It's a great thing they are not backing down. Given how many institutions have complied in advance, we need as many exemplars of better behaviour as possible.
Economically this makes sense. Those companies that sign are relegated to essentially just republishing press releases, so there's little value in employing someone just to do that.
Can they sue, and if they do are they likely to win? My laymans gut feeling is they will lose because the constitution says nothing about the government being required to provide press access to facilities. However, if they allow access to one organization but not another seems there could be an argument that they're policing speech? Would be great to hear a more informed take.
Smarter, they just dont cover the propaganda from inside, they dig the truth from those inside.
The media has been too lazy for too long printing press release from the government. This government has nothing to say but propaganda - I don’t even bother reading the government quotes any more. They are content free and self aggrandizing at a level of absurdity that would put North Korea to shame.
There have been governments hostile to journalists in the past, and those are the governments with the most to lose when journalists dig into their work. I look forward to the investigative journalism of the next three years.
> Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reacted by posting the Times’ statement on X and adding a hand-waving emoji.
> Hegseth also reposted a question from a follower who asked, “Is this because they can’t roam the Pentagon freely? Do they believe they deserve unrestricted access to a highly classified military installation under the First Amendment?”
> Hegseth answered, “yes.”
I know this is old man yelling at the clouds these days but good lord if we could have government officials that aren't terminally online...
All I want from politicians, and by this I mean literally all I want at this point, is my politicians to be smarter than me. That's really not that hard, I'm not that smart, this isn't an unrealistic bar for politicians to cross.
I can say with some confidence that an alcoholic Fox News talk show host is not smarter than me.
> all I want at this point, is my politicians to be smarter than me
I don't care if they are smarter than me. I need them to be smart enough to know they are not that smart. I don't expect politicians to be smart. I expect them to be good listeners and be the voice for the people.
I live in non english european country. One of our problems is that huge number of our politicians (including foreign affairs ministry etc.) can't speak english. Education is not bad here. You have to have pretty high level english to pass any university. I mean many bars wont give you a job without passing english interview.
But if you want to do international politics its fine because politicians don't have any formal requirements.
So next time you see EU parlament footage where people have speeches in their native language… it's not out of national pride or respect. It's simply because many of them couldn't do it otherwise.
I live in India. Nearly all parties appoint literal thugs as ministers. Let alone English literacy and fluency, they are not even competent in their own language. Here we have a minister of Kannada & Culture, whose first language is Kannada, struggling to write a common word in Kannada: https://x.com/tulunadregion/status/1886675464221286414
> I mean many bars wont give you a job without passing english interview.
We have a very similar situation in India. But ministers (and their supporters) now take perverse pride in not being good at English. They use our brief British rule as a scapegoat for half the things that are wrong with India. The other half is blamed on Mughal rule.
Pretty rich continuing to spew nonsense like this after he led one of the most historic peace deals in decades, which was aided by his "toughness", such as, you know, striking Iran.
The last ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was in January of this year, before he took office, but yes, he's a special boy for actually doing his job.
It's a great thing they are not backing down. Given how many institutions have complied in advance, we need as many exemplars of better behaviour as possible.
Economically this makes sense. Those companies that sign are relegated to essentially just republishing press releases, so there's little value in employing someone just to do that.
Can they sue, and if they do are they likely to win? My laymans gut feeling is they will lose because the constitution says nothing about the government being required to provide press access to facilities. However, if they allow access to one organization but not another seems there could be an argument that they're policing speech? Would be great to hear a more informed take.
Smarter, they just dont cover the propaganda from inside, they dig the truth from those inside.
The media has been too lazy for too long printing press release from the government. This government has nothing to say but propaganda - I don’t even bother reading the government quotes any more. They are content free and self aggrandizing at a level of absurdity that would put North Korea to shame.
There have been governments hostile to journalists in the past, and those are the governments with the most to lose when journalists dig into their work. I look forward to the investigative journalism of the next three years.
> Do they believe they deserve unrestricted access to a highly classified military installation under the First Amendment?
Sounds like a real question from a real person.
Didn't expect to see Newsman on that list
They believe the pendulum will swing the other way, which is honestly surprising.
Good.
The real question who signed it?
OANN.
OANN might as well be a high school newspaper at this point.
Wasn't OANN started by AT&T as a way to push propaganda favoring the corporation-friendly tax package in Trump's first term?
> Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reacted by posting the Times’ statement on X and adding a hand-waving emoji.
> Hegseth also reposted a question from a follower who asked, “Is this because they can’t roam the Pentagon freely? Do they believe they deserve unrestricted access to a highly classified military installation under the First Amendment?”
> Hegseth answered, “yes.”
I know this is old man yelling at the clouds these days but good lord if we could have government officials that aren't terminally online...
All I want from politicians, and by this I mean literally all I want at this point, is my politicians to be smarter than me. That's really not that hard, I'm not that smart, this isn't an unrealistic bar for politicians to cross.
I can say with some confidence that an alcoholic Fox News talk show host is not smarter than me.
> all I want at this point, is my politicians to be smarter than me
I don't care if they are smarter than me. I need them to be smart enough to know they are not that smart. I don't expect politicians to be smart. I expect them to be good listeners and be the voice for the people.
I live in non english european country. One of our problems is that huge number of our politicians (including foreign affairs ministry etc.) can't speak english. Education is not bad here. You have to have pretty high level english to pass any university. I mean many bars wont give you a job without passing english interview.
But if you want to do international politics its fine because politicians don't have any formal requirements.
So next time you see EU parlament footage where people have speeches in their native language… it's not out of national pride or respect. It's simply because many of them couldn't do it otherwise.
I live in India. Nearly all parties appoint literal thugs as ministers. Let alone English literacy and fluency, they are not even competent in their own language. Here we have a minister of Kannada & Culture, whose first language is Kannada, struggling to write a common word in Kannada: https://x.com/tulunadregion/status/1886675464221286414
> I mean many bars wont give you a job without passing english interview.
We have a very similar situation in India. But ministers (and their supporters) now take perverse pride in not being good at English. They use our brief British rule as a scapegoat for half the things that are wrong with India. The other half is blamed on Mughal rule.
The unfortunate reality is that the smartest people avoid politics.
He was actually just the weekend guy too. Just imagine, we could have had the weekday guy who said homeless people should be executed the other day.
How absolutely cowardly the "Department of War" seems to be.
You know the weakness of man from a mile away by the verbosity and volume of his "toughness."
Pretty rich continuing to spew nonsense like this after he led one of the most historic peace deals in decades, which was aided by his "toughness", such as, you know, striking Iran.
The last ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was in January of this year, before he took office, but yes, he's a special boy for actually doing his job.
And that historic peace deal in decades would be?
The last ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was in 2021.