傳奇記者 Dan Rather 在一篇新的 Substack 文章中批評川普政府，稱官員們在他的觀點下揭露了總統的假資訊作戰手冊。

過去一週，國防部長 Pete Hegseth 因報導內容，將多名記者自軍方報紙 Stars & Stripes 中移除。總統 Donald Trump 也呼籲 FCC 調查 NBC News 的 Kristen Welker，許多人認為此舉意在進一步恐嚇媒體，凸顯當議題涉及國家安全與軍事行動時，採訪與監督如何成為新聞的一部分。

"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.