US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday the creation of a joint taskforce between the Pentagon and the Department of Justice designed to “identify and prosecute” what he called the “unauthorized disclosure of sensitive” information to the press. In a video posted on X, Hegseth said he had “delegated tasking authority to the war department’s office of general counsel,” empowering it to request and receive “all information, records and support” related to media leak investigations.
The move marks the latest — and arguably most formal — escalation in the administration’s campaign against press leaks. But it doesn’t exist in isolation.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been issuing veiled threats to scientific publications, a form of censorship that the Freedom of the Press Foundation warns is eroding vital source material for journalists. As the foundation pointedly noted, Kennedy — a man who admits to dumping a bear carcass in Central Park — is “in no position to question brainworm-free scholars’ judgment, let alone censor them.” The chilling effect on medical journals has downstream consequences for health reporting and public accountability.
Taken together, these developments paint a picture of an administration that is systematically narrowing the channels through which information reaches the public — whether through scientific publishing or national security journalism.
