MEDIA BOYCOTTS HEGSETH POLICY: Pete Hegseth is getting hardly any takers for the Pentagon's new press rules.
The newly minted secretary of War issued a new policy requiring reporters to sign to keep their access to the Pentagon, but hardly any news organizations are agreeing to the terms.
Just before a 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for news organizations to comply, the heavily conservative One America News Network was the only outlet known to have agreed to the policy.
News organizations that said they would not have their workers sign the policy included major news organizations such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
ABC, CBS, NBC News, CNN and Fox News issued a joint statement saying they wouldn't have their reporters sign the policy.
"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," they said in an exceedingly rare statement.
Fox News's decision not to sign the policy, which was not surprising, was notable nonetheless since it had not so long ago employed Hegseth.
But it was far from the only conservative outlet to boycott the policy. Newsmax, another conservative outlet, said it would not sign the policy. The Washington Examiner also declined to sign it.
(For the record, The Hill and its sister network NewsNation are not signing the policy.)
It's not clear how much the unity among the news media against the policy will mean to Hegseth, who has cast himself as a disrupter within the Pentagon and who has a testy relationship with the press.
On Monday, he derided outlets that said their reporters would not sign the policy, using a hand-wave emoji to apparently wave goodbye to media coverage.
The new policy will not prevent journalists from doing investigative journalism on the Pentagon or the military, but it would require those with a permanent pass to the Pentagon to sign a document saying they could be deemed "a security or safety risk" if they ask Defense Department workers for information that is not classified but deemed sensitive.
A reporter who solicited a call for tips or who encouraged military personnel to share information that is not public could be deemed a security risk under the policy.
Solicitations are hardly unusual in reporting; and often are used to provide the public with useful information on what its government — including the military — is up to.
It's difficult to tell just how big of a difference the new policy will make for reporters, partly because Hegseth and his aides already have taken steps to make covering the Pentagon difficult.
Hegseth's office removed four outlets from their Pentagon workspaces in late January, replacing them with rivals that give favorable coverage to the Trump administration, including One America News Network.
When reporters from the organizations removed from those workspaces complained, the Pentagon reacted by removing four additional news outlets, including The Hill, from their desks.
Hegseth's team also restricted access to the Pentagon's press briefing room, previously one of the few places at the Pentagon with wireless internet. For some reporters, deskless and with no internet access, filing stories from the Pentagon was made exceedingly difficult.
A few months later, Hegseth banned reporters from most hallways within the Pentagon without an official escort, a measure widely seen as being extreme since reporters had had such access for decades — including after the 9/11 attack in 2001.
What all of this means is that even before the new policy, Hegseth had done everything in his power to crack down on the ability to report from within the Pentagon.
The steps are unlikely to prevent workers who want to be heard from talking to reporters.
But it is a deeply chilling environment, and one not completely in line with the approach taken by Hegseth's boss, President Trump.
Trump's insults of the media pose their own threats to the press, and the White House has taken steps to curtail access to the presidential pool over reporting it dislikes, including banning the AP over its refusal to use the name "Gulf of America" for the Gulf of Mexico.
At the same time, it's difficult to argue the president avoids reporters. He holds regular events where reporters get to ask questions, he stops outside the White House to take questions and he has been known to talk to reporters on Air Force One.
Trump, who defended Hegseth over the restrictions on Tuesday, is combative with the press, perhaps vindictive about coverage he doesn't like. But he does not appear to be afraid of the press.
Hegseth's new policy comes as he seeks to reshape everything about the military, from its leadership to the Department of Defense name. It was recently given a secondary name — the Department of War — under Hegseth.
Whether Hegseth can truly reshape his coverage, even with the new policies, may be more difficult to predict.
Longtime Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, who is retired from CNN, predicted Hegseth's actions will lead to more pointed coverage.
"Pete Hegseth genuinely seems to believe that confiscating Pentagon access passes for journalists who don't sign up for his new rules will stop the flow of news he doesn't like," Starr wrote in a post on Substack on Monday. "Well think again. Journalists, and the news organizations they work for, are professionally and mentally tougher than he can even imagine. So buckle up."
— Ian Swanson.
▪ The Hill: 5 takeaways as Hegseth changes Pentagon press policy.
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