September 22, 2025
Department of War to Restrict Media
Timothy Birdnow
The Pentagon is plugging the leak of intelligence by reporters and they are most displeased.
New rules authorized by Pete Hegseth makes any correspondent in the Department of War operate only with an authorized escort from the DOR, and makes them display press credentials at all times, as well as making possession of any classified information grounds for revoking press credentials. This rule not only covers classified information but controlled unclassified information as well. The new rules also limits journalists to specific areas of the Pentagon; now they can go anywhere in that enormous building they please.
Needles to say the media is upset. They consider this censorship. But I can't go to the Pentagon and just wander around the halls; why should the media have special privileges I do not? I am a citizen journalist after all.
The press loves to point to the First Amendment and believe that makes them another branch of government. But the First Amendment applies as much to the average citizen as it does to journalists. Imagine if you will a rule whereby Seventh Day Adventists were allowed open access to the Pentagon but not Catholics; that is essentially what they are demanding by saying they are journalists and have special privileges. Back at the time of the Revolution ANYONE could start a newspaper and be a reporter. There were no journalism schools and no government licensing of journalists. You just had to have access to a printing press. Shoot; Thomas Pain helped spark the Revolution and he had no journalistic pedigree. A citizen was a journalist to the Patriots, as surely as they were soldier via the militia. Oh, and teachers? There were no teaching certificates involved; you just opened a school. Patrick Henry became a lawyer without attending any sort of law school; he just talked his way into it by schmoozing two of three judges who signed his paper.
The myth of professionalism never permeated the Founders . That came later. And Journalists think they are doing something nobody else can do, and have monstrous egos about it. But the fact remains they have no more rights to the inside scoop than do I.
Given the press's proclivity for leaking information that puts American lives at risk, this is a sensible and reasonable restriction.
The Pentagon is plugging the leak of intelligence by reporters and they are most displeased.
New rules authorized by Pete Hegseth makes any correspondent in the Department of War operate only with an authorized escort from the DOR, and makes them display press credentials at all times, as well as making possession of any classified information grounds for revoking press credentials. This rule not only covers classified information but controlled unclassified information as well. The new rules also limits journalists to specific areas of the Pentagon; now they can go anywhere in that enormous building they please.
Needles to say the media is upset. They consider this censorship. But I can't go to the Pentagon and just wander around the halls; why should the media have special privileges I do not? I am a citizen journalist after all.
The press loves to point to the First Amendment and believe that makes them another branch of government. But the First Amendment applies as much to the average citizen as it does to journalists. Imagine if you will a rule whereby Seventh Day Adventists were allowed open access to the Pentagon but not Catholics; that is essentially what they are demanding by saying they are journalists and have special privileges. Back at the time of the Revolution ANYONE could start a newspaper and be a reporter. There were no journalism schools and no government licensing of journalists. You just had to have access to a printing press. Shoot; Thomas Pain helped spark the Revolution and he had no journalistic pedigree. A citizen was a journalist to the Patriots, as surely as they were soldier via the militia. Oh, and teachers? There were no teaching certificates involved; you just opened a school. Patrick Henry became a lawyer without attending any sort of law school; he just talked his way into it by schmoozing two of three judges who signed his paper.
The myth of professionalism never permeated the Founders . That came later. And Journalists think they are doing something nobody else can do, and have monstrous egos about it. But the fact remains they have no more rights to the inside scoop than do I.
Given the press's proclivity for leaking information that puts American lives at risk, this is a sensible and reasonable restriction.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:11 AM
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Posted by: escape road at September 22, 2025 11:26 AM (frZ/6)
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No less a "legal eagle" than Jonathan Turley is opposed to this, and I can see his arguments. On the other hand, I can see Hegseth's reasons for doing this too. "Back in the day" we could trust our media to handle information properly, but these days they are consumed by Trump hatred and are "spilling the beans" right and left in the process. The media are crying that they "have a right" to information, but nobody has ever given them the right to use it to damage the country or the president.
If draconian measures are necessary to rein them in, then so be it. Sit on 'em, hard, until they learn to behave, and then go back to things as they used to be. But not until.
If draconian measures are necessary to rein them in, then so be it. Sit on 'em, hard, until they learn to behave, and then go back to things as they used to be. But not until.
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at September 23, 2025 10:49 PM (dmr2P)
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