The Pentagon said that more than 60 correspondents signed on to its new restrictions, with major news outlets as well as conservative sources like Newsmax and The Washington Times shunning the new policy.
Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, wrote in a post on X that they are “announcing the next generation of the Pentagon press corps.”
He wrote, “We are excited to announce over 60 journalists, representing a broad spectrum of new media outlets and independent journalists, have signed the Pentagon’s media access policy and will be joining the new Pentagon press corps.” Parnell wrote 26 reporters from 18 outlets signed the policy.
He wrote, “New media outlets and independent journalists have created the formula to circumvent the lies of the mainstream media and get real news directly to the American people. Their reach and impact collectively are far more effective and balanced than the self-righteous media who chose to self-deport from the Pentagon. Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media.”
His post didn’t name the outlets. But entities like One America News Network, The Federalist and Lindell TV, which have been staunch backers of Donald Trump‘s agenda, said that they were signing the policy.
Last week, reporters for major broadcast and cable news networks, including Fox News, as well as the Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post declined to sign on to the new Pentagon policy. They objected to provisions in the policy that read as if they were agreeing to only seek Pentagon-approved information.
In a joint statement, the broadcast and cable networks said that the new policy “would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues. The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections.”
Many reporters turned in their badges and cleared out belongings if they had Pentagon workspaces. But major networks and many of the other media outlets have vowed to continue to cover the Pentagon from the outside of the complex itself, maintaining their independence.
That means that when Parnell or Hegseth have a briefing, the crowd will not include familiar faces or those who have covered the Defense Department for decades.
Valerie Insinna, who covers Congress and the defense industry for Breaking Defense, wrote on X about Parnell’s announcement, “Important to note that all of the defense trade publications refused to sign the Pentagon’s media access policy, and we write about budget and military technology–not exactly what you think of when you envision ‘activists who masquerade as journalists.’”
