Media outlets including Fox News and CNN refuse to sign Pentagon press access rules

The Pentagon is asking journalists to sign new restrictive rules by Tuesday or surrender their press cards by Wednesday. Virtually all media outlets reject the ultimatum and say they will not sign it.

The Pentagon Press Association, an organization that represents top journalists, says the new policy championed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “gags Pentagon employees and threatens retaliation against journalists who seek information not previously approved for publication.”

In a statement released Monday, the association said “a possible expulsion from the Pentagon should be a concern for all.”

Last month, Hegseth’s press service introduced new rules requiring journalists to sign a pledge not to obtain or use unauthorized material, even if the information is unclassified. Any reporter who does not sign the pledge, Hegseth said, risks losing physical access to the Pentagon — something that has been an integral part of news coverage of the Washington region for decades.

ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News and Fox News (where Hegseth was an on-air host for a decade) issued a joint statement Tuesday afternoon condemning the new rules and refusing to sign the documents.

“Today, we join virtually every other news organization in refusing to accept the Pentagon’s new demands, which would limit the ability of journalists to keep the nation and the world informed on important national security issues,” the statement said. “This policy is unprecedented and threatens key journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.”

Beyond the major cable and broadcast networks, Reuters, Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and NPR have all said that journalists in their newsrooms would not accept the Pentagon’s restrictions.

Editors and reporters at all of these outlets said they would continue to cover the U.S. military extensively, with or without press credentials. Some well-known members of the Pentagon press corps have used the credentials controversy to encourage tipsters to get in touch with them.

Some partisan media outlets have also raised objections: Newsmax, the pro-Trump cable channel and website, said Monday that its journalists also have no plans to sign on.

“We believe these requirements are unnecessary and onerous and hope the Pentagon will review the matter further,” Newsmax said in a statement.

The only news outlet that has publicly accepted the Pentagon’s rules is One America News, a MAGA outlet located further to the right of Newsmax and Fox News.

The Pentagon Press Association said Hegseth and other officials “systematically limited access to information about the U.S. military” throughout the year.

Officials stopped holding routine press briefings; they started numerous media outlets from Pentagon workspaces; and severely limited to where journalists can enter the building without an escort.

Analysts have linked these obstacles to Hegseth’s well-documented disdain for the press and his frustration with the leaks.

The association said Monday that “this effort has resulted” in the implementation of “vague new policies that, on their face, appear to violate the First Amendment.”

Although the policies were revised by Pentagon press secretaries after negotiations with the media, the updated language remains unacceptable to many editorial executives and media lawyers.

Some media outlets are reportedly considering legal action, but in the meantime they are publicly stating that the restrictions are, as Post editor Matt Murray said Monday, “unnecessary constraints on news gathering and reporting.”

The association said Monday that the Pentagon’s new language “is particularly problematic because it requires journalists to express an ‘understanding’ that harm inevitably arises from the disclosure of unauthorized information, classified or unclassified – something that everyone involved knows to be false.”

Hegseth ridiculed some media concerns and embraced the dispute on social media. He said Monday that the new rules boiled down to three principles: “the press no longer moves freely,” “the press must wear a visible badge” and “the accredited press is no longer allowed to solicit criminal acts.” He also responded to several media outlets’ statements on social media with an emoji waving goodbye.

Beat journalists responded on X saying that Hegseth was misleading the public. The press association said “longstanding press access rules posed no threat to national security, which is why these rules have continued without issue for decades, across multiple administrations of both political parties.”

Critics of the new rules say the defense secretary’s true intention is to prevent independent coverage and review of the Trump administration.

The dispute is ultimately about newsrooms striving to produce “trustworthy, independent journalism for the American public” free from government influence, as NPR editor-in-chief Thomas Evans said in a statement Monday.

“We urge the Pentagon and the administration to defend freedom of the press and the right of the American people to know what is being done in their name,” Evans said.

This story has been updated.