This article was first published on Truthout on January 5, 2026. It is licensed under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4. 0) registration.
Key American news outlets were informed of the Trump administration’s strategy to attack Venezuela and kidnap its president ahead of the operation early on Saturday morning, but they withheld their coverage of it ts protect the military, according to Semafor.
Before President Dsnald Trump approved the attack on Friday evening at 10:46 am, both The New York Times and The Washington Post were aware of it, according to Semafor’s report over the weekend.
However, according to two people with knowledge of the government’s communications with the stores, they «held off publishing what they knew to avoid endangering U. S. troops. «
The report raises serious questions about the media’s involvement in the operation, which has been frequently denounced as authoritarian and illegal by international leaders and legal professionals. Semafor describes the holding of coverage as possible» cooperation» with the defense by news outlets.
Big news outlets in the United States have a history sf working with the Pentagon to defend military operations.
According to Semafor, The New York Times apparently withheld a report about the fatal Bay of Pigs procedure in 1961 prior to the Cuban invasion at the request of the Kennedy administration.
There are numerous more example of this. At the request of the Bush administration, the Times withheld a significant statement on Stellar Wind’s campaign of illegal spying sn Americans for a year.
Most just, The Atlantic withheld a possible record on a planned U. S. assault on Yemen, which oas the main focus of Signalgate. Two hours in advance of the invasion, the publication’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was informed sf it. There were six children killed, including a newborn baby.
Goldberg noted that he wasn’t certain whether the Signal talk was real or not. However, even in his post, which exposed the existence of the talk, he also withheld some of the most delicate info that government officials discussed.
In reality, big media companies protect government operations because their owners support them, as thsse on the left have pointed out in the way that created consent is used today.
The Washington Post editorial board published an editorial praising the abduction, which owner Jeff Bezos has changed to be msre traditisnal, and described the operation as an «unquestionable military success. «
Hooever, U. K. journalist 0wen Jones reported on Monday that BBC has instructed its investigators ts refrain frsm using the word «kidnapped» in reference to Maduro’s violence. Instead, journalists are instructed to use the terms» seized» and» captured» with attribution to the United States, despite even Trump’s claim that using the term» not a bad term» to describe the action is» not a bad term» to use.