Aggie1205 said:

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Wildmen03 said:

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Saying news organizations can only release information approved by the Secretary of War seems like an expansion of the power of the government and easily abused.

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Making sure classified information doesn't get leaked to the public by overzealous reporters sounds like a good thing to me.

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Biden's DOD could have claimed that no soldiers died in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and it would have been against policy for the media to say otherwise.

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This policy does not restrict what the media can publish and/or present. It restricts who can and can not divulge information to the media.

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Keep in mind that every time you expand the government's power it generally doesn't retract back. It's interesting how this board used to be for smaller government.

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Restricting who can and can not divulge information to the press is not an "expansion of government" and being in agreement with Hegseth's decision is not an affirmation of big government.

Not everyone has the ability and/or training to properly communicate with journalist and shouldn't do so.

BusterAg said:

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Aggie1205 said:

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Fox News Link

Reuters Link


NewsMax

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The new rules bar journalist access to large swaths of the Pentagon without an escort and say Hegseth can revoke press access to reporters who ask anyone in the War Department for information classified or otherwise that he has not approved for release.

News organizations have not disputed restrictions on reporters' access to sensitive areas in the Pentagon. Credentialed reporters have historically been limited to unclassified spaces, according to the Pentagon Press Association.

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"It doesn't seem like the whole story is being told to our viewers here," Keane told Fox News' Bret Baier. "What they're really doing they want to spoon-feed information to the journalists, and that would be their story. That's not journalism. Journalism is going out and finding the story and getting all the facts to support it."
"No one's going to walk in and bang on the door of a four-star general or a senior civilian policy leader in the Pentagon. I never had that, but I did have journalists chasing a story or something was going on with the Army, and those things are legitimate," he continued. "If anything, what would frustrate us at times is we didn't beat you to it, and something bad is happening, and we're getting our act together and sometimes 'Let's wait a couple of days before we talk about that' and you guys are on it. And that's journalism."

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Based on what I can read, this seems like a bad move. Saying news organizations can only release information approved by the Secretary of War seems like an expansion of the power of the government and easily abused. Allowing taxpayers to know where their money is being spent should be a right. This doesn't mean that we need the press leaking secret operational plans, but they number of cases of things like that are very small compared to leaks from other areas. The only network who has agreed is OAN.

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Every single publicly traded corporation in America has a similar press policy.

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There is a massive difference between a private company and a governmental entity.

pagerman @ work said:

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BusterAg said:

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Every single publicly traded corporation in America has a similar press policy.

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There is a massive difference between a private company and a governmental entity.

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But there's no difference between idiot employees that have no business speaking to the press as if they are an official spokesperson.

TOUCHDOWN! said:

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It really is surprising how quickly the "Don't tread on me" and the "those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" crowd flipped to "let's give Glorious Leader Trump more power."

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This isn't giving Trump more power. It's retaining the Executive's power for the Executive.

Bureaucrats have NO power of their own, and they should never be confused in thinking they do. We need to eliminate every James Comey on the government payroll.

Dozens of reporters from nearly all major news agencies cleared out their offices today at the Pentagon, before turning in their press badges together at 4:00pm, after every news outlet beside one, refused to sign a “pledge” Tuesday from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth agreeing to… pic.twitter.com/XphrVPGCEm

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 15, 2025

Just yet again another example where base on responses giving and not knowing the question……one can easily discern who the liberals and conservatives are.

The job of the press in the Pentagon is to convince people to leak information. They will call your private phone or home to try and get leaks. I know this first hand.

They don't need offices in the Pentagon. They can do their jobs without them.

Here are the new guidelines.

pagerman @ work said:

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BusterAg said:

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Aggie1205 said:

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Fox News Link

Reuters Link


NewsMax

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The new rules bar journalist access to large swaths of the Pentagon without an escort and say Hegseth can revoke press access to reporters who ask anyone in the War Department for information classified or otherwise that he has not approved for release.

News organizations have not disputed restrictions on reporters' access to sensitive areas in the Pentagon. Credentialed reporters have historically been limited to unclassified spaces, according to the Pentagon Press Association.

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"It doesn't seem like the whole story is being told to our viewers here," Keane told Fox News' Bret Baier. "What they're really doing they want to spoon-feed information to the journalists, and that would be their story. That's not journalism. Journalism is going out and finding the story and getting all the facts to support it."
"No one's going to walk in and bang on the door of a four-star general or a senior civilian policy leader in the Pentagon. I never had that, but I did have journalists chasing a story or something was going on with the Army, and those things are legitimate," he continued. "If anything, what would frustrate us at times is we didn't beat you to it, and something bad is happening, and we're getting our act together and sometimes 'Let's wait a couple of days before we talk about that' and you guys are on it. And that's journalism."

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Based on what I can read, this seems like a bad move. Saying news organizations can only release information approved by the Secretary of War seems like an expansion of the power of the government and easily abused. Allowing taxpayers to know where their money is being spent should be a right. This doesn't mean that we need the press leaking secret operational plans, but they number of cases of things like that are very small compared to leaks from other areas. The only network who has agreed is OAN.

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Every single publicly traded corporation in America has a similar press policy.

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There is a massive difference between a private company and a governmental entity.

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Not when it comes to an effective strategy to manage engaging the press on behalf of a large organization. There is little to zero difference.

BREAKING: New York Times files suit over Trump administration's new Pentagon press policy that led to scores of journalists turning in their passes recently. Suit filed in DC calls the policy 'inscrutable' & violation of 1st Amendment. Doc: https://t.co/FQyH3RWgbH

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) December 4, 2025

Which part of the 1st Amendment is being violated? Is the argument that freedom of the press was intended for anyone with a media badge to have unfettered access to the most critical national security information there is? Cause that was and is not the intent.

Heck, when you get down to it, their publishing an article complaining about this actually reaffirmed the freedom of the press.

Case dismissed.

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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liberal socialist lefty hates being told to behave by a grown-up

redcrayon said:

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The job of the press in the Pentagon is to convince people to leak information. They will call your private phone or home to try and get leaks. I know this first hand.

They don't need offices in the Pentagon. They can do their jobs without them.

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Read "Indomitable Will" about the domestic girding for WW II and the section on FDR's policies regarding the press and military are rather interesting. Plenty of precedents for directing the military side of what it is free to say or talk to.