The Trump administration thanks the media for remaining silent before the strike that captured Maduro

Rubio’s admission was particularly noteworthy because Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited a lack of confidence in journalists’ ability to responsibly handle sensitive information as one of the main reasons for imposing restrictive new press rules on Pentagon reporters. Most major news organizations have left positions at the Pentagon rather than agree to Hegseth’s policy.

He watches: Journalists leave the Pentagon rather than agree to new reporting rules

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Rubio said the Republican administration withheld information about the mission from Congress in advance because “it would leak. It’s that simple.” But he said the main reason was operational security.

“Frankly, a number of media outlets got leaks that this was going to happen, and they lied about it for that very reason,” Rubio said. “We thank them for doing this, otherwise American lives could have been lost.”

Word got out beforehand

Citing “people familiar with communications between the administration and news organizations,” Semafor reported that the New York Times and the Washington Post knew about the raid in advance but stopped reporting on it to avoid endangering US military personnel. Representatives for both outlets declined to comment to The Associated Press on Monday.

Read more: A timeline of the US military escalation against Venezuela leading to Maduro’s arrest

Withholding information about a planned mission for this reason is routine for news organizations, said Dana Priest, a longtime national security correspondent for The Washington Post who now teaches at the University of Maryland. She added that even after the incident occurred, the newspaper asked government authorities whether revealing certain details might put people in danger.

When Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently included in a text thread last spring in which Hegseth revealed information about a military attack in Yemen, the journalist did not report on the events until long after American staffers were out of the danger zone and the information had been thoroughly vetted.

He watches: Goldberg says management is trying to avoid Signal chat being a major security breach

Most Americans learned of the attack in Venezuela in the predawn hours of Saturday when President Donald Trump announced it on his Truth Social platform when it was over.

While the Associated Press did not have any prior news about the operation occurring, its journalists in Venezuela heard and saw explosions occurring there, and this was reported in news outlets more than two hours before Trump’s announcement. However, US involvement was not made clear until Trump’s post.

Decisions regarding publication have many dimensions

“We have an expectation that you do not ask for classified or sensitive information,” Hegseth, defending rules restricting journalists’ movements and reporting at the Pentagon, told Fox News last year. Last month, The Times filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the rules.

Read more: Media outlets including the New York Times and Newsmax say they will not sign the Pentagon rules document

“What the so-called legacy press corps at the Pentagon has shown is that they can act responsibly, as they always have, to protect the lives of soldiers,” said Barbara Starr, a former defense correspondent for CNN. “But perhaps more importantly, it shows that the media is doing its best to continue covering news beyond the control of Pete Hegseth and his endless message points.”

Decisions about reporting information that could put people’s lives or the mission at risk often involve high-level discussions between editors and government officials. But Priest stressed that in a country with a free press, the final decision on whether to release information rests with the news organization.

Generations ago, President John F. Kennedy told The Times editors not to publish reports when they learned in advance of a US-backed attack by Cuban exiles on Fidel Castro’s forces at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The mission proved a disastrous failure, and Bill Keller, editor of The Times, later said that Kennedy regretted that the newspaper had not published what it knew because it could have prevented a fiasco.

Priest said many journalists who cover the military and national security have extensive experience dealing with sensitive issues. But she said there is a difference between reporting information that could put someone in danger and that that could be embarrassing for management.

“Reporters will not be deterred by the Trump administration’s ridiculously broad censorship decree,” Priest said. “They will research and work harder. Their job is not to curry favor with the Trump administration. It’s to inform the public.”