America, home of the brave, land of free…stenography
What can one say about the Trump Department of War’s extraordinary decision to implement new rules for reporters that require them to never have a scoop (nor look for one)?
Rather than quote an American worthy (say, Ronald Reagan, John McCain), I’m going with a Frenchman born in Algeria. T’was Albert Camus who said “a free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad”.
Très vrai.
This is in reference to a new rule that needs reporters to sign a pledge they will not gather nor possess any unauthorized information. Apparently, the 17-page mandate (paywall) allows credentials to be revoked if you’re a bolshie journo. The language is explicit that possession of “unauthorsed material” could mark a journalist as a “security risk.”
Other than the fact being nosy is second nature to a journalist – as much, say, as tying your shoes or brushing your teeth – America owes its very soul to a free press. It was the free press that “unsettled American loyalty to George III”, as the National Museum of American History puts it. The media, thereby laid the foundations for America to be free of its colonial master.
Now, nearly 250 years on, a US president wants to turn journalist into stenographer.
As Camus might have said: Très vrai.
It’s also very true the Trump administration wants the press to be so bad there’s no reason to believe anything it says.
Imagine, reporting the Pentagon Papers in 2025. Imagine the US government of the day preventing journalists from publishing top-secret documents in 1971 showing how four presidential administrations deceived the public about US involvement in Vietnam.
Imagine, not reporting Mr Trump’s botched 2019 operation to spy on North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. It left unarmed North Koreans dead. The New York Times reported it, noting that military failures are often kept under wraps.
And finally, most recently, imagine not knowing that Trump 2.0 was all about secret military authorisation to target certain sea farers it deems terrorist organisations. According to New York Times reporting, in the past few weeks, “US strikes against suspected drug boats have killed at least 17 people”.
That is the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil world the Trump administration wants to build.
