Pentagon’s Pete Hegseth declares war on US media, but new rules could backfire

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And history offers a cautionary lesson. The 2025 Pentagon rules almost immediately draw parallels with the 1971 Pentagon Papers controversy, when the Nixon administration tried to prevent newspapers from publishing classified documents that showed the government had misled the public about the Vietnam War. 

Mr Hegseth is claiming that all journalism that is not authorised by the Pentagon poses a threat. He is relying on the premise that investigative journalism itself is a threat to national security

There is a long history of officials in the United States claiming that they seek to protect national security, when in reality, they seek to protect their own reputations and to protect against their incompetence and misconduct being exposed

the public loses access to information it has a right to know, along with the right to ask questions of those entrusted with spending nearly US$1 trillion (S$1.3 trillion) from taxes and managing three million employees.”

Qn: Is regulation of the press desirable? (Cam. 2017)