Dozens of journalists walked out of the Pentagon together as their deadline to agree to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s restrictive new media policy hit.
Between 40 and 50 journalists left the Pentagon in solidarity after refusing to sign on to the DoD’s policy by 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Photographs of the scene show career Pentagon journalists, some of whom have worked in the building for decades, carrying out personal belongings. The Atlantic’s Nancy Youssef, who has worked in the Pentagon since 2007, brought a map of the Middle East out to her car, according to The Associated Press.
“Today, the Defense Department confiscated the badges of the Pentagon reporters from virtually every major media organization in America,” said the Pentagon Press Association in a statement.
“It did this because reporters would not sign onto a new media policy over its implicit threat of criminalizing national security reporting and exposing those who sign it to potential prosecution.”
Despite their exodus from the Pentagon, ousted journalists remain committed to reporting on the Department of Defense, albeit from a distance, the statement reads.
“The Pentagon Press Association’s members are still committed to reporting on the U.S. military. But make no mistake, today, Oct. 15, 2025 is a dark day for press freedom that raises concerns about a weakening U.S. commitment to transparency in governance, to public accountability at the Pentagon and to free speech for all.”
The guidelines were nearly unanimously rejected by news organizations across party lines, as legacy publications including The New York Times and The Associated Press refused to sign, as did conservative networks Newsmax and Fox News—Hegseth’s former employer.
Hegseth, 45, declared that journalists must only publish information the Pentagon expressly approves of last month. The guidelines state that journalists must agree that any “unauthorized disclosure” of information—which might include potentially unflattering information—could pose a national security risk.
The Pentagon Free Press argues that the language could put journalists who publish stories the Pentagon dislikes in legal jeopardy.
The Department of Defense claims the new guidelines are a “common sense” measure to protect national security. Still, journalists contend that the new rules are to satisfy Hegseth’s paranoia about leaks.
The Pentagon has been the subject of numerous leaks in recent months. The most famous of these was the leak of the infamous group chat featuring Hegseth discussing military strikes in Yemen, which occurred when Jeffrey Goldberg, a journalist for The Atlantic, was inexplicably added to it.
Others include an August leak of a memo written by Hegseth’s younger brother, Phil, about increasing the presence of U.S. military on American streets and a June leak of Pentagon assessments of U.S. military bombings in Iran.
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