Welcome to the Pentagon School of Journalism Obedience Edition

When you’re juggling a thousand things, eventually you’re going to drop one and this might be one of the Republicans’ biggest fumbles of 2025 🤦‍♂️

The Pentagon just told major outlets The New York Times, AP, even Newsmax to sign a new “press rules” agreement. In plain English: “You can still report the news… as long as you promise to play by our rules.”

Most of the media said “no thanks,” arguing it punishes routine reporting protected by the First Amendment. The Pentagon insists it’s about “security, not censorship.”
Sure and politicians “misspeak,” not lie.

For decades, journalists have had desks inside the Pentagon since the 1980s, in fact walking the halls, talking to officials, doing their jobs. Now they could lose that access overnight. It’s a rollback of transparency that’s hard to justify and even harder to undo.

Here’s where it gets ironic:
For years, Democrats were slammed for censoring and de-platforming voices they didn’t like. Now Republicans seem to be saying, “Hey, let’s give that a try!”

It’s the political equivalent of watching someone trip on a rake… and deciding to step on it yourself.

Because once you start deciding who gets to ask questions and who’s “too dangerous” to be heard you’ve stopped protecting democracy and started managing the narrative.

Today it’s the Pentagon. Tomorrow, it could be any agency, any administration, any topic they don’t want covered.

History’s got a funny way of repeating itself especially when both sides keep using the same bad ideas.