WASHINGTON, D.C. – Dozens of journalists who cover the Pentagon gave up their press badges and walked out of the building on Wednesday. The group of journalists from a wide range of outlets, declined to accept the Pentagon’s new rules for the press.
According to documents we’ve reviewed, the new rules would’ve restricted reporters’ access inside the building without an official escort. Reporters would not be able to report on any news, even if unclassified, unless it had approval from the Pentagon.
The administration calls these new rules “common sense” but press freedom advocates call it “unconstitutional”.
“We’ve got a premise that all unauthorized reporting is a risk to national security, that is what Pete Hegseth is operating on,” said Seth Stern, director of advocacy with the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to defend press freedom. “That is absolutely absurd and baseless. If anything, reporting on unauthorized information that the government doesn’t want the public to know, bolsters national security by exposing corruption.”
Stern adds the First Amendment exists so that press can publish what the government doesn’t want to publish. “We wouldn’t need a First Amendment for the press to publish what the government does want, we don’t need a right to do that.”
Nearly every major news outlet including NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, The New York Times and FOX News announced they would not sign the Pentagon’s press policy. We’re told only one major outlet, OAN, a conservative-leaning outlet, agreed to the new policy.
Caroline Hendrie, the executive director for the Society of Professional Journalists, which defends the free practice of journalism and high ethical standards, said they were heartened to see journalists sticking together in what they see as government overreach.
“Journalists are there as watchdogs to hold people with a lot of power accountable,” said Hendrie. “There couldn’t be matters of more higher public concern honestly than the ones being dealt with by officials in the Pentagon and there’s matters of life and death, peace and war. These are critically important matters, new restrictions that prevent journalists from reporting in the public interest are really problematic.”
We reached out to the Pentagon for a comment on this but did not hear back from them.
