Photo: Andrew Harnik/AFP/Getty Images
Last month, the Department of Defense issued a new policy restricting the movement and actions of reporters assigned to cover the Pentagon to an immediate uproar from news outlets of all mediums and leanings. While the agency later issued a revised memo after extensive negotiations with media organizations, dozens of outlets went on to publicly reject the restrictions, refusing to sign off on the changes and potentially putting their coveted hard passes at risk. But ahead of the Tuesday deadline, all of the major news networks added their names to the growing list, including the former employer of Defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News Media, and NBC News wrote that they were refusing to sign on to the Pentagon’s new requirements for reporters, denouncing the measures as limiting.
“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 policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections,” the networks wrote. “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.”
According to the Associated Press, the new policy would give Hegseth significant discretion to revoke the press passes of reporters who request information from Defense officials that has not been authorized for release, even if it’s unclassified. Journalists will also be required to have an escort in certain sections of the Pentagon. Those who don’t sign on to the policy by Tuesday at 5 p.m. will likely be forced to turn over their credentials and will lose access to the complex. This policy comes as the Pentagon previously evicted long-standing outlets like the New York Times, NPR, and Politico from their office spaces in the complex in exchange for HuffPost and conservative outlets like One America News, Breitbart, and the New York Post, NBC News reported in February.
In recent days, a number of high-profile organizations have publicly refused to sign on to the new policy, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, HuffPost, Reuters, The Guardian, and Newsmax among many others. So far, the only signatory of the new policy is One America News.
Hegseth and other DoD officials have sought to downplay the policy change, suggesting that the reactions from media leaders are overblown.
Pentagon access is a privilege, not a right. So, here is @DeptofWar press credentialing FOR DUMMIES:✅ Press no longer roams free✅ Press must wear visible badge✅ Credentialed press no longer permitted to solicit criminal actsDONE. Pentagon now has same rules as every…
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) October 13, 2025
The Defense secretary even retweeted the statements from the Times and the Post, adding a waving-hand emoji that suggested he was happy to see them go. President Trump seemed content with the new policy, signaling that he’s spoken to Hegseth about it when asked by a reporter Tuesday if he would consider rolling back the new rules.
“I mean, I think I can speak for him. I’ll let him speak for himself, but I think he finds the press to be very disruptive in terms of world peace and maybe security for our nation. The press is very dishonest,” Trump said.
The Pentagon Press Association, which took part in negotiations over the new rules, said in a statement that the Pentagon is essentially forcing members of the press to sign on to a policy that they believe violates the First Amendment or risk losing access to the complex entirely.
“This Wednesday, most Pentagon Press Association members seem likely to hand over their badges rather than acknowledge a policy that gags Pentagon employees and threatens retaliation against reporters who seek out information that has not been pre-approved for release,” the statement said.
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