Last fall, as part of a larger offensive against journalism at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told news organizations that reporters won’t be allowed to cover the department unless they agree only to report information, including unclassified information, authorized for release by the administration.
Outlets that refused to agree to his terms, the secretary added, would lose access and have their press badges confiscated.
Practically every major news organization refused, including MS NOW (my employer) and Fox News (Hegseth’s former employer). The result was an exodus of Pentagon correspondents, each of whom refused to accept the administrative restrictions, exiting the Pentagon en masse in a display of unity.
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman ruled against the Pentagon’s restrictive press access policy, concluding that it violated the First Amendment and granted the government overly broad authority to control access to the press corps. The court decision fueled some hopes that conditions at the Defense Department might return to normal.
Those hopes were soon dashed. The New York Times, which helped take the lead in challenging the Hegseth-imposed restrictions, reported:
The Pentagon is closing the workspace used for years by journalists with credentials to cover the military, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, wrote in a memo to senior Pentagon leadership. A new area for the press will be set up in an annex outside the main Pentagon building, he said, and all journalists now seeking physical access to the Pentagon will require an escort.
In addition, the department is changing the wording of some of the rules for journalists requesting a credential, Mr. Parnell wrote.
As far as Hegseth’s team is concerned, the department can impose these restrictions, limiting access to media organizations, without running afoul of Friday’s court ruling, which the Pentagon is appealing.
The Times doesn’t quite see it that way. “The new policy does not comply with the judge’s order. It continues to impose unconstitutional restrictions on the press,” a spokesperson for the newspaper said. “We will be going back to court.”
The Pentagon Press Association similarly said that the department’s latest announcement “is a clear violation of the letter and spirit of last week’s ruling.”
For his part, the beleaguered secretary — himself a former media figure — has not yet explained why he feels the need to try to curtail journalism in and around the Pentagon, far beyond what modern Democratic and Republican administrations, including during Trump’s first term, considered necessary. Watch this space.
The post After losing key court case, Hegseth’s Pentagon imposes new limits on journalists appeared first on MS NOW.
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