Hegseth wants journalists to only publish ‘explicitly authorized’ information. That is not how the free press works
Tom Bowman of National Public Radio recalls one of the many times in his decades covering the Pentagon when the real story wasn’t the officially approved story.
Then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was “ecstatic” after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, insisting publicly that it showed the resounding success of the US invasion of Iraq, Bowman wrote in an NPR opinion piece this week. But through informal conversations with officers, Bowman soon found out that the truth was much more complicated – that more American troops would have to be deployed to Iraq to guard the supply lines that were under attack from Saddam Hussein’s supporters.
“Did I as a reporter solicit information?” Bowman wrote. “Of course. It’s called journalism. Finding out what’s really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says.”
Bowman is one of many Pentagon reporters about to lose official access to the Pentagon rather than accept defense chief Pete Hegseth’s draconian new policy, which would require reporters to sign an agreement stating they will publish only information “explicitly authorized” by the defense department (or as Donald Trump’s officials now call it, the Department of War).
