OPINION:
Earlier this month, all but one media outlet lost access to the Pentagon after refusing to sign an unprecedented pledge required by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth not to obtain or use any unauthorized material, even if unclassified, in their reporting.
Mr. Hegseth reserved the right to qualify the Fourth Estate as a “security or safety risk,” should they even ask Pentagon personnel to verify scoops obtained from their investigations. The suggestion of criminality for merely doing one’s job pushed nearly all news outlets, including The Washington Times, to turn in their press badges and leave the building.
Mr. Hegseth’s spokesman, Sean Parnell, denounced the “self-righteous media who chose to self-deport from the Pentagon,” adding, “Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media. We look forward to beginning a fresh relationship with members of the new Pentagon press corps.”
We agree with Mr. Parnell that many within the media are activists with personal agendas. Yet we also believe the American public has grown wise to this bias and selects which voices to trust. It is not the Pentagon’s decision, especially for families of service members hungry for information on where their children may be deployed and in what capacity.
So far, the most prominent leaker at the Defense Department is Mr. Hegseth himself. He disclosed military operations in a Signal chat earlier this year, to which Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, no friend to the Trump administration, was mistakenly added.
Since that leak and, no doubt, his arduous confirmation process, Mr. Hegseth has become more insular, paranoid and resentful — hardly characteristics of a strong leader overseeing a trillion-dollar budget and nearly 3 million employees, including about 1.3 million active-duty troops.
On the heels of saying goodbye to the Pentagon press corps, the Defense Department issued an Oct. 15 memo restricting its personnel, except for the inspector general’s office, from briefing congressional lawmakers and staff on Capitol Hill without direct approval by the Pentagon’s congressional affairs office.
In late January, Mr. Hegseth removed four news outlets from their Defense Department workspaces, presumably based on unfavorable reporting about the secretary. When asked why, Mr. Hegseth snatched away the desks of four additional news outlets.
In May, Mr. Hegseth restricted journalists from most hallways of the Pentagon without an official escort. Since the opening of the Defense Department during World War II, news media have been able to walk the halls to gather tips from officials. However, they were never permitted in areas of the building that housed classified information.
Mr. Hegseth hasn’t briefed Pentagon reporters in a formal capacity in four months. His press secretary, Kingsley Wilson, hasn’t conducted a briefing in two months. This, as President Trump looks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, has pledged to “decimate” Hamas if it doesn’t adhere to his Middle East peace plan, and is actively using the U.S. military to blow up narco-terrorists in the Caribbean Sea.
Although Mr. Trump has widely supported Mr. Hegseth’s decisions, he has not banned reporters from operating within the White House. Practically every day, he invites the media into the Oval Office. Mr. Trump enjoys sparring with journalists, especially those who are adversarial. He has the self-confidence and aptitude to go toe-to-toe, live and unfiltered, unlike his secretary of war, who seems to be hiding behind bureaucratic rules and red tape.
Mr. Hegseth has justified his actions as “commonsense stuff,” designed to protect classified information and keep Americans safe and secure. However, his new rules seem to be aimed at protecting one man alone, Pete Hegseth, from the truth.
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