Pentagon Reporters Pack Up

Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wednesday rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power. News outlets were nearly unanimous in rejecting new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they sought to report on information—classified or otherwise—that had not been approved by Hegseth for release. "Today, I''ll hand in my badge," said Heather Mongillo, a reporter for USNINews, which covers the Navy, per the AP. "The reporting will continue."

Many reporters waited to leave together by the Defense Department's 4pm deadline to be out of the building. As the hour approached, boxes of documents lined a Pentagon corridor, and reporters carried chairs, a copying machine, books, and old photos to the parking lot from suddenly abandoned workspaces. Shortly after 4pm, 40 or so journalists left together after handing in badges. "It's sad, but I'm also really proud of the press corps that we stuck together," said Nancy Youssef, a reporter for the Atlantic who has had a desk at the Pentagon since 2007. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump backed his defense secretary's new rules. "I think he finds the press to be very disruptive in terms of world peace," the president said. "The press is very dishonest."

Appearing on Fox News, a retired Army general said administration officials aren't interested in independent reporting. "They want to spoon-feed information to the journalist, and that would be their story. That's not journalism," said Jack Keane. When he served, Keane said, he required new brigadier generals to take a class on the role of the media in a democracy so they wouldn't be intimidated and would see reporters as a conduit to the American public. "There were times when stories were done that made me flinch a little bit," he said. "But that's usually because we had done something that wasn't as good as we should have done it."