Well, the Pentagon just pulled off something I didn’t think was possible, it got almost every major media outlet in the United States to agree on something. In a stunning show of unity (and probably the only one we’ll see this year), virtually every major news organization refused to sign on to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new “press rules,” leading to mass badge confiscations and a total media walkout from the Pentagon. That’s not an exaggeration — the place is practically a ghost town now.
Here’s the situation: Hegseth, brought in under President Trump’s administration, announced last month that Pentagon press credentials would be revoked unless media outlets agreed to new terms. The rules weren’t exactly shocking: wear your badge, don’t solicit criminal acts, stop treating top secret files like Reddit leaks, but the real kicker was the threat of prosecution for reporting unapproved information. Yeah, that’ll go over well with journalists.
When the Tuesday deadline hit, the Pentagon followed through. On October 15, 2025, the Defense Department stripped credentials from reporters representing dozens of major news outlets, after they refused to comply. According to the Pentagon Press Association, the decision “raises concerns about a weakening U.S. commitment to transparency in governance.” That’s a fancy way of saying, “This is insane.”
Let’s talk about who walked out:
All these outlets said “no” to the pledge:
- The New York Times
- The Washington Post
- Associated Press
- Reuters
- CNN
- Fox News (Hegseth’s former employer, by the way)
- ABC News
- CBS News
- NBC News
- NPR
- The Atlantic
- Politico
- The Guardian
- Newsmax
- The Wall Street Journal
- Bloomberg News
- The Hill
- Axios
- Breaking Defense
- Task & Purpose
- HuffPost
- Financial Times
- BBC
- NewsNation
- Washington Examiner
- Daily Caller
- Breitbart News (unclear on whether they signed, but no confirmation)
Only one outlet signed the pledge: One America News Network (OANN)
According to AP and Axios, around 40 to 50 reporters packed up their Pentagon workspaces and left as a group. They carried out boxes, chairs, maps, even old printers. A real-life media exodus. Nancy Youssef of The Atlantic, who’s had a desk there since 2007, called it a “dark day for press freedom.” She wasn’t exaggerating.
Hegseth says this is just bringing the Pentagon in line with “every U.S. military installation.” But barring the entire press corps from the nation’s defense headquarters over a document they didn’t sign? That’s not a policy update, it’s a press lockdown.
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