Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has denied certain reporters, which is to say journalists who actually report facts, access to this week's Pentagon briefings. I cannot imagine why. He's continuing the Trump regime's war on the free and fair press. According to the Associated Press, only journalists handpicked by Hegzeth are allowed to attend.

They add, quote, that Hegsas team says the briefings are part of a special orientation events for a newly credentialed Pentagon Press Corps, consisting primarily of conservative outlets

that agreed to his new roles for Operation, unquote.

In other words, not journalists, stenographers, if you will, propagandists who understand

their brief, which is to repeat what they were told and to put the spin that Hagseth and Donald

and others in the Trump regime want put upon whatever misinformation, disinformation, or propaganda is coming

out of such briefings. Earlier this fall, Hegset laid out new restrictive rules for Pentagon

reporting, which included reporters getting Hegseth approval for all information before publishing.

Again, that's not how journalism works, facing expulsion for publishing

unapproved information, and refraining from soliciting information from military officials.

Members of the media were told to sign an agreement promising to follow these restrictions

or give up their press badges. So, press organizations, including outlets like Fox,

refuse these terms and left the Pentagon en masse.

Rachel Maddow discussed the significance of this on MS Now.

Take a look.

The cowardice that we have seen has been from institutions,

and that includes media organizations and news organizations,

where we've seen executives over and over and over again make cowardly and craven decisions

to try to appease Trump or please him in some way in the hopes that maybe that earns you

another day of being allowed to operate at his pleasure. It's just been disgusting

what we've seen from the most important and valuable corporations in this country and law

firms and universities and all the rest of it. In this case, we've got all of those Pentagon

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