OPINION:
If the Pentagon under Secretary of State-slash-War Pete Hegseth had its way, journalists could-would-should be jailed for asking tough but uncomfortable questions.
OK, maybe that’s a tad hysterical.
But it’s no less hysterical than what the Pentagon’s doing, all under the guise of protecting the safety and security of America.
New policies put in place for members of the press covering the Pentagon say in part that while journalists are generally allowed to receive and publish classified and sensitive information received from government sources — oh, thank you, thank you; are we supposed to say thank you? — that these same journalists ought to think twice about seeking and soliciting such information.
The warning goes like this, as The Hill reports: “If you solicit the disclosure of such information or otherwise encourage [War-slash-Defense officials] to violate laws and policies concerning the disclosure of such information, such conduct may weigh in the consideration of whether you pose a security or safety risk.”
Wait. There’s more.
“The Pentagon describes solicitation as including calls for tips encouraging military personnel to share nonpublic information, as many reporters do via their publications or personal social media platforms,” The Hill wrote.
Moreover, journalists desiring to continue covering in-person at the Pentagon have to sign a document promising to abide all the new policies. Most have refused. Thankfully. Sign zee papahs, comrade!
Ask a question, ask the wrong question — hey, isn’t that pretty much the job description of journalists? — anyway, ask the wrong question and face the heavy boot of government consequence, which could range from being banned, barred and booted from the Pentagon (the tax-paid Pentagon), to having credentials pulled and seeing one’s career jilted, to additional unknowns.
This should not under any circumstances be a policy to cheer.
Conservatives tired of the lies of the media about all things MAGA may applaud the idea of the likes of The New York Times and The Washington Post and NPR and the rest becoming blackballed and set to the side. But that’s short-term thinking.
Chilling free speech is chilling free speech, no matter who’s doing the chilling — no matter if it’s tyrannical Democrats or well-meaning Republicans. Stifling is stifling. And in America, citizens, and journalists working to serve the interests of citizens, don’t need to ask the government officials they employ for permission to exercise their God-given, First Amendment-protected, free speech rights. In America, citizens hold the rights; government only exists to protect and secure those rights.
Some might say the media brought this treatment on itself. This is most definitely true. For too long, too many in much of the media have joyfully gone after the MAGA crowd, paying little heed to core journalistic ethics like truth and fact and integrity and instead, using their platform to attack and destroy and carry water for the Democrats. And when they’re caught in the lie? They offer lame apologies that aren’t apologies. They cry about President Donald Trump endangering their lives. They cling all the more to the Pulitzers bestowed to them for their lies.
So it’s true, it’s most definitely true that the media world is filled with Fake News men and women who carry a Marxist torch and a hatred for MAGA.
But that doesn’t excuse these new Pentagon rules.
Just because Democrats are tyrants and just because the press pools are filled with Democrat-loving, tyrant-enabling journalists who truly believe anyone who thinks differently is racist, homophobic, Hitler-esque, Nazi-like and therefore dangerous and in need of restraints — just because this is the sad but sorry case doesn’t mean conservatives have to behave like Democrats.
Tit-for-tat is not a solution.
In America, free speech for the individual is the default; it’s incumbent on government to convince why speech must be curtailed. And while Democrats restrict speech because they love to control and hate their political opposition, versus Republicans who generally only intrude upon First Amendment rights for reasons rooted in safety and security, the end result is the same: a degradation of God-given liberties to the individual.
A chip in the block of American Exceptionalism.
A flip of the proper role of citizen-to-government — one that places government just a bit higher in the pecking order than citizen and that erodes the concept of politicians working for the people.
Fact is, the Pentagon is filled with people who are the employees of American citizens — citizens who have a right to know what their Pentagon people are up to, and how their tax dollars are being spent.
Hegseth and his team may think they’re protecting the security of Americans by controlling access to information to a mostly hostile and biased press and to a batch of journalists who think nothing of abusing their positions to tear down this White House. But Hegseth and his team would be among the first to decry a Democrat-controlled Pentagon that tried to inflict the same policy on MAGAs.
Principle is principle, regardless of which political party controls.
Freedom is not really freedom if it has to be asked for and signed for and subjected to a permission process through a government entity.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on X @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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