Press freedom meets the Pentagon, and doesn’t surrender

It’s safe to say the current U.S. administration has crossed a line when even Trump-toadying media outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax declare it has gone too far.

That’s exactly what happened this week as the Department of Defence — or, as U.S. President Donald Trump vainly/combatively prefers, the Department of War — sought to impose a new press policy on media outlets that cover the Pentagon.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth — himself a former Fox News personality — had demanded that all news outlets agree by Tuesday afternoon to abide by the policy, which states outlets must not solicit, obtain or use any unauthorized material, even if the information is not classified; in other words, never to accept or report “leaked” information, under threat that publishing of information not authorized by the Pentagon will result in revocation of press credentials.

Virtually every credible news outlet covering the Pentagon — along with some whose legitimacy is debatable — declined to sign the necessary pledge, meaning their personnel would be required to surrender their press badges and clear out their workspaces within the Defence Department headquarters.

In a joint statement, the news arms of ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as right-leaning Fox News, said “Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues. …The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.”

Among the organizations that refused to submit to Hegseth’s demand were The Associated Press, Reuters, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, National Public Radio (NPR), the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal and the infallibly Trump-supporting cable network Newsmax.

Only the extremely far-right (and consistently Trump-friendly) One America News Network publicly stated it had agreed to the Pentagon policy.

As has generally been the case when the Trump administration unleashes another authoritarian-playbook measure aimed at stifling dissent, persecuting opponents or curtailing freedoms of the press and/or educational institutions, this clampdown on media access at the Pentagon has been couched as a national security issue.

It isn’t, of course. It’s yet another repugnant overreach by a would-be despot abetted by layers of officials, both elected and appointed, who have abandoned any notion of respecting America’s democratic framework — betraying the oaths they have sworn to uphold and protect the Constitution.

There used to be an appearance that Trump and his henchpeople were testing the limits of their leverage, and seeking daily to understand how much they could get away with in their pursuit of consolidated power. That charade has been set aside; with their defiance of democratic norms and dismantling of long-revered institutional checks and balances now at full speed, it’s no longer a question of how far they can go. They clearly believe they can go all the way, and the finish line — the achievement of full-fledged autocratic rule — is in sight.

Hegseth and Trump’s assault on press freedom at the Pentagon is a significant next step. It should alarm all Americans and anyone, anywhere, who values the role of a free press in a healthy, functioning democracy.

But what should alarm those witnessing this latest corrosion of the American ideal even more, is the complete and utter absence of even a single voice in the party of Abraham Lincoln willing to stand up and say, “Enough.”