US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting with US President Donald Trump and Argentina’s President Javier Milei at the White House in Washington, DC, on October 14, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
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In the end, Pete Hegseth couldn’t even convince his former employer, Fox News, to agree to his new rules designed to control what journalists can and can’t do while covering the Pentagon.
Fox, along with ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, issued a joint statement Tuesday rejecting the proposed rules, which would have restricted reporting on stories that were not approved by Hegseth and Pentagon leadership.
“Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements,” the statement reads, “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.”
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – JUNE 26: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (L), accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine (R), takes a question from a reporter during a news conference at the Pentagon on June 26, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. The Department of Defense top officials gave an update after three Iranian nuclear facilities were struck by the U.S. military last weekend and Iran countered by launching missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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Hegseth, who has adopted the title Secretary of War, gave news organizations until Tuesday afternoon to sign the new agreement or surrender their Pentagon press credentials. Only one network, the conservative One America News Network, has said its reporters would agree to the new restrictions.
The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and other organizations all announced they would reject the new rules. Sara Just, senior executive producer at PBS NewsHour, said “the PBS News team, including our foreign affairs and defense team, will not be signing the Defense Department’s new press policy. It is a direct violation of our duties as journalists to cover this administration and the Department without fear or favor.”
“The public has a right to know how the government and military are operating,” said New York Times Washington Bureau Chief Richard Stevenson.
Newsmax, the conservative-leaning cable news network, said it has “no plans to sign the the letter. We are working in conjunction with other media outlets to resolve the situation. We believe the requirements are unnecessary and onerous and hope that the Pentagon with review the matter further.”
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – JUNE 26: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine (R), arrive for a news conference at the Pentagon on June 26, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. Top officials from the Department of Defense gave an update after three Iranian nuclear facilities were struck by the U.S. military last weekend and Iran countered by launching missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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The Pentagon has described the restrictions on journalists as “common sense media procedures,” but the guidelines reverse longstanding tradition for reporters covering the Department of Defense, who have been free to strike up conversations with people in the hallways of the Pentagon, and pursue stories without gaining approval.
Hegseth previously removed national news organizations from the shared workspace they’ve occupied for years, handing that space over to conservative outlets. He’s also scaled back reporters’ ability to roam the halls at the Pentagon, and perhaps run across someone with a story to tell.
Raymond DuBois, a former Pentagon official, told The New York Times that Hegseth’s efforts to constrain the news media are unlike anything ever seen. “I don’t remember any secretary of defense–and I’ve worked for a number of them–saying ‘okay, put a shackle on them.’”
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has even singled out one of his former network’s most seasoned journalists, Jennifer Griffin, calling her reporting “fake news” in January and insulting her directly during a news conference in June. “Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst–the one who misrepresents the most intentionally,” he said.
That attack led Fox’s Brit Hume to jump to Griffin’s defense, saying at the time that “her professionalism her knowledge, and her experience at the Pentagon is unmatched.”
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