Charlie Kirk PMF Situation Has Divided The Internet & Pentagon Press Pledge Scandal Just Got Bigger
PDS Published 10/14/2025
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WaPo, the Times, NPR, the Guardian, even NewsMax and the Washington Examiner - they’re all kissing the Pentagon goodbye!
Right, several of the most dependable news outlets in the country - across the whole political spectrum - are refusing to sign the Pentagon’s new rules for members of the press.
You may remember us talking about this a few weeks ago when the first version of the new rules were dropped.
Demanding that journalists promise not to use any information that hasn’t been expressly approved for release - even if it's unclassified.
And any journalist who refused would risk having their press badge and Pentagon access revoked.
With Biggest Manliest Dude-Bro in Charge Pete Hegseth saying at the time,
“The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do. The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.”
As you can imagine, that was met with a good deal of push-back - with many saying these rules are a blatant violation of the First Amendment and we saw leaders in organizations like the National Press Club saying,
“If the news about our military must first be approved by the government, then the public is no longer getting independent reporting. It is getting only what officials want them to see. That should alarm every American.”
Now, in response to that outcry, there were negotiations between the Pentagon and the Press Association.
With a new list of rules being dropped last week - clarifying that journalists don’t need to submit their pieces to the Department of Defense before publication.
But the rules still make it clear that reporters can’t solicit or obtain any information that the department doesn’t expressly approve.
Which is included in the list of rules that journalists have to follow or risk being labeled a “security risk” and losing their access.
Notably, the Pentagon also clarified that any reporter who wants access has to sign the policy acknowledging that they understand it, quote, “even if I do not necessarily agree with such policies and procedures.”
But these changes didn’t really solve the key issues and the Pentagon Press Association was less than pleased - releasing a statement saying,
“Unfortunately, those negotiations have not been as successful as we hoped,”
“We acknowledge and appreciate that the Pentagon is no longer requiring reporters to express agreement with the new policy as a condition for obtaining press credentials. But the Pentagon is still asking us to affirm our ‘understanding’ of policies that appear designed to stifle a free press and potentially expose us to prosecution for simply doing our jobs.”
And outlets and journalists have until 5:00 today to sign the pledge or turn in their press credentials by tomorrow.
But the reason we’re talking about this is because the general consensus has been a whopping “Hell no, Hegseth!”
With statements from The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and the Guardian all confirming that they will not be signing a damn thing.
Generally agreeing that it’s an egregious violation of the First Amendment.
With an opinion piece by veteran NPR reporter Tom Bowman saying,
“Signing that document would make us stenographers parroting press releases, not watchdogs holding government officials accountable.”
We even saw refusals from right-leaning sources like NewsMax and the Washington Examiner.
With a spokesperson for NewsMax saying they have, quote, “no plans to sign the letter," and adding,
"We are working in conjunction with other media outlets to resolve the situation. We believe the requirements are unnecessary and onerous and hope that the Pentagon will review the matter further.”
Reportedly, the only outlet that has signed at this point is One America News.
With their president Charles Herring saying in a statement yesterday that his staff has signed the revised rules after, quote, "thorough review” by their attorney.
Now, the response from Hegseth and Team Trump has been about what you’d expect - with Hegseth using the waving emojis in response to the outlets’ statements about refusing to sign.
“Pentagon access is a privilege, not a right.”
With a spokesperson for the Pentagon laying the blame for this all on the outlets and their reporters - accusing them of “moving the goal post.”
Adding,
“The policy does not ask for them to agree, just to acknowledge that they understand what our policy is. This has caused reporters to have a full blown meltdown, crying victim online. We stand by our policy because it's what's best for our troops and the national security of this country.”
So it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that we haven’t heard anything from the Pentagon about whether they’ll reconsider these restrictions.
But we do know that if they don’t, there could be a lawsuit on the horizon.
The Pentagon Press Association has reportedly retained legal counsel and lawyers for news organizations have been deeply involved in this whole situation from the beginning.
With CNN reporting that some outlets are said to be considering taking that plunge.
But for now, we’re just going to have to wait and see how this whole thing shakes out.
In the meantime, I would love to know your thoughts in those comments down below.
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Charlie Kirk is getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom today.
Right, today would have been his 32nd birthday, and Congress actually approved resolutions declaring today a “National Day of Remembrance” for Charlie.
Which, for what it’s worth, is not an actual national holiday, but many, especially those on the right, are using the day to send tributes or discuss Charlie and his life.
Happy Birthday Charlie Kirk has also been one of the top trending topics today.
And in some places, there are events honoring him, like in Florida’s Capitol, which is hosting a candlelight vigil.
But the biggest is Trump posthumously awarding him the Medal of Freedom, which is the “U.S. government's highest civilian honor.”
And by the time this is out, the ceremony might already be underway, with his wife, Erika Kirk, expected to accept it on his behalf.
It also looks like some major right-wing commentators will be attending as well.
And Trump is making it sound like this will be a big to-do, writing on Truth Social this morning that:
“The crowd for Charlie K’s Presidential Medal of Freedom presentation is so big and enthusiastic that I moved it out to the new Rose Garden, where everyone can see the Presidential Wall of Fame and the Palm Court renovation.”
But of course, you have some sharing many of Charlie’s controversial comments and questioning if he deserved the medal.
Right, others disturbed that this comes as Trump has been targeting and cracking down on left-leaning groups, many arguing he has used Charlie’s death against his political opponents.
The Guardian even publishing a piece accusing Trump of “exploiting Kirk’s killing,” with one Harvard professor claiming that MAGA has been “chomping at the bit” to “use political violence as a pretext to” go after their enemies.
But it is still by no means a surprise that Charlie is getting this medal, right, we first learned he would receive the honor just the day after he died, with Trump calling him a “a giant of his generation” and “champion of liberty.”
And I would love to know your thoughts on this, on him getting the medal, anything at all.
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Alex Jones just got a major L from the Supreme Court.
Because this morning, the justices rejected his attempt to appeal the $1.4 billion defamation ruling against him.
Right, this all has to do with the Sandy Hook case, as he’s claimed the shooting was a hoax staged by crisis actors, and he was ordered to pay nearly a billion dollars in damages for defaming the families, and then a judge tacked on another half a million after that.
And Alex Jones has already filed for bankruptcy, so he told the court that the plaintiffs have “no possible hope” of getting the entire judgement.
But they turned him down, and the justices did not comment on the order.
So now, Jones fears that it opens the door for what might be his worst case scenario, though for the general public, it’s kind of the funniest case scenario.
Right, in a filing last week, he suggested that the Supreme Court needed to intervene because InfoWars is apparently on the verge of being owned by The Onion.
With him claiming that if the Supreme Court did not stop this, his company “will have been acquired by its ideological nemesis and destroyed.”
That filing adding that this sale would:
“confuse Jones’s listeners and ultimately destroy Jones’s very message"
Right now, the actual status of if the Onion will actually take over InfoWars is still in limbo, though, nothing is set in stone.
Right, the Onion previously won an auction to own the site, but a later judge blocked it.
Though now, Jones’s lawyers say a new attempt for The Onion to get its hands on the site is underway in Texas.
So we will have to see where that goes, but I would love to know your thoughts on this one here.
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How long will this government shutdown last?!
That’s the question that many Americans are asking as the shutdown officially enters its third week.
And yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson had this to say:
“We’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history, unless Democrats dropped their partisan demands and passed a clean, no-strings-attached budget to reopen the government and pay our federal workers.” 00:10 - 00:20
But Democrats have shown no signs of backing down from what Johnson described as their “partisan demands.”
Right, they say Republicans are to blame for the shutdown because they refuse to pass healthcare protections for millions of Americans.
And two weeks in, there appears to be no headway on negotiations.
Right, instead, Senate Republicans just keep holding votes over and over again on the SAME EXACT bill to reopen the government — in fact, they’re set to vote on the measure for the EIGHTH time later today.
But there is zero indication that anything has changed from the seven OTHER times Democrats have rejected the measure.
And with the stalemate dragging on, it really seems like Johnson could be correct about this being one of the longest shutdowns.
Right, the longest shutdown by far was 34 days and took place during the LAST Trump administration, starting in December 2018 and dragging well into January.
But before that, the previous record-holder was the shutdown under Bill Clinton that stretched from December 1995 to January 1996, lasting a total of 21 days.
So with this current budget battle clocking in at day 14 today, it’s already up there in the top 5 longest shutdowns.
And as the war drags on, the Trump administration has now started following through with a key threat: more mass firings of the federal workforce.
Right, on Friday, the White House budget office announced that it had officially started firing federal workers, with the agency also saying in a court filing that 4,000 employees would be terminated.
And specifically, the departments set to be the hardest hit by far are the Treasury and Health and Human Services, which could lose as many as 1,400 and 1,200 employees, respectively.
Though, notably, both of those departments are quite large, and smaller agencies could actually see a larger percentage of their overall workforce.
Like the Education Department, which is set to lose 400 employees — that’s nearly 20% of the ENTIRE workforce because Trump has ALREADY cut around half the agency’s employees since taking office.
And while it wasn’t immediately clear exactly which programs would be impacted, you had Trump once again repeating his threat to target Democrats.
Right, when asked for specifics during a press conference on Friday, Trump said that Democrats deserved to be targeted because they let illegal immigrants into the country.
With the president then launching into a rant about immigration, and then seemingly getting confused over whether he was talking about migrants or federal workers:
“‘Cause we want people to come in, but they have to come in legally. So what we’re doing is as these different groups come through, we’re gonna make a determination, do we want ‘em a lot? And I must tell you, a lot of them happen to be Democrat oriented. These are people that the Democrats wanted, that, in many cases, were not appropriate. We fought ‘em, at the time, and it was ultimately signed in. And some of these people — these are largely people that the Democrats want. Many of them will be fired.” 00:50 - 1:22
Right, and over the past few days, we have seen cuts to various programs and parts of the federal workforce that Trump dislikes or that don’t align with his agenda.
For example, we’ve seen reports that Trump has absolutely decimated the office within the Education Department that oversees special education.
Firing a majority of the staff who provide services to the nation’s 7.5 million children with disabilities.
It’s also been reported that he has laid off other key workers, like employees who help regulate hazardous waste and inspectors who check the quality of federal housing.
With The Washington Post reporting that:
“vulnerable Americans — schoolchildren, low-income families, homeless people and senior citizens — will suffer from the latest layoffs.”
But, as we’ve seen with Trump administration's other mass purges, it appears that they accidentally fired a good chunk of people they didn’t mean to get rid of.
Right, on Friday, you had public health officials saying that RFK Jr. had fired 1,000 CDC workers, specifically targeting offices that worked on infectious diseases and mental health.
But now we’re seeing reports that more than HALF the CDC employees who were fired have since been reinstated because they were terminated by accident.
But, despite all that, you have Vice President JD Vance threatening that more workers will be fired the longer the shutdown drags on.
Right, and with all this, you have the Trump administration somehow trying to blame Democrats for the layoffs they themselves are doing.
Arguing that they wouldn’t have to fire people if the Democrats agreed to end the shutdown — though, very notably here, what they’re doing is VERY unusual if not entirely unprecedented.
Right, normally, workers are just furloughed without pay during a shutdown and given back pay when the government boots up again.
And, on the topic of Republicans trying to blame Democrats, we’ve also seen a very interesting situation playing out in the nation's airports.
Right, as we talked about last week, we’ve seen numerous flight delays and other issues taking place all across the country thanks to the shutdown.
Because while federal airport workers are technically still supposed to keep working through the shutdown with partial or no pay, many of them have been increasingly calling out of work as the shutdown drags on.
Which is also something we saw during the last shutdown.
And now, the Trump administration is trying to directly tie Democrats to the lags travelers are seeing.
With DHS Secretary Kristi Noem directing all airports to display this video at TSA checkpoints:
“It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe. However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay. We will continue to do all that we can to avoid delays that will impact your travel. And our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government.” 00:04 - 00:32
But numerous airports are now refusing to air that message — including airports in some of the biggest hubs like Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Phoenix, and nearly half a dozen more.
With many of those airports explaining in statements that they can’t play the video because it violates their own internal policies banning political messaging or goes against state or federal laws.
And specifically, you had several airports arguing that the message appears to violate the Hatch Act — a federal law that prohibits public funds from being used for political activities.
Now, of course, this isn’t anything new — the Trump administration has repeatedly used official government channels to blame Democrats for the shutdown in ways that experts say are unprecedented and illegal.
But, as far as what happens next, we’ll just have to keep our eyes on Congress and see if any agreements emerge, or if this shutdown continues to drag on and fulfill Johnson’s prediction.
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Gen Z may have just toppled another government.
Right, last month, it was Nepal.
And now, it’s Madagascar – the island nation off the southeastern coast of the African mainland.
But to really make sense of this all, let me give you some context.
Right, Madagascar is a former French colony – and it’s now one of the poorest nations in the world.
With 75% of the country’s 30 million people living below the poverty line according to the World Bank – and only one-third having access to electricity according to the IMF.
And with that, we actually saw protests kicking off in the country late last month in response to chronic water and power cuts (BROLL:0:11-0:30).
But they soon escalated to reflect wider discontentment with the government over unemployment, corruption, and the cost of living.
And like in Nepal, they came with a death toll.
Right, the UN said at least 22 people were killed in the clashes – although the president put the death toll at 12.
And the president? That’s a guy by the name of Andry Rajoelina (AUDIO – this is the only time you say it).
He’s a businessman and former DJ who gained power in 2009 by ousting the previous president in a coup backed by the army – and in particular with the help of an elite military unit known as CAPSAT (Cap-Sat).
But on Saturday, you actually had CAPSAT troops leaving their barracks and joining the protests against the president – saying the next day that they had seized leadership of the military command and taken control of all the armed forces.
With the president warning that a coup attempt was underway.
And with that, on Monday, it was reported that the president had been flown out of the country on a French military plane – possibly heading to Dubai – and that French President Emmanuel Macron had authorised the evacuation.
You then had the president saying he was sheltering in a "safe place" after a group of military personnel and politicians allegedly planned to kill him – although CAPSAT denied the allegation.
WIth the colonel in charge of the unit saying the army had never had any intention to harm "even a single hair on his head.”
But from there, despite being in exile, you had the president announcing that he was dissolving the national assembly.
But at the same time, the opposition leader in parliament – who also happens to be the former president who was ousted in the 2009 coup?
He called a special session of parliament to "note the absence of power in Madagascar" – adding:
"There is a power vacuum. The solution is not revenge, neither confusion, but a peaceful, inclusive and responsible transition."
And with that, MPs overwhelmingly voted to impeach the president – just leaving the Constitutional Court has to validate the vote.
Except then you had CAPSAT announcing that it was taking power over the government and suspending key democratic institutions – including the constitutional court.
Although, weirdly, you’ve still had local media reporting that the constitutional court decided to confirm the leadership of the Colonel.
And with that, he has said the military would form a council composed of officers from the military and law enforcement, and that a prime minister would be appointed to “quickly” form a civilian government.
In the meantime, we’ve seen CAPSAT troops driving through the capital and being cheered on by crowds, but we’ll of course have to see how this all plays out (BROLL: 0:37)
Right, because the military seizing power typically doesn’t bode well for democracy.
But also, beyond that, we’ll have to see if and what kind of energy this gives to Gen Z protests happening elsewhere in the world.
Right, besides Nepal before this, the other country that’s been getting a lot of attention in this regard is Morocco.
And actually just this week, you had Gen Z activists there saying they’ll be launching a new round of demonstrations this weekend.
This after the ones that have already taken place a couple of weeks ago have already resulted in clashes ending with at least three deaths.
So we’ll be keeping our eyes on that situation as well and for now I’d love to hear your thoughts down below.
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Instagram is now PG-13.
At least, that may soon be the case for some of the hundreds of millions of teenagers using the app around the world.
With parent company Meta announcing today that it’s revamping its “Teen Accounts” feature on the platform so that young people will only be able to access content about as bad as what they might see in a PG-13 movie
And with that, as far as what exactly that means, well, PG-13 movies are generally allowed to have some swear words, mild violence, and partial nudity.
And you have Meta saying this will translate into “hiding or not recommending posts with strong language, certain risky stunts, and additional content that could encourage potentially harmful behaviors, such as posts showing marijuana paraphernalia.”
But if that’s still too much for some parents they’ll have the option to turn on the new “Limited Content” setting which will be even stricter than the PG-13 rating system.
And as far as how it’s determined if a piece of content should be rated?
Well, a movie is rated PG-13 after a panel of parents vote on whether it is appropriate for children based on Motion Picture Association guidelines.
And so Instagram reportedly followed a similar process, creating panels with thousands of parents to rate material on the app that they deemed PG-13 appropriate.
But while the company said it’d continue working with parents, that obviously can’t be done for every single thing that gets posted, so it will also be using AI to rate and moderate content as well.
And connected to that, one question a lot of people have of course is what’s stopping teens from just lying about their age?
And there, Meta is also using AI to power what it calls age prediction technology and prevent that from happening – but it’s still not known exactly how effective this is – although some studies have raised concerns.
And with that, there are of course also concerns about how meaningful any of these changes will really be given Meta’s history.
Right, the company– which also owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger – has promised to protect kids from inappropriate content since 2008.
But of course, the general consensus? It seems to be that the company hasn’t done a great job.
With this leading to Mark Zuckerberg getting grilled by Congress in 2024 and apologizing to parents who said their children had been harmed by social media (BROLL: 0:20-0:25; BROLL: 4:45-4:50)
And later that year, you had Instagram unveiling what were described as “sweeping changes” aimed at addressing these issues.
Including making the accounts of users younger than eighteen private by default as well as rolling out more supervision tools for adults – such as a feature allowing parents to see accounts that kids had recently messaged.
But reports have already called into question the effectiveness of those updates.
In fact independent research released last month involving a former Meta whistleblower, found that two-thirds of Instagram’s new safety tools were ineffective.
With the whistleblower – a former senior engineer at Meta – bluntly concluding:
“Kids…are not safe on Instagram. This is not about bad content on the internet, it’s about careless product design.”
“Meta’s conscious product design and implementation choices are selecting, promoting, and bringing inappropriate content, contact and compulsive use to children every day.”
Of course, Meta disputed the report – calling it biased and telling Time magazine that it ignored teens who have positive experiences on the platform.
But that report is far from the only place we’ve seen major issues being brought up.
Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, for example, reported earlier this year that Meta’s AI chatbot would flirt and engage in romantic or sexual roleplay with young people – leading lawmakers to start investigating.
And in August, the Washington Post reported in that the chatbot helped teen accounts plan suicide — and all of that as parents have no way of disabling it.
And now, with that, you have Meta saying that it’s still not giving that option, but that this new PG-13 policy will also apply to conversations with its chatbots – claiming they won’t “give age-inappropriate responses” that would be out of place in a PG-13 movie.
But we’ll have to see how that actually works out and if and what kind of impact any of this has – which, of course, may take time.
According to Meta, the new settings will start rolling out gradually to Teen Accounts in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada today and will be fully rolled out by the end of the year.
And looking ahead, the company says it plans to roll out these changes globally.
But in the meantime, I gotta pass the question off to you. Especially if you’re a parent or a teen, what do you think about all this?
