Media including Fox News overwhelmingly reject Pentagon press policy
The network, which is generally supportive of the Trump administration, has joined ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN in not signing the Defense Department press policy.
Updated
October 15, 2025 at 10:51 a.m. EDTtoday at 10:51 a.m. EDT
By Scott Nover
Fox News, along with ABC, CBS and NBC, did not sign the Defense Department’s press policy by Tuesday’s deadline, having earlier in the day denounced the new regulations in a joint statement that included CNN, which previously said it would not sign.
“Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues,” the news networks wrote. “The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.”
Fox’s dissent is notable considering the Trump-friendly views of many of its opinion hosts, whose ranks previously included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The policy prohibits journalists from accessing or soliciting information the Defense Department doesn’t make available for them and revokes Pentagon press credentials from those who will not sign on. The new rules have drawn an anguished chorus of detractors across the ideological spectrum since they were announced last month.
The TV networks joined many other outlets in saying no, including The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg News and the Atlantic. Right-wing outlets including Newsmax, the Washington Times, the Daily Caller and the Washington Examiner also declined to sign, along with a raft of defense-related trade publications. (A list of outlets’ stances on the rules is below.)
As of Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline, only the MAGA-friendly One America News had said it would sign the policy.
The result, the Atlantic’s Nancy Youssef wrote Monday on X, is that reporters will take part in an unprecedented clearing out of the Defense Department’s gargantuan headquarters in Northern Virginia. “Starting Wednesday, for the first time since the Pentagon opened in 1943, there will be likely no major news outlets accredited to cover the [department], the one spending nearly $1 trillion of taxpayer money.”
The Pentagon Press Association, which represents the Pentagon press corps members, formally asked the Defense Department on Monday to reconsider the new rules.
“There is no need or justification for [the Pentagon] to require reporters to affirm their understanding of vague, likely unconstitutional policies as a precondition to reporting from Pentagon facilities,” the PPA said in a statement. “The Pentagon’s required acknowledgment is particularly problematic because it demands reporters to express an ‘understanding’ that harm inevitably flows from the disclosure of unauthorized information, classified or not — something everyone involved knows to be untrue.”
The Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Hegseth defended the new rules in a brief appearance at the White House on Tuesday with President Donald Trump. “It’s commonsense stuff, Mr. President,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure national security is respected, and we’re proud of the policy.”
Trump indirectly endorsed Hegseth’s more restrictive regulations in a brief exchange with the media,
“You walk around the White House talking to anybody that can breathe,” he told a reporter. “But I find that when it comes to war and now our great Department of War … it bothers me to have soldiers and, even, you know, high-ranking generals walking around with you guys on their sleeve asking — because they can make a mistake, and a mistake can be tragic.”
In a message to The Post late Tuesday, Hegseth’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, said the media’s objections to the policy were overstated. “The only issue is where you ask a DoW employee to commit a crime to give [unauthorized information] to you,” he said, using an acronym for the Trump administration’s rebranded Department of War. “Beyond that narrow circumstance, it is fair game.”
On Tuesday, the mood at the Pentagon press facilities was grim, according to credentialed journalists who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Journalists emptied out their desks of items that in some cases had been accrued over decades. Networks picked up broadcasting equipment to lug back to their bureaus. Through it all, there was an air of sadness but also resilience, people said. “Everyone is united but disappointed that it’s come to this,” one reporter said.
“Most reporters just feel determined to keep doing their jobs,” another said. “It’ll make it harder for sure. But I think everyone understands this is about a defense secretary who is actually quite thin-skinned.”
“Camaraderie is still really good among the reporters,” another correspondent said. “If any press corps knows how to cope with gallows humor, it’s absolutely this one.”
Liam Scott and Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... ss-pledge/
