Trump Administration Claims Some Pentagon Reporters ‘Bullied’ Into Walkout Over Hegseth Press Policy
(AP Photo/Omar Havana)
The Trump administration is claiming that some Pentagon reporters were “bullied” into defying Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s crackdown on their First Amendment rights.
Hegseth gave reporters until Tuesday to sign his new press policy, which bans the use of leaked information not explicitly authorized by the Pentagon. Reporters who didn’t comply lost access to the building.
Only MAGA network, One America News, agreed to adhere to the policy.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung cited an anonymous source when posting to X on Thursday, “a few reporters on this wall have privately said they were bullied into participating in the walkout when they actually wanted to stay. They were physically confronted and threatened with retaliation if they didn’t join the protest.”
Cheung retweeted Washington Examiner defense reporter Mike Brest’s photo of press credentials under a sign that reads “Pentagon Correspondents.”
“Almost all of reporters featured on wall in the Pentagon — who collectively have been covering DoD for decades if not more than a century — are set to hand in their credentials,” Brest wrote.
CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter reported Wednesday, “Pentagon beat reporters have been handing in their press passes all day long today. It is one of the most striking examples of news media solidarity we’ve seen this year.”
Stelter added, “Yesterday, some Pentagon reporters noticed a new poster on the wall leading to the Correspondents’ Corridor. It said “JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME.” It was a silent protest of Pete Hegseth’s new policy that criminalizes routine reporting. By this morning, the poster was gone.”
Reuters reported that some journalists interviewed “said the new restrictions won’t keep them from reporting on the U.S. military.”
“The irony of irony is that Pentagon reporters are not having conversations about controlled information in the hallways,” a member of the Pentagon Press Association told Reuters. “We’re doing it over (the encrypted app) Signal.”
Hegseth reportedly used the Signal app to send classified information to recipients that included his wife and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg during the Signalgate saga that rocked the Trump administration last spring.
