Which Lives Are Worthy Of The Media’s Protection?

The United States invaded Venezuela late Friday, in a mission called "Operation Absolute Resolve." The invasion, which resulted in the abduction by Army Delta Force commandos of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, reportedly was the culmination of months of planning. A group of CIA officers, operating clandestinely since August in and around Caracas, gathered intelligence about Maduro's daily movements; meanwhile, the Trump administration manufactured increasing hostilities with Maduro's government, characterized by exaggerations about Venezuela's importance to international drug trade and a series of murderous extrajudicial attacks on defenseless boats in international waters. Finally, having piled up a war force off of Venezuela's coast, the administration waited for a suitable weather window, and struck. The conflict was over in a single night.

Back in September, while the Trump administration was a few months into the groundwork for "Operation Absolute Resolve," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced new restrictions on the freedom and access of reporters working at the Pentagon. The new rules required journalists to sign a pledge not to release information gathered from reporting without the explicit approval of "an appropriate authorizing official." Reporters who refused to sign the pledge would lose credentialed access to the Pentagon. Credentialed access under these conditions—as was pointed out even on Fox News—would be of very little value, reducing professional journalists to administration spokespeople. In October, in a coordinated demonstration, a few dozen Pentagon reporters turned in their credentials and left their posts, having refused to accept Hegseth's terms. A report from the Associated Press said that only the insane One America News Network signed the pledge.