Starting today, due to an inane and ultimately self-defeating move by the unqualified and unfit defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon will be missing almost all of its press corps as the media outlets that cover this nation’s nearly $1 trillion military apparatus and largest global armed forces will have been stripped of their press credentials after refusing to sign a compliance pledge that runs afoul of the First Amendment.
So far, the only outlet to debase itself in this manner is the far-right wing One America News network, which exists mostly to serve as a propaganda mouthpiece for the Donald Trump government. All others, including Hegseth’s own former employer, Fox News, have refused to sign the pledge. Even the hard-right outlet Newsmax understands that what the administration is asking for is not reasonable limits but ideological subservience in exchange for access. They are correctly saying no.
The hard drinking commentator-turned-defense head’s decision to respond to criticism by displaying a hand waving emoji on social media further signals that these quite simply are not serious people, who have no business helming the nation’s dead-serious military machinery.
While there may be fewer journalists in the Pentagon briefing rooms today, Hegseth should know that critical and in-depth coverage of his department will not cease. There is utility to being in designated rooms where reporters can grill military officials and spokespeople directly. Lots of excellent reporting does not tend to happen in the briefing room.
The Pentagon Papers were not handed out to reporters at a briefing. The My Lai massacre was not in a press release. Journalists did not tease out the lies and obfuscations that formed the basis for the war in Iraq speaking to a military spokesperson. The photographs of the abuse at Abu Ghraib and details of botched operations, mishaps and overreaches were not part of any official press briefing books. In fact, these revelations often came about precisely because reporters refused to accept the official line, regardless of the administration that was pushing it.
Instead, they cultivated sources, found documents, leaned on those people internally who knew that their bosses were lying to the American people and thought something should be done about it. No matter what Hegseth and the rest of this administration say, they cannot stop that type of reporting from taking place, and they cannot exert full control over a bureaucracy of millions of people who’ve all taken an oath to obey the Constitution, not to Hegseth or Trump.
There are, if anything, more reasons than ever to ignore the pronouncements at the podium from an administration that has shown itself at all times entirely untrustworthy, adopting its figurehead’s penchant for constant and reflexive lying. There are also plenty of answers now to be sought elsewhere, including for heavy questions like what justification the military has for lethal strikes on civilian ships in the Caribbean and what structure and constraints exactly would exist for Trump‘s desired civil disturbance rapid deployment force, among other things.
If, as we all suspect, Trump is acting well outside of the bounds of the law with these efforts, we won’t find out about it from the Pentagon briefing room, even if it would be useful to hold the spokespeople’s feet to the fire. Our colleagues will carry on and report out these stories, whether Hegseth wants them to or not.
