October 17, 2025 • 8 mins
Fox News, which once employed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is joining other major outlets in rejecting the Pentagon’s newly proposed restrictions on press access and reporting. John Iadarola and Brett Erlich break it down on The Damage Report. Leave a comment with your thoughts below!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
We're reporting that somehow there's going to be a.
Qatari base. On United States soil, that's
just not true. Also proud that today we're
announcing that we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a
Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in
Idaho. Low location will be hosted
contingent of Qatari F Fifteens.So that's just a little reminder
(00:27):
of how we cannot trust this administration on anything,
including matters as serious as whether we're kind of being
invaded by Qatar in the near future.
And so Hegseth advance really disagreeing on whether we are
creating a base for one of our allies in the Middle East here
in the United States and, and who's right here, I don't know.
Maybe both of them are lying. I can't determine that.
(00:50):
I need reporters looking into this stuff.
And the issue is that even it matters, as important as their
national security, reporters have less access.
There's less transparency, less ability to do honest, in depth
reporting than there has been inliving history.
And as of this week, way less than there even was a week ago.
(01:10):
Because as of right now, there are just 15 reporters reporting
from inside of the Pentagon, theworld's biggest office building,
with only three of them being from American outlets.
And those three are MAGA. So not even reporters, really.
Anyway, effectively, American journalism inside of our
(01:31):
Pentagon is done now. Journalists from nearly every
major US outlet that includes things like the Washington Post,
The New York Times, as well as things like even Fox News.
They have all turned in their press badges as of this
Wednesday after refusing to adhere to the new rules for
reporters of Pentagon, which prohibits soliciting any
information the government doesn't authorize reporters to
(01:53):
have. And so now all you have is
incredibly small outlets, foreign media freelancers and
MAGA friendly press, which it's really the same thing as like
what Pentagon wants is all you can do is our propaganda.
These MAGA outlets were already only doing propaganda.
And so I guess hags of this kindof gotten what he wants or has
(02:15):
he? Because what I think ideally
would have happened is he's given this ultimatum to the the
national media saying you're going to come in, you're going
to give us a veneer of transparency, a veneer of doing
things the way they've always been done, that we're doing our
whole war thing. And you guys are reporting,
except you can only report what we say you can.
And they decided finally to kindof stand up to him using the
(02:37):
only power they have, which is to say, we're not going to give
you that veneer. We're in fact going to leave
now, go have fun with the, the Free Eagle Beacon or whatever it
is that's still reporting from there and pretend as if things
are going as they always have. And so right now what they have
have is The Federalist, The Epoch Times and OAN, and then
(02:58):
that's it for American media. Is The Epoch Times even
American? OK, maybe.
There's No 3 Falun Gongi. Yeah, that.
But I don't know if it's just funded by them, but it's
considered American regardless. That's what you've got.
You've got a couple of Turkish media outlets, to be clear, not
The Young Turks, other Turkish outlets.
And there's one News Corp owned Australian paper, the India
(03:21):
Globe and USA Journal Korea, which is obviously and that's in
my Daily News diet. So I will be getting my Pentagon
news from USA Journal Korea. But right now, Brett, that's it.
And so is this a whiff for Hegseth?
Is this actually kind of OK fromhis point of view?
What do you? Think well, time will tell on
the reaction and that's what we need to start looking at.
Like they've already vilified news.
(03:44):
They being the administration have vilified news outlets
period calling them fake news. But the fact that only three
have not looked at Hegseth when he was like let's make an
unprecedented change to the way that journalism is done in
America. Let's make it more like a
dictatorship. The fact that only The Epoch
(04:07):
Times, OAN and The Federalist looked at that and didn't say go
F yourself. There are so many other
journalistic, you know, newspapers and TV networks that
were there doing the thing you're supposed to do.
It's the game, man. This is the game.
(04:28):
The game is there are reporters in the Pentagon trying to find
out what shady crap you're doing.
Oh hey, wondering where I am? I'm here in one of Arizona's
most unique properties. You're supposed to run a tight
ship so that people don't feel like you're such a piece of crap
(04:52):
that they're going to leak it. If they do leak information to
the the news that's protected bythe 1st Amendment of the United
States Constitution. It's what makes us America as
much as anything. And these guys are saying no.
So the big question is, are there people like, for example,
(05:15):
folks in the manosphere, a lot of folks that are like, oh, we
need to have more transparency because there's a deep state
doing shady stuff. Are those folks going to look at
that and be like, hey, buddy, this is bad.
Donald Trump is against free speech, freedom of the press,
the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, all that stuff.
And, and I, I hope they do. And it's incumbent on us to to
(05:35):
shine a light on it. Yeah, yeah.
I, I look, I in practice, I don't know how crucial or like,
like if you have a pie of all the reporting that gets to be
done about anything having to doAmerican National security,
foreign policy and all of that. How significant the reporters
based actually inside of the, the Pentagon are.
I imagine it's not nothing. I imagine that's something I am
(05:59):
assuming that people from outside of the Pentagon still
have sources in the various branches of the military and
national National Guard and all that stuff.
Like I'm I'm assuming that Ken Klippenstein never had a desk at
the Pentagon. And so I'm assuming that sort of
writing will continue. And so again, I am, I hope that
we still get, you know, these looks into what's going on,
(06:21):
especially as the military is operating with such impunity,
clear violations of international law, not even
making the case for the legalityof what they're doing.
We need reporting. But I also like it as a moment.
It makes it a little bit harder for them to claim to be the most
transparent administration in history when they've literally
kicked the media out of the Pentagon.
No, John, they haven't kicked the media out of the Pentagon.
(06:44):
They just. Said.
Right. And that's I think that's where
that's the interesting part of it.
I'm not disagreeing with what you said.
I'm just trying to say they, theway they're spinning it is we
haven't kicked anyone out of thePentagon.
Yeah, but what it is is these outlets are saying they're going
to say whatever. They're only ever going to say
(07:06):
what they're told to say by the president of the United States
and his drunk minion. Yeah.
And and. Fox will say this is very
reasonable to expect of, even though Fox itself is not signing
on to this. Let's be very clear.
But MAGA will believe the media is being unfair and not signing
on to this, even though if it was a Democrat in charge, they
(07:27):
would never accept this requirement being placed on
reporters. And that's just that's like that
hypocrisy that it's totally coolfor Trump to do it.
It would never be acceptable forany Democrat is just that's the
bricks that the entire metaphorical political system we
have right now is based on. So just you can't be surprised
by that anymore. If you enjoyed that, then make
(07:53):
sure that you never miss a videoby subscribing and if you want a
little more, consider hitting the join button and becoming a
member so. You're probably.
Wondering why would I do that? Well, when you do that, you get
access to bonus content that I make every single week and it's
a lot of fun. You get custom emojis and more
if you join at tier 3 by the way.
Even get access to a monthly member.
Hang out with myself and you'll get all that going forward.
But you also unlock years. Of the.
(08:14):
Back catalog that is literally 100 or more bonus clips and top
ten lists and debates. And more.
So what are you waiting for?
We're reporting that somehow there's going to be a.
Qatari base. On United States soil, that's
just not true. Also proud that today we're
announcing that we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a
Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in
Idaho. Low location will be hosted
contingent of Qatari F Fifteens.So that's just a little reminder
(00:27):
of how we cannot trust this administration on anything,
including matters as serious as whether we're kind of being
invaded by Qatar in the near future.
And so Hegseth advance really disagreeing on whether we are
creating a base for one of our allies in the Middle East here
in the United States and, and who's right here, I don't know.
Maybe both of them are lying. I can't determine that.
(00:50):
I need reporters looking into this stuff.
And the issue is that even it matters, as important as their
national security, reporters have less access.
There's less transparency, less ability to do honest, in depth
reporting than there has been inliving history.
And as of this week, way less than there even was a week ago.
(01:10):
Because as of right now, there are just 15 reporters reporting
from inside of the Pentagon, theworld's biggest office building,
with only three of them being from American outlets.
And those three are MAGA. So not even reporters, really.
Anyway, effectively, American journalism inside of our
(01:31):
Pentagon is done now. Journalists from nearly every
major US outlet that includes things like the Washington Post,
The New York Times, as well as things like even Fox News.
They have all turned in their press badges as of this
Wednesday after refusing to adhere to the new rules for
reporters of Pentagon, which prohibits soliciting any
information the government doesn't authorize reporters to
(01:53):
have. And so now all you have is
incredibly small outlets, foreign media freelancers and
MAGA friendly press, which it's really the same thing as like
what Pentagon wants is all you can do is our propaganda.
These MAGA outlets were already only doing propaganda.
And so I guess hags of this kindof gotten what he wants or has
(02:15):
he? Because what I think ideally
would have happened is he's given this ultimatum to the the
national media saying you're going to come in, you're going
to give us a veneer of transparency, a veneer of doing
things the way they've always been done, that we're doing our
whole war thing. And you guys are reporting,
except you can only report what we say you can.
And they decided finally to kindof stand up to him using the
(02:37):
only power they have, which is to say, we're not going to give
you that veneer. We're in fact going to leave
now, go have fun with the, the Free Eagle Beacon or whatever it
is that's still reporting from there and pretend as if things
are going as they always have. And so right now what they have
have is The Federalist, The Epoch Times and OAN, and then
(02:58):
that's it for American media. Is The Epoch Times even
American? OK, maybe.
There's No 3 Falun Gongi. Yeah, that.
But I don't know if it's just funded by them, but it's
considered American regardless. That's what you've got.
You've got a couple of Turkish media outlets, to be clear, not
The Young Turks, other Turkish outlets.
And there's one News Corp owned Australian paper, the India
(03:21):
Globe and USA Journal Korea, which is obviously and that's in
my Daily News diet. So I will be getting my Pentagon
news from USA Journal Korea. But right now, Brett, that's it.
And so is this a whiff for Hegseth?
Is this actually kind of OK fromhis point of view?
What do you? Think well, time will tell on
the reaction and that's what we need to start looking at.
Like they've already vilified news.
(03:44):
They being the administration have vilified news outlets
period calling them fake news. But the fact that only three
have not looked at Hegseth when he was like let's make an
unprecedented change to the way that journalism is done in
America. Let's make it more like a
dictatorship. The fact that only The Epoch
(04:07):
Times, OAN and The Federalist looked at that and didn't say go
F yourself. There are so many other
journalistic, you know, newspapers and TV networks that
were there doing the thing you're supposed to do.
It's the game, man. This is the game.
(04:28):
The game is there are reporters in the Pentagon trying to find
out what shady crap you're doing.
Oh hey, wondering where I am? I'm here in one of Arizona's
most unique properties. You're supposed to run a tight
ship so that people don't feel like you're such a piece of crap
(04:52):
that they're going to leak it. If they do leak information to
the the news that's protected bythe 1st Amendment of the United
States Constitution. It's what makes us America as
much as anything. And these guys are saying no.
So the big question is, are there people like, for example,
(05:15):
folks in the manosphere, a lot of folks that are like, oh, we
need to have more transparency because there's a deep state
doing shady stuff. Are those folks going to look at
that and be like, hey, buddy, this is bad.
Donald Trump is against free speech, freedom of the press,
the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, all that stuff.
And, and I, I hope they do. And it's incumbent on us to to
(05:35):
shine a light on it. Yeah, yeah.
I, I look, I in practice, I don't know how crucial or like,
like if you have a pie of all the reporting that gets to be
done about anything having to doAmerican National security,
foreign policy and all of that. How significant the reporters
based actually inside of the, the Pentagon are.
I imagine it's not nothing. I imagine that's something I am
(05:59):
assuming that people from outside of the Pentagon still
have sources in the various branches of the military and
national National Guard and all that stuff.
Like I'm I'm assuming that Ken Klippenstein never had a desk at
the Pentagon. And so I'm assuming that sort of
writing will continue. And so again, I am, I hope that
we still get, you know, these looks into what's going on,
(06:21):
especially as the military is operating with such impunity,
clear violations of international law, not even
making the case for the legalityof what they're doing.
We need reporting. But I also like it as a moment.
It makes it a little bit harder for them to claim to be the most
transparent administration in history when they've literally
kicked the media out of the Pentagon.
No, John, they haven't kicked the media out of the Pentagon.
(06:44):
They just. Said.
Right. And that's I think that's where
that's the interesting part of it.
I'm not disagreeing with what you said.
I'm just trying to say they, theway they're spinning it is we
haven't kicked anyone out of thePentagon.
Yeah, but what it is is these outlets are saying they're going
to say whatever. They're only ever going to say
(07:06):
what they're told to say by the president of the United States
and his drunk minion. Yeah.
And and. Fox will say this is very
reasonable to expect of, even though Fox itself is not signing
on to this. Let's be very clear.
But MAGA will believe the media is being unfair and not signing
on to this, even though if it was a Democrat in charge, they
(07:27):
would never accept this requirement being placed on
reporters. And that's just that's like that
hypocrisy that it's totally coolfor Trump to do it.
It would never be acceptable forany Democrat is just that's the
bricks that the entire metaphorical political system we
have right now is based on. So just you can't be surprised
by that anymore. If you enjoyed that, then make
(07:53):
sure that you never miss a videoby subscribing and if you want a
little more, consider hitting the join button and becoming a
member so. You're probably.
Wondering why would I do that? Well, when you do that, you get
access to bonus content that I make every single week and it's
a lot of fun. You get custom emojis and more
if you join at tier 3 by the way.
Even get access to a monthly member.
Hang out with myself and you'll get all that going forward.
But you also unlock years. Of the.
(08:14):
Back catalog that is literally 100 or more bonus clips and top
ten lists and debates. And more.
So what are you waiting for?
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