Journalists turn in press passes as Pentagon clamps down on access in ‘unprecedented’ move

By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — A flyer with the words “journalism is not a crime” appeared Tuesday on the wall outside the “Correspondents’ Corridor” where journalists operate at the Pentagon.

It was a silent protest of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new policy that severely restricts press access.

The policy criminalizes routine reporting, according to media lawyers and advocates, so news outlets are refusing to abide by it. Instead, they are giving up their access to the building, while vowing to continue thoroughly covering Hegseth and the military from outside the Pentagon’s five walls.

On Tuesday, as Pentagon beat reporters started to turn in their press passes, some noticed and appreciated the “journalism is not a crime” poster.

On Wednesday, others noticed that the poster had been removed. But there is still, perhaps ironically, an old plaque in the hallway that promotes the Pentagon’s principles for the “free flow of information.”

Press freedom advocates say Hegseth is undermining those principles by pushing reporters out of the Pentagon and trying to stop them from talking with sources.

But Hegseth ultimately controls access to the complex, so journalists had little choice but to surrender their credentials once negotiations with the press office failed to resolve legal and ethical concerns.

Only one media outlet, the relatively obscure pro-Trump channel One America News, has publicly said it agreed to Hegseth’s new terms for credentialing.

Trump-aligned outlets with more robust newsrooms, like Fox News, Newsmax and The Daily Caller, have all rejected the policy.

Hegseth and his aides “want to spoon-feed information to the journalists, and that would be their story. That’s not journalism,” Gen. Jack Keane said Tuesday night on Fox.

Military Reporters and Editors, a professional organization, said in a statement that the policy represents “an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and on the American people, who deserve accurate reporting on how the world’s largest military is funded and managed with their tax dollars.”

Military officers who regularly liaise with the press at the Pentagon have privately expressed regret about the clampdown. One longtime military reporter described “lots of grim, sad faces and apologies.”

The reporter, who requested anonymity to relay private conversations, said “there’s a thought among some of them that in a country where the military and civilians are somewhat living in parallel worlds, this will not help bridge any gaps.”

Tony Bertuca, chief Pentagon editor for Inside Defense, which produces subscription newsletters for the industry, said the new policy is part of a pattern.

“The government has been discouraging inquiry at the Pentagon for months now: practically zero press briefings and gaggles, and lots of one-way communication with the public through social media,” he said.

The credentialing change will make it even more difficult to question officials at “an agency that makes life-and-death decisions and spends hundreds of billions of dollars in public money every year.”

However, Bertuca said Wednesday, as he headed to the building to hand in his badge, “the defense beat is all about following the money. With a $1 trillion budget? They can’t hide. And I’m not going to stop doing my job.”

The-CNN-Wire
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