New Delhi, Jan. 7 -- In the wake of last weekend's U.S. military action in Venezuela, the news media got something it has seldom heard from the Trump administration: a "thank you."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio credited news organizations that had learned in advance about Saturday's strike that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with not putting the mission in jeopardy by publicly reporting on it before it happened.

Rubio's acknowledgment was particularly noteworthy because Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has cited a mistrust of journalists' ability to responsibly handle sensitive information as one of the chief reasons for imposing restrictive new press rules on Pentagon reporters. Most mainstream news organizati...