Pentagon reporters still have until 5:00pm Tuesday to sign an agreement with Pete Hegseth’s new press policy that would force the free press to sign away their First Amendment rights, but several news outlets have already refused.
That policy required a pledge by Pentagon reporters to not solicit unauthorized information from military officials, or turn in their press passes — even though the policy would not technically ban investigating, reporting, or publishing sensitive or unclassified information.
On Monday, the Washington Post joined the New York Times, CNN, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Reuters, the Associated Press, NPR, HuffPost and trade publication Breaking Defense in saying it would not sign on to the agreement.
Editors and journalists have said they will continue to cover the U.S. military even without press credentials.
As many of those news outlets posted their decisions on social media, Secretary of War Hegseth responded with an emoji, the hand wave, and other demeaning responses.