions about the legality of that. You know, clearly, Hegseth would like to control what kind of information gets out about that now-contentious thing.
The idea of the strikes on nuclear sites in Iran – you know, the military told us they were incredibly successful. In subsequent days and weeks, we heard, maybe not so much.
DETROW: Right.
FOLKENFLIK: Again, the question is, what kind of information is the American people getting? I don’t think the Pentagon gets to decide what we learn about the Pentagon.
DETROW: That is NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Thanks so much.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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