Journalists fighting back against Pentagon reporting restrictions

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Journalists who cover the Pentagon and the cleaning of Trump are in contradiction about the new rules that limit the access of the media in most areas in the Pentagon and, according to the visible, lead to a general entry into the building on the reporting restrictions.

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The Defense Minister Pit Hegset team characterizes changes as an attempt to protect the national security and safety of those who work in the Pentagon, while many in the press consider it an attempt to control and avoid embarrassment of stories.

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To the journalists who want to adhere to the icons who allow access to the Pentagon were told on September 19 that they should sign a letter confirming the new rules for Tuesday, or the icon “will be canceled”. The new policy says that the information of the Ministry of Defense “should be approved for public release by the appropriate permitting official before his release, even if it is not classified.” Classified facial materials are even denser restrictions.

This level of control immediately alarmed journalists and their lawyers.

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“The request of independent journalists to submit to such types of restrictions has nothing to do with the constitutional protection of free press in democracy, and a constant attempt to launch the right of the public to understand what their government is doing,” said Charles Stadtlander, press secretary, press secretary New York TimesField

Dispute about what actually means new rules

In a subsequent letter to the committee of journalists for the freedom of the press, the assistant Hegset Sean Parnell invited reporters to misunderstand some new rules. He said, for example, that the restriction against the release of unexpected information is a policy that the Pentagon officials should follow, and not what the journalists must observe.

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“It should not be surprising that the basic media distort the Pentagon press procedures again,” Parneell said in a post about X. “Let's be absolutely clear: journalists are not obliged to cleanse their stories with us. This statement is a lie. ”

Nevertheless, the new policy says that journalists who encourage Pentagon officials to violate the rules – in other words, asking sources of information – may be subject to loss of access to the building.

Although it turned out that Parnell sought to soften some of the hard faces of his policy in response to questions raised by the Committee of Journalists, there is still enough confusion to earn the meeting to clarify the situation, said Grayson Clary, RCFP lawyer. Among news organizations there is some caution about what they would agree with if they sign a letter, and it is unclear how many people – if any – did it.

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The new rules continue the tense relations between the press and the Hegseth team, which has already evicted several news agencies from their usual jobs in favor of more friendly outlets and limited the ability of journalists to wander around the Pentagon. Hegset and Parnell rarely conduct briefings for the press.

Parnell did not respond to a request about the Associated Press comment.

One editor is all about control

“This is control, only 100% control,” said Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of Atlantic magazine. Goldberg, who was not placed in the Pentagon, wrote the most awkward story about the validity period of the hegset, when it was accidentally included in the group chat, where hegset and other national officials discussed the inevitable attack on the Husites on Yemen. Brauhaha became widely known as a “signal”.

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According to reports, the Pentagon leadership was also displeased from history, which stated that Elon Musk was supposed to receive a briefing on a military strategy for China, leading President Donald Trump to stop it, and other stories about the initial estimates of damage in a military strike against Iran.

According to Goldberg, not a single American reporter accredited in a Pentagon who, as he knows, is not interested in undermining national security or putting someone in the army.

In his own case, Goldberg did not report that he found out until the attack ended. He said that he contacted officials in group chat to ask if he was something, that he found out that it would be harmful to the country in some way. He did not include in his history the name of the CIA official, mentioned in messages, which was still technically under the guise, he said.

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“The only people in Signalgate, who put the American troops on Harm's Way, were the national leadership of the United States, discussing the time of interchange of strikes in a hostile country in a commercial application,” he said.

Access to officials in the Pentagon was invaluable, helping journalists understand what was happening, Dana Prost said, a long -standing national security report in The Washington Post, which is currently a professor of journalism at the University of Maryland. With the exception of several regions, reporters are not allowed in accordance with the new rules to pass through the Pentagon without official support.

The priest said that the Pentagon corridors were similar to the areas around the Congress, where journalists of the Politics of the Cozhuya. The priest remembered how military officials waited for military officials when they leave the bathroom.

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“They know that the purpose of the media is to get around the official Gobbledygook and get the truth,” the priest said. “They may not help you. But some of them want to help the Americans know what is happening. “

Experienced national security reporters know that there are many ways to get information, including through other channels of the government and people in the private sector. “The Pentagon always understands the advantages of history control, so they are always trying to do it,” she said. “Reporters know this. They have known this for decades. ”

Is there a place for the common earth between the Pentagon and journalists?

Reporters who do not follow the new rules will not necessarily be excluded immediately, Parnell told the reporter's committee. But access will be determined by the Hegset team.

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While reporters already placed in the Pentagon were given until September 30 to sign, they were allowed to request an additional five days for legal consideration.

Despite the fact that The Times, the Washington Post and Atlantic are opposed to the Pentagon plan, not one of the publications will say that they recommend that their reporters make that they consider the negotiations potentially fruitful.

President Donald Trump without hesitation fought with the media when he thinks that he was offended by starting trials against CBS News, ABC News, the Wall Street Journal and tVNevertheless, it is also often available to the press, more than many of its predecessors, and the White House had some uncertainty against the Pentagon policy.

When the reporter asked: “Should the Pentagon be responsible for the decision about which reporters can be reported?” The president replied: “No, I don't think so. Listen, nothing stops reporters. You know that. “

Goldberg noted that this is more than just a problem for journalists. “The American people have the right to know that the most powerful military in the world make on their behalf and with their money,” he said. “It seems quite obvious to me.”

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