THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
From today’s New York Times: “The Pentagon said Friday it would impose new restrictions on reporters covering the Department of Defense, requiring them to pledge not to gather or use any information that had not been formally authorized for release or risk losing their credentials to cover the military. information must be approved for public release by aI appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.”
The move is clearly intended to drastically restrict the flow of information from the Defense Department by Donald T****. A military operating in secret can go anywhere, do anything and break any law, and the public will be kept in the dark.
My thought here is this. Reporters who sign the pledge understand and accept the risk of being denied access to the Pentagon if they violate their word. So be it. But what of those who refuse to sign the pledge?
The pledge is a Defense Department Administrative Policy document and does not have the force of law. There are any number of ways to report on the Pentagon and the military without entering the building or having access to “formally authorized for release”pablum from the DOJ, the voracity of which will which clearly compromised.
Again we must go back to the first Amendment: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech.. or of the press…” Since the nation’s inception this has been judged to apply to both the Congress and the Executive. There may be legal challenges about Freedom of Speech and prior censorship following the the Department’s new regulation. And so should there be.
But for reporters operating outside the constraints of the pledge there can be no limitations to what they can report. They may or may not have any credentials to be revoked, are breaking no law and have the power of the Constitution of the United sSates of America on their six.
So yeah, I suppose it would be important to have someone at Pentagon briefings taking down whatever version of the facts the government is prepared to “formally authorize.” And from the standpoint of a compliant press corps it’s a pretty easy way to make a living.
But by requiring the press to accept prior censorship, by denying reporters unrestricted access to the corridors of the Pentagon and threatening them with banishment if they don’t follow the rules, they may have just let the lion out the back door.
Because the first question any respectable, responsible and dedicated member of the Fourth Estate is going to ask is, “what are they hiding?” I’m betting on them to find out.
And neither T**** nor his DOJ toadies can do squat.
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