As Twitchy reported on Monday, Hegseth responded with only a goodbye wave emoji when The Atlantic posted its statement that its journalists would not be signing the new Pentagon press policy. As we reported back in May, Hegseth announced the Pentagon was tightening up its standards for press access. New restrictions were placed on where the press could walk freely through the Pentagon without an escort.
"… as every U.S military installation"
It looks like the press is united on this one. Essentially, One America News is the only outlet that didn't put out a statement saying they would not comply with the new restrictions.
As CNN's Brian Stelter reported, CNN, Fox News, NBC, ABC, and CBS released a joint statement.
Here's the full statement:
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. 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.
NPR, which took its toys and went home after Elon Musk purchased Twitter, had its media correspondent, David Folkenflik, announce that NPR would not be signing onto the Pentagon's new rules either.
Tom Bowman of NPR wrote an opinion piece on why he was handing in his Pentagon press pass:
Bowman writes:
Today, NPR will lose access to the Pentagon because we will not sign an unprecedented Defense Department document, which warns that journalists may lose their press credentials for "soliciting" even unclassified information from federal employees that has not been officially approved for release. That policy prevents us from doing our job. Signing that document would make us stenographers parroting press releases, not watchdogs holding government officials accountable.
…
I've held my Pentagon press pass for 28 years. For most of that time, when I wasn't overseas in combat zones embedding with troops, I walked the halls, talking to and getting to know officers from all over the globe, at times visiting them in their offices.
Did I as a reporter solicit information? Of course. It's called journalism: finding out what's really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says.
…
So yes, we've received solicited and unsolicited information on everything from failed policies and botched military operations that led to unnecessary military and civilian deaths, to wasteful government projects that both Democratic and Republicans administrations would rather stay in the shadows.
That's our job.
It's kind of hilarious how NPR refuses to be stenographers parroting press releases. During the Trump administration, at least.
As we said above, One America News is the only outlet that has signed the new policy:v
Reporters are upset that they won't be able to walk around unescorted to get leaks from their preferred sources. That's fine with us.
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