The US military has issued new media restrictions demanding that journalists pledge not to gather any information – including unclassified documents – that has not been authorized for release or else risk revocation of their press passes.
In a memo issued Thursday, the Pentagon stated that “it remains committed to transparency to promote accountability and public trust”. However, using an abbreviation for the recently rebranded Department of War headed by the Trump administration’s Pete Hegseth, the memo added: “DoW information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.”
It went on to say: “Only authorized persons who have received favorable determinations of eligibility for access, signed approved non-disclosure agreements, and have a need-to-know may be granted access to [classified national security information].”
Journalists reporting from the Pentagon are now required to sign a pledge agreeing to restrict their movements within the building and not to access any unauthorized materials. If they refuse to sign the pledge, their Pentagon press passes will be revoked.
In a post on X, Hegseth said Friday: “The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon – the people do. The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules – or go home.”
What the actual fuck, America?
We agree.
They did warn them, though.
Last week: freedom of speech gone. This week: freedom of the press gone.
There has been very little “RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES” headlines lately. Goddam that trump is good at misdirection or (and even scarier) the media companies are complicit.
The dismantling of democracy is the main event
trump is good at misdirection
8 year olds are too
Let’s not be governed by 8 year olds
Whistleblowers should start posting the documents to porn hub for the piss of it
Aim for those categories on the site known to be more visited by red states. Excepting, say, Trans, because trans folks don’t need additional reasons to be targeted.
I remember when this would be the biggest news for weeks and end any other presidency, especially a Democratic president. Now, this will probably be the last I hear of it.
Journalists have been asked to sign a pledge to not report on reality.
Only authorized by the Pentagon will we learn “Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia”.
Standards are higher when right wingers are not in power.
See also: UK under Tory vs Labour government.
Labour came to power only a year ago but based on media coverage, you’d think they’ve been running the country into the ground for the last decade or so.
Labour is doing a shit job, shitting on freedom of expression and protest.
Damn right because the Pentagon won’t let you hear it again. Nor anything about the Epstein list. I’m sure fox news won’t have to go through this horse shit so we can all watch breaking news there and get dummer together.
Name a time this ended a presidency. They always got away with it.
I mean, Watergate.
But that’s the point. Shit this obviously bad and fucked up was at least done in the shadows in the past. This is out in the open and it’s just some weekend news.
The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon – the people do.
So if you revoke their press passes… they’re no longer the press… and they’re just the people…
And if you don’t allow any regulations or public oversight then even the volk don’t run it, so who does?
only fox, NEWSMAX, oan wont have that restriction.
Ah. Just don’t listen to them. Collect whatever you deem fit for reporting on.
Don’t preemptively cede ground to fascists. They wouldn’t do it for you.
Not enough normies are testing the boundaries the same way the fascists are.
This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.
For those who don’t recognize the reference: This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.
We are past the danger, democracy is DONE.
A grueling mess awaits us.
Let’s not jump to any conclusions. Maybe they’re just cutting red tape, and plan to keep sending sensitive information to journalists via signal.
Spinning the media is how “democracy” has been working since day 1. It’s quite simple: people only vote parties they know the existence of and the media only talk about a few of them.
The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon –
the people doa fascist drunk who most of the people despise doesThere, fixed it for him.
On the one hand, what the fuck is this bullshit?
On the other hand, everything they officially release is usually a lie anyway. Maybe just have a trusted source without a pass publish your “unmentionables?”
They tweet their fucking war crimes in emojis, and the most interesting information to come out of the DoW has been leaks about also hooking their own employees up to polygraphs.
So the Department of War is now also the Department of Propaganda
Always has been
This feels a lot like the Russian tactics they used in the Cold War before the USSR fell.
Nyet, that’s crazy talk.
BTW, Paul Weyrich, the guy that created the Heritage Foundation also helped sneak computers and other electronics into the Soviet Union and held mock elections to teach Soviet politicians about democracy in 1989.
In 1991 several members of Heritage formed the first of its kind go between for U.S. and Russia businesses to help them make the transition to capitalism.
But we just don’t talk about that apparently.
Somebody made a documentary about some of it in 2012 that aired once on PBS and then never again.
And then Weyrich gave a talk at a Christian college in 1996, and while taking questions from the audience he casually mentioned that as far as he knew, Gorbachev’s right hand man wanted to crack down on him while he was holding mock elections. He claims when Gorbachev responded in silence the right hand man left his office and allegedly began planning the coup the next day unbeknownst to anyone from the U.S.
And now here we are almost 40 years later, and shit seems to be coincidentally unfolding basically the exact same way as we continue to watch the Trump administration execute the publicly available playbook provided by Heritage.
Saving this comment for later so my wife and I can rage together.
“Of course the independent press is free… To report what we allow them to.”
Why not just declare everything to be automatically classified, which is what they are technically doing, and assign higher levels of classification to the stuff that is/gets usually classified… but I guess that’s classified…
