Pete Hegseth’s attempt to gag journalism is a resounding failure
Hegseth wants journalists to only publish ‘explicitly authorized’ information. That is not how the free press works
Tom Bowman of National Public Radio recalls one of the many times in his decades covering the Pentagon when the real story wasn’t the officially approved story.
Then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was “ecstatic” after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, insisting publicly that it showed the resounding success of the US invasion of Iraq, Bowman wrote in an NPR opinion piece this week. But through informal conversations with officers, Bowman soon found out that the truth was much more complicated – that more American troops would have to be deployed to Iraq to guard the supply lines that were under attack from Saddam Hussein’s supporters.
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