After dozens of veteran reporters rejected the Defense Department’s prohibitive new press policy, and handed in their media badges this week, the only journalists left with credentials to enter the Pentagon were a mix of freelancers, foreign media members and staffers from MAGA-boosting outlets.
Dozens of print and broadcast journalists walked out of the Pentagon Wednesday in the wake of nearly every American news organization – including Trump-friendly networks Fox News and Newsmax – refusing to follow Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s media restrictions.
Among the new rules laid out in Hegseth’s 21-page policy, which he gave credentialed journalists until Tuesday evening to acknowledge, was a ban on reporters soliciting any information – classified or otherwise – from government employees without prior authorization from the Pentagon.
The Pentagon Press Association, which represents around 100 journalists, tore into the “unprecedented message of intimidation” delivered by the policy, urging the department to reverse course over its assault on press freedom.
“Our members did nothing to create this disturbing situation. It arises from an entirely one-sided move by Pentagon officials apparently intent upon cutting the American public off from information they do not control and pre-approve,” the group, which represents members from 57 domestic and international news outlets, said this week. Not all credentialed journalists at the Pentagon are represented by the association.
By Thursday, it became clear who was left in the halls of the Pentagon. An internal government document, first obtained by The Washington Post, revealed that only 15 people out of hundreds of credentialed reporters had signed the new press pledge.
Of those signatories, two are from the pro-Trump cable channel, One America News; one is from right-wing website The Federalist; and another is from ultra-conservative newspaper The Epoch Times.
The remaining 11 reporters include freelancers for foreign-based organizations and a couple of little-known independent sites that appear to publish their work solely on social media.
“A reporter for the Turkish newspaper Akşam signed the agreement, as did three individuals from the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency and two Turkish freelancers,” the Post reported. “Other signers included a reporter for The Australian, a News Corp-owned Australian paper; an Afghan freelancer; and three lesser-known operations, AWPS News, the India Globe and a blog called USA Journal Korea.”
Additionally, two members of the Jordanian TV network Al Taghier signed an older version of the policy, which had been scrapped and revised amid negotiations and pushback from the Pentagon Press Association and other press advocacy groups.
Prior to a swarm of defense reporters symbolically exiting the Pentagon together Wednesday afternoon, after handing in their badges and cleaning out their desks, only one media outlet had publicly agreed to the restrictive pledge – One America News.
While these outlets did not immediately respond to requests for comment from either The Independent or the Post, some have made public remarks defending and justifying the policy.
Earlier this week, One America News president Charles Herring said in a statement that after a “thorough review of the revised press policy by our attorney, OAN staff has signed the document.” Kristina Anderson of the social media-centric AWPS News, meanwhile, stated she felt “a profound sense of loss as I walk the Pentagon’s Correspondent spaces today.”
The Federalist CEO Sean Davis, and editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway, posted a lengthy and bombastic statement on X claiming they had reviewed the Pentagon’s press rules and found “zero new restrictions” for journalists covering the department. At the same time, the conservative pundits railed against the media at large for rejecting the policy.
“Where were these self-styled First Amendment defenders when we were illegally censored and targeted for debunking Deep State lies and hoaxes? Many of them not only refused to defend us, but cheered the illegal censorship efforts against us,” the statement declared. “NBC News, for example, colluded with Big Tech to demonetize and deplatform us for criticizing the government and the corrupt corporate news media.”
Besides editing The Federalist, Hemingway is also a paid contributor for Fox News – which joined other broadcast news networks in rebuffing the Pentagon’s restrictions and refusing to sign the pledge.
“Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues,” the joint statement said. “The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.”
Newsmax, another MAGA-friendly network that largely aligns with the Trump administration, also rejected the policy – calling its requirements “unnecessary and onerous” while urging the Pentagon to review the matter further.
With both Hegseth and President Donald Trump standing firm on the prohibitive media rules, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell mockingly tweeted that the “self-righteous media chose to self-deport from the Pentagon” and that they “will not be missed.”
He also teased some additional news about reporters who will be covering the department going forward.
“The Department of War will make an announcement soon regarding the next generation of the Pentagon press corps,” he wrote. “Stay tuned. The best is yet to come!”
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