Even Fox News Thinks This Pete Hegseth Order Is ‘A Bridge Too Far’ | EUROtoday

Fox News aired criticism Monday of controversial new media restrictions on the Pentagon, which would require credentialed journalists to signal a pledge to not report data that hasn’t been approved for launch — even when the data is already unclassified.

The restrictions had been detailed in a 17-page memo distributed Friday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News character, defended the coverage on social media, stating that journalists will now not be allowed to “roam the halls of a secure facility.”

Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley condemned the restrictions on air.

“Bret, this is actually quite breathtaking in terms of its implications for the free press,” the longtime regulation professor advised “Special Report” host Bret Baier. “There is no precedent for what they’re doing here.”

Turley added that reporters aren’t allowed to roam round freely at, for instance, the CIA, however that the Pentagon has had “a long tradition of allowing the media to work with its own representatives in getting the story right,” which typically has led to labeled data being revealed.

“Some of those cases are the most significant in our country, like the Pentagon Papers, that produced great reforms, that informed the public of things that they had to know about,” Turley continued Monday. “This measure is simply a bridge too far. It really does raise core press protections and it would devastate the press corps in the Pentagon.”

Baier famous that in his personal time as a Pentagon correspondent, he talked to “all kinds of officials” whereas traversing its corridors, and that there was all the time not less than a dialog when restrictions on a narrative had been being imposed over issues of nationwide safety.

“And it was dealt with,” Baier continued Monday. “Officials, year after year after year, dealt with — back and forth — with the press. This is different. This is, ‘You have to sign this paper or you have to leave the Pentagon.’”

Hegseth already banned reporters in May from accessing sure areas of the Pentagon with out prior approval or an official escort.

Advocates for press freedoms have denounced the required pledge as what primarily seems to be a nondisclosure settlement with the federal government, arguing that impartial reporting will stop to exist if it needs to be accredited by the middle of energy being probed.

The new restrictions comply with quite a few leaks which have sprung from President Donald Trump’s administration: Hegseth unintentionally shared particulars of an impending navy strike on Yemen with a journalist in March, later sharing nearly-identical intel on a private group chat that included his spouse.

While Fox News has defended a few of the most controversial Trump-related scandals throughout his time in workplace, the president himself appeared vital of the brand new restrictions when requested Sunday by a reporter if the Pentagon ought to be concerned in what journalists can cowl.

“No, I don’t think so,” Trump replied, including: “Nothing stops reporters. You know that.”