By Emmie Meeks
Opinion Editor
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon, and the U.S. military issued a memo implementing new restrictions on press and reporters at the Pentagon including limited access and mobility within the building and signing a pledge to not release any information, even unclassified, without specific authorization.
The new restrictions, particularly the pledge, are a blatant attack on the right to a free press protected under the First Amendment. As the scales tip toward authoritarianism with each passing day, Americans should be tuned in to the Big Brother-esque cult of personality the Trump administration is beginning to build.
Director of Advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation Seth Stern expressed concerns over the restrictions’ infringement on the free press and reporters’ ability to educate the public.
“This policy operates as a prior restraint on publication, which is considered the most serious of First Amendment violations…The Supreme Court has made clear for decades that journalists are entitled to lawfully obtain and publish government secrets. That is essentially the job description of an investigative journalist,” Stern said to CNN.
Hegseth’s recent changes to Pentagon press operations is ironic considering his own correspondence in the Houthi PC signal chat, in which Jeffery Goldberg Editor-In-Chief of The Atlantic was included in a group chat with top Trump officials discussing a military strike timeline.
Following the release of the memo, Hegseth took to X: “The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do.”
However, what Hegseth fails to realize is that his post actually supports the idea of the free press. The press has never sought to “run” anything, but they have continually sought, and fought, to write for the people.
“For generations, Pentagon reporters have provided the public with vital information about how wars are fought, how defense dollars are spent, and how decisions are made that put American lives at risk. That work has only been possible because reporters could seek out facts without needing government permission,” National Press Club President Mike Balsamo said in a statement.
By taking away journalists’ ability to report on unclassified information without direct authorization from the Pentagon, Hegseth is taking away power from the people, not just the press.
Further adding to the irony of the situation is Hegseth’s own background in media. The former Fox News host is no stranger to sharing information, with authorization or without. Hegseth’s progressive removal of the press is that he’s targeting media outlets that disagree with the Trump administration.
According to The New York Times, between removing The Times, NPR, NBC, and Politico’s offices in the Pentagon and now restricting reporting access, he “has taken an increasingly adversarial position with the press, repeatedly accusing journalists of attempting to ‘sabotage’ Mr. Trump’s agenda by publishing information leaked by ‘disgruntled former employees.’ He has held only a handful of press briefings.”
Further feeding the fire of Trump’s cult of personality, Hegseth is echoing Trump’s actions of going after late-night shows and television media.
According to The Guardian, on Sept. 18 Trump made comments on Air Force One, “Trump said – without providing evidence – that ‘97% [of major US networks are] against [him].”
The federal government does not have any right to dictate who can or cannot report, or on which topics. The whole point of this American Experiment, of the Bill of Rights, and of a democracy, is the ability to criticize the government.
Without the ability to speak and report freely about the largest department in the federal government, whose duty is to defend America and its ideals, the Defense Department is failing to uphold its mission.
Photo caption: The Pentagon is now requiring reporters to sign a pledge that they will not release information that has not been authorized by the Pentagon regardless of classification status.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.