Dan Rather Accuses Trump Administration of a Disinformation Playbook in New Essay
Key Takeaways
- •Pete Hegseth removed multiple journalists from Stars & Stripes over its coverage last week.
- •Donald Trump called on the FCC to investigate NBC News reporter Kristen Welker.
- •Rather said the administration is using a three-part tactic that includes belittling reporters, threatening or suing them, and blocking access.
- •He argued that the press is being kept from reporting on conditions affecting U.S. military members in the Iran theater and on retaliatory damage from Iran.
- •Rather warned that attacks on the media weaken the Fourth Estate and reduce accountability in government.
Legendary journalist Dan Rather criticized the Trump administration in a new Substack essay after officials, in his view, exposed the president's disinformation playbook.
Over the last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has removed multiple journalists from the military newspaper Stars & Stripes over its coverage. President Donald Trump has also called on the FCC to investigate Kristen Welker of NBC News, a move that many have said is designed to further intimidate the press, underscoring how access and oversight can become part of the story when the subject is national security and military operations.
"That dynamic duo of disinformation doesn’t want you to know what’s going on with the thousands of U.S. military members stationed in the Iran theater. Nor do they want you to know the damage inflicted by Iran’s retaliatory attacks," Rather wrote.
"Their madness is succeeding," he added. "Six months in, and we know little about what’s really going on. We hear secondhand accounts from parents of sailors and Marines on an aircraft carrier lacking food and basic necessities. Months after the fact, we are getting bare-bones reports of the destruction of American bases in the Middle East."
Rather argued in his essay that the attacks are part of a three-pronged playbook Trump and his allies use to distort the truth.
"The secretary of defense and the equally thin-skinned president live to lie and distort, and their reign of disinformation includes punishing those who are trying to find and report the news," Rather wrote. "Their get-the-reporter playbook has three main options, all of which we have seen this week: belittle and discredit; threaten and sue (we will get back to those in a minute); and, perhaps the most troublesome, block access."
Rather also warned that the sustained attacks on the press point to a troubling future for America.
"The Fourth Estate is essential to holding the powerful accountable, especially during Trump’s reign," he added. "He has gotten rid of or weakened most internal checks on power, like inspectors general and ethics offices, while ignoring norms, rules, and court orders."
"To those who think the press is too powerful in our democracy, it needs to be said that what we’re going through now is the price we pay when the press is under sustained attack by a president and his party," he added.
