Summary
- The View praised Fox News for standing for press freedom.
- Fox News refused to sign Pentagon's restrictive press rules.
- Co-host Whoopi Goldberg called press freedom "an American issue."
The ABC talk show began Wednesday's show with the most recent developments regarding Hegseth's press crackdown, as Pentagon beat reporters turned in their press credentials in large numbers after the Defense Department's deadline on Tuesday night to acknowledge the restrictions, which media lawyers and free press advocates claim would criminalize basic reporting.
Notably, given the long-standing hostility between Fox News and The View, the daytime show took sure to commend the conservative cable behemoth for rebuffing the former Fox morning show host's restrictive press regulations in a joint statement with other broadcast news stations.
“Yesterday, a joint statement went out from five major networks, ABC News, CBS, CNN, NBC, and, yes, Fox News, that declared that they will not sign the new Pentagon press policy,”
host Whoopi Goldberg said to loud cheers from the studio audience.
“And they say it is without precedent and threatens the core journalistic protections.”
The former US Army Vice Chief of Staff criticized the department for attempting to “spoon-feed information to the journalists” in order to support their specific narrative, and she said that Keane “put things into perspective” during his talk with Baier.
“That's not journalism,”
Keane said on Tuesday night.
“Journalism is going out and finding the story and getting all the facts to support it.”
After Keane’s comments were aired, The View’s audience erupted in applause while Goldberg nodded in approval.
With both Hegseth and Donald Trump doubling down on the media lockdown – the president, for instance, has even suggested moving the press corps “across the street” – the rest of the panel lauded pro-Trump media organizations for rejecting the policy.
“Freedom of the press is an American issue,”
co-host Sara Haines said.
“Which is why you're seeing those networks – including Fox News, who don't agree on much – coming together.”
The show's regular conservative panelist, Alyssa Farah Griffin, praised Pentagon journalists as "the most professional people who take our national security with the highest of responsibility" and recalled her experience as the Defense Department spokesman during the first Trump administration.
She also wanted to specifically call out Newsmax, a network that has consistently supported Trump and is racing to Fox's right, for not signing the commitment.
“I want to applaud Newsmax, a right-wing outlet, who also is not signing on to this, because they understand that this is bigger than any one administration,”
she proclaimed.
Haines and liberal panelist Joy Behar snarled at Hegseth's assertion that he's restricting press access to prevent harmful leaks to the media, while co-host Sunny Hostin attacked the only media outlet that has complied with the policy, labeling the far-right channel One America News a "propaganda network."
“But this is not going to stop leaks. This is going to force those leaks inside the house. So, now, it will actually have the complete opposite ending,” Haines noted.
“It's kind of ironic, because Hegseth is the leaker in chief,”
Behar quipped, prompting Haines to bring up Signalgate, the scandal that saw Hegseth detailing secret battle plans in an unsecured group chat.
It was that controversy, which featured The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg being mistakenly added to the chat and later reporting about the security breach, that reportedly made Hegseth more “paranoid, fearful and angry” towards the media amid the embarrassing fallout.
“And by the way, if they get rid of all the press, who is [White House press secretary] Karoline Leavitt going to lie to?!”
Behar joked at the end.