Journalists who cover the Pentagon and the Trump admnistration are in a standoff about new rules that limit the access of the media to most areas within the Pentagon and appear to condition overall entry to the building on an agreement to restrictions in reporting.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's team characterizes the changes as an effort to protect national security and the safety of those who work at the Pentagon, while many in the press see it as an effort to exert control and avoid embarrassing stories.Journalists who want to hold on to badges that permit access to the Pentagon were told on Sept.19 they must sign a letter acknowledging the new rules by this Tuesday or the badge “will be revoked.” The new policy says that Defense Department information “must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if unclassified.” Classified material faces even tighter restrictions.That level of control immediately alarmed journalists and their advocates.
“Asking independent journalists to submit to these kinds of restrictions is at stark odds with the constitutional protections of a free press in a democracy, and a continued attempt to throttle the public's right to understand what their government is doing,” said Charles Stadtlander, spokesman for The New York Times.In a subsequent letter to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Hegseth aide Sean Parnell suggested that journalists misunderstood some of the new rules.He said, for example, that the restriction against releasing unclassified information is the policy that Pentagon officials must follow — not something the journalists must abide by.“It should come as no surprise that the mainstream media is once again misrepresenting the Pentagon's press procedures,” Parnell said in a post on X.
“Let's be absolutely clear: Journalists are not required to clear their stories with us.That claim is a lie.”However, the new policy says that ...