Pentagon tightens press rules

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up next, press access at the Pentagon.

On Tuesday, reporters from at least 30 news outlets turned in their Department of Defense press credentials… after refusing to sign onto a new press policy. Outlets from CNN to Fox News said the changes threaten journalism. The administration calls the rules common sense.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: This is the first time since the Eisenhower administration that no major U.S. network or publication will have a permanent presence in the Pentagon.

Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta reports.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: In 2014, Associated Press correspondent Robert Burns broke a series of stories about cheating and drug scandals in the Air Force ballistic missile units.

BURNS: I was essentially tipped off to this by somebody and I looked into it and additional people came forward and gave me information that showed that there had been problems that had arisen from a lack of resources given to the Air Force.

In response, then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered a full review into the U.S. nuclear arsenal, overseen by the Air Force.

Burns retired in 2022…but if he published similar reporting today, the Pentagon could revoke his credentials for distributing unauthorized information. Here’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a cabinet meeting this week.

HEGSETH: If they sign on for credentialing they’re not going to try to get soldiers to break the law and give them classified information. So it’s common sense stuff, Mr. President. We’re trying to make sure national security is respected, and we’re proud of the policy.

Hegseth says the new rules will bring the Pentagon’s press access more in line with White House policy… where reporters are limited to restricted areas and must always wear a badge.

This is already the standard Pentagon policy, and has been for decades. The building has spaces ranging from public retail stores to secure communication rooms. Burns says that private offices were already off-limits without an invitation, and there are plenty of closed off hallways.

BURNS: The most well known of which was called the National and is called the National Military Command Center, which is a totally off-limits set of offices inside the Pentagon in which senior officials can communicate with and direct military operations. For obvious reasons, reporters were never allowed there or even close to it.

The only new part of this policy is a requirement to sign a pledge that reporters will not publish unauthorized information without first clearing it with the Pentagon. That includes unclassified information.

Since the start of the year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been hounded by negative press…from the leak of confidential assessments of limited damage to Iranian nuclear sites… to reports of national security leaders using Signal chats for discussing sensitive operations.

But according to former Pentagon public affairs officer David Lapan [luh-PAN], how department officials engage the media is a problem for HR… not the press office.

LAPAN: It was my obligation to protect classified information and not to divulge it to people. It didn't stop reporters from asking, of course, because one, it's their job, two, they don't know what’s classified and what's not. It’s up to me, or others who held security clearances, to not divulge things that were classified.

Now a retired Marine colonel, Lapan was a Pentagon spokesman and later became the acting deputy assistant secretary for public affairs. Lapan served during the 9/11 attacks and U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

LAPAN: During my tenure there, I worked under Democratic administrations, Republican administrations…We never had policies like this because it wasn't needed.

The new Pentagon policy says that journalists are misusing their badges if they “solicit leaks,” something Hegseth calls a criminal act. But what the government calls soliciting, reporters like Robert Burns call journalism.

BURNS: Part of the whole idea of American democracy is that the government must be accountable to the public. And therefore, there should be an independent media that can keep watch on government agencies.

Over the weekend, outlets including The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The New York Times posted that their reporters would not sign the pledge. Hegseth reposted their statements with an emoji waving goodbye.

While there may be fewer reporters in the building, Lapan suspects that won’t stop the negative press…or military personnel who decide to leak information to the media.

LAPAN: Leaks have always been part of it, they always will be a part of it. This is a huge overreach to address a problem that isn't new, isn't different, and it didn't require draconian measures in the past, so it shouldn't require them now.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta.

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