{"id":138289,"date":"2025-12-05T13:11:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/05\/the-new-york-times-sues-pete-hegseth-and-dod-for-right-to-report-the-news\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T13:11:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:11:27","slug":"the-new-york-times-sues-pete-hegseth-and-dod-for-right-to-report-the-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/05\/the-new-york-times-sues-pete-hegseth-and-dod-for-right-to-report-the-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The New York Times Sues Pete Hegseth And DoD For Right To Report The News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Founders envisioned a strong press as a foundational part of our burgeoning democracy. A strong press makes it easier for the public to stay informed of what their representatives are doing and to hold their government accountable if needed. A weak press gets you No War in Ba Sing Se<\/a> scenarios where the Venn diagram of news sources and propaganda centers is a circle. Even if the NYT isn\u2019t perfectly representative of American press coverage and interests<\/a>, their legal push to get back in the Pentagon could have far-reaching consequences for the nation\u2019s news sources. Reuters <\/a>has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

The New York Times sued the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday in an effort to force the Pentagon to abandon its restrictive new press policy, the latest attempt by a U.S. news organization to reclaim access to government spaces.<\/p>\n

The press policy, enacted last month, requires journalists to acknowledge that they could be branded security risks and have their Pentagon press badges revoked if they ask department employees to disclose classified and some types of unclassified information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Why is the pressure on the journalists to not ask questions that could involve sensitive information and not on the Department employees to keep their damned mouths shut? It is squarely within the job description for journalists to ask tough questions that get at the spirit of what the public needs to know, not lob softballs about how bad the administration\u2019s political enemies are<\/a>. If the government is hiring people who can\u2019t be trusted to have tight lips when it comes to classified information, that means they\u2019ve done a very bad job of vetting their hires. Scapegoating the reporters as safety risks when it\u2019s actually your own personnel isn\u2019t a good look, Gov.<\/p>\n

As important as it is for big press figures like the Times to push for access to information, they could also just\u2026 wait. Especially when it comes to Hegseth. My pet theory is that his push for the name change to the Department of War was that he knows how bad he is at defending anything \u2014 including secrets. It is only a matter of time before the Fox and Friends talking head that failed upward leaks a private Signal chat<\/a> or drops more proof of war crimes. You\u2019d think the story alleging he issued a double-tap order on men clinging to life and posing no threat <\/a>would make him slow down with the public disclosures but no, dude is still releasing \u201cDrug Bust\u201d snuff films:<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The good news is that the law is on their side. Even with the \u201csecurity risk\u201d language, it is hard to look at the press rule as anything other than an attempt at chilling speech that doesn\u2019t conform with government doxa. The bad news is that if this case makes it all the way to the Supreme Court, it is loaded with judges who are willing to bend the law to their desired outcomes if it benefits the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

New York Times Sues Pentagon Over Press Access<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

\n
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post The New York Times Sues Pete Hegseth And DoD For Right To Report The News<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Founders envisioned a strong press as a foundational part of our burgeoning democracy. A strong press makes it easier for the public to stay informed of what their representatives are doing and to hold their government accountable if needed. A weak press gets you No War in Ba Sing Se<\/a> scenarios where the Venn diagram of news sources and propaganda centers is a circle. Even if the NYT isn\u2019t perfectly representative of American press coverage and interests<\/a>, their legal push to get back in the Pentagon could have far-reaching consequences for the nation\u2019s news sources. Reuters <\/a>has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

The New York Times sued the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday in an effort to force the Pentagon to abandon its restrictive new press policy, the latest attempt by a U.S. news organization to reclaim access to government spaces.<\/p>\n

The press policy, enacted last month, requires journalists to acknowledge that they could be branded security risks and have their Pentagon press badges revoked if they ask department employees to disclose classified and some types of unclassified information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Why is the pressure on the journalists to not ask questions that could involve sensitive information and not on the Department employees to keep their damned mouths shut? It is squarely within the job description for journalists to ask tough questions that get at the spirit of what the public needs to know, not lob softballs about how bad the administration\u2019s political enemies are<\/a>. If the government is hiring people who can\u2019t be trusted to have tight lips when it comes to classified information, that means they\u2019ve done a very bad job of vetting their hires. Scapegoating the reporters as safety risks when it\u2019s actually your own personnel isn\u2019t a good look, Gov.<\/p>\n

As important as it is for big press figures like the Times to push for access to information, they could also just\u2026 wait. Especially when it comes to Hegseth. My pet theory is that his push for the name change to the Department of War was that he knows how bad he is at defending anything \u2014 including secrets. It is only a matter of time before the Fox and Friends talking head that failed upward leaks a private Signal chat<\/a> or drops more proof of war crimes. You\u2019d think the story alleging he issued a double-tap order on men clinging to life and posing no threat <\/a>would make him slow down with the public disclosures but no, dude is still releasing \u201cDrug Bust\u201d snuff films:<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The good news is that the law is on their side. Even with the \u201csecurity risk\u201d language, it is hard to look at the press rule as anything other than an attempt at chilling speech that doesn\u2019t conform with government doxa. The bad news is that if this case makes it all the way to the Supreme Court, it is loaded with judges who are willing to bend the law to their desired outcomes if it benefits the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

New York Times Sues Pentagon Over Press Access<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post The New York Times Sues Pete Hegseth And DoD For Right To Report The News<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Founders envisioned a strong press as a foundational part of our burgeoning democracy. A strong press makes it easier for the public to stay informed of what their representatives are doing and to hold their government accountable if needed. A weak press gets you No War in Ba Sing Se scenarios where the Venn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Chris-Williams-2025-REfurF.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}