Pentagon is now requiring approval before reporting any information, even unclassified. It’s one step forward to severe media restrictions.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News Channel personality, a former alcohol addict, a former sex offender on his wife, highlighted the restrictions in a social media post on X : “The press does not run the Pentagon — the people do.” Hegseth said. “Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.”
He is Mr I-fart-you-stink, don’t you think ?
The Pentagon was embarrassed early in Hegseth’s tenure when the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently included in a group chat on the Signal messaging app where the Defense secretary discussed plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen.
The Defense Department also was embarrassed by a leak to The New York Times that billionaire Elon Musk was to get a briefing on the U.S. military’s plans in case a war broke out with China.
On Saturday, the Society of Professional Journalists objected : “This policy reeks of prior restraint — the most egregious violation of press freedom under the First Amendment — and is a dangerous step toward government censorship, Attempts to silence the press under the guise of “security” are part of a disturbing pattern of growing government hostility toward transparency and democratic norms.”