The New York Times Launches First Amendment Lawsuit Against the Pentagon
As if the Department of Defense/War doesn’t have quite enough to think about at the moment, with Donald Trump egging on the U.S. toward an oil-grabbing war with Venezuela, or members of Congress mouthing the words “war crimes” in reference to secondary missile strikes on defenseless Venezuelan sailors not killed by initial missile strikes, the Pentagon is now facing a new media lawsuit on the home front. On Thursday, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon related to its newly instituted media access rules, accusing the Department of Defense of violating the constitutional rights of journalists to operate as a truly “free press” through its restrictions on what can be reported and how journalists can go about their business. The federal lawsuit, filed at the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., alleges that the Defense Department policies “seek to restrict journalists’ ability to do what journalists have always done–ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that take the public beyond official pronouncements.” You can read the full text of the lawsuit here.
The Pentagon’s new rules for reporters went into effect in October, and resulted in an exodus of self-respecting journalists from a bevy of legacy media sources, all of whom were essentially replaced by Trump administration lapdogs and hand-picked “independent media” stooges in the weeks that followed. Reporters were presented with a 21-page agreement that restricts basic journalistic practices such as putting in requests for story tips or inquiries with interior Pentagon sources, and the agreement likewise states that it confers “unbridled discretion” to the department to decide what kind of behavior constitutes a violation, essentially allowing it to strip press passes from any reporter or news organization that publishes anything it dislikes. As a result, the NYT lawsuit argues that its rights (and the rights of other media entities) would be infringed because it could see targeted punishment for “reporting any information not approved by department officials, regardless of whether such news gathering occurs on or off Pentagon grounds, and regardless of whether the information at issue is classified or unclassified.”
The Pentagon, in turn, replied with a short statement from chief spokesman Sean Parnell: “We are aware of The New York Times lawsuit and look forward to addressing these arguments in court.”
Unsurprisingly, major news organizations all objected to the unveiling of the new Pentagon press rules in September and October, and ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News and even Fox News Media released a collective statement in October, saying “the policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections.” In mid-October, as the new rules (and requirement to sign the agreement) went into effect, dozens of journalists for legacy publications that had covered the Defense Department for decades turned in their badges and departed the Pentagon, including half a dozen reporters from The New York Times. They’ll now be fighting legally to regain the right to report the news without infringement, much as The Associated Press is still fighting a legal battle to regain access to White House media events after being singled out for punishment by the Trump administration.