Pentagon’s new press corps shies away from ongoing boat strike saga
News of the U.S. military striking an already disabled boat suspected of carrying drugs and killing survivors has dominated headlines for several weeks. However, the new Pentagon press corps has largely ignored that story.
Deadly boat strike coverage
That decision reportedly came from Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth who told the unit to “kill them all,” according to anonymous sources who spoke to The Washington Post.
That attack has been the focus of headlines ranging from Congress threatening Hegseth’s travel budget unless video of the second strike is released to former JAGs sharing their concerns over the strike.
A search for “boat strike” in the last week gives the following results on some news sites..
- CBS News: 104.
- ABC News: 161.
- NBC News: 38.
The Associated Press and Fox News don’t have a search filter to narrow results by date published, but each outlet does have a story about pushback to the boat strikes on their homepage.
New Pentagon press coverage
One America News was the only news outlet to sign Hegseth’s new press restrictions to maintain access to the Pentagon. Hegseth wanted outlets to agree to stop gathering any uncleared information among several other demands.
“It was extremely alarming because it was an effort to impose regulations on how reporters can do their business, how they gather the news, and what they may publish,” David Schulz, director of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, told Straight Arrow News. “And that’s absolutely antithetical to any notion of free press.”
Other outlets who make up the new Pentagon press corps include Lindell TV (from MyPillow salesman Mike Lindell), Gateway Pundit, Post Millennial, Turning Point USA’s Frontlines, activist Laura Loomer and a few others.
Those outlets have provided mostly positive coverage of Hegseth and the Trump administration.
“They’ve completely confused journalism with public relations, so the people who stay behind are, in effect, giving up their credentials as journalists,” Theodore Glasser, emeritus professor of communication at Stanford University, told SAN.
Here’s how many articles some of those new outlets have put out about the Sept. 2 boat strike.
- Lindell TV – 0.
- Gateway Pundit – 2 (both focused on exonerating Hegseth from wrongdoing).
- One America News – 0.
- Post Millennial – 7.
“The fact that they don’t see this as a story is a sign of a bizarre understanding of what’s news,” Glasser said.
It was a similar story with what’s being called Signalgate. Hegseth reportedly used a personal cellphone and the Signal app to communicate operational details about U.S. military strikes.
That story made headlines for weeks across major news networks, but the new Pentagon press corps provided mostly limited coverage.
“Signalgate happened, and the next thing you know, he shuts down many of the corridors in the Pentagon,” Schulz said.
Why the difference?
So how, or why, did the new Pentagon press corps completely overlook what’s been the first major story to come out of their new backyard?
“The organizations that were willing to sign these agreements shouldn’t be trusted,” Schulz said. “The public just shouldn’t trust them, because they’re willing to say that we won’t ask questions in certain ways and we won’t publish certain news unless we get authorization to do it. And so, on their face, they’re saying, ‘We’re prepared to be propaganda outlets, and you should consider us as such.’”
The Trump administration, and mainly Trump himself, have long-pushed back against “fake news,” but continue to surround themselves with outlets labeled biased by organizations who measure slant in news.
“There’s ongoing tensions between the press and government with regard to what gets covered and how it gets covered, and that’s not a problem,” Glasser said. “The problem is that Trump has gone to the extreme in petty ways to demean and discredit journalists. He’s bred a disrespect for the legacy press, which is very unfortunate domestically and internationally.”
Here’s a look at the bias rating for the new Pentagon press corps compared to legacy media.
“The public should understand it really is just pretty horrifying,” Schulz said. “What they’re trying to do here, it’s scary.”
Straight Arrow News reached out to Lindell TV but did not hear back. Attempts to reach out to One America News were unsuccessful.
Pentagon and the press
Since the Pentagon opened in the early 1940s, the press has been a part of the building.
“There’s never been an incident of a national security leak happening because reporters were in the building,” Schulz said. “Back during the Cold War, the official Soviet news agency had a press credential and had a reporter who was allowed to roam the Pentagon.”
The 1971 Supreme Court decision in The New York Times v. United States ruled The Times and The Washington Post had the right to publish classified documents about the Vietnam War, commonly known as the Pentagon Papers.
Despite legacy news outlets being kicked out of the Pentagon, journalists still found the double tap boat strike and Signalgate stories.
“Having access to the Pentagon and Pentagon press briefings is largely irrelevant,” Glasser said.
“The fact that this information is still being developed, reporters are still working hard at their jobs is a great sign,” Schulz added.
Schulz said having good journalism inside the Pentagon should be beneficial for the government and the public.
“It’s in the Pentagon’s interest to have the reporters there to ensure that there’s accuracy and reporting,” Schulz said. “And that’s in the public interest, so that misinformation isn’t flying around.”
The New York Times has filed a lawsuit over Hegseth’s removal of press outlets.
“I think they have a very solid claim, and I expect that the case will move fairly quickly, because what is happening in this case is quite clearly a violation of the First Amendment rights of reporters,” Schulz said.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
