The Patriot Post® · Hegseth's Journo Stomp

“The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do. The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.” That was the brief message Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently posted on X.

It also announced the latest action against journalists taken by the Pentagon under Hegseth’s leadership.

Embarrassed by the so-called “Signalgate” incident, wherein journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was “inadvertently” included in a group chat of Trump administration officials discussing a military operation as it unfolded, Hegseth has sought to clamp down on unwanted press access and leaks to the media.

Indeed, this latest action is in line with the Trump administration’s overall approach to the legacy media. The White House has shaken up much of the “good ol’ boy” mentality when it comes to media privileges in the West Wing and access to the president.

It’s not hard to understand why Donald Trump would have such an antagonistic relationship with the mainstream media, which has covered him with a historically sustained negative bias that no former president has ever had. During his first term, Trump expressed his frustration with the press, calling them “truly the enemy of the people.” He posted at the time, “The press is doing everything within their power to fight the magnificence of the phrase, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Much of that frustration was due in part to members within the federal government leaking negative information to the press, for the sole purpose of derailing his presidency.

Therefore, during his second term, Trump has run a much tighter ship, filling his administration with more trustworthy and loyal officials. The repeated damaging leaks to the press, which sowed discord and disinformation, have become significantly less frequent.

But this also explains Hegseth’s efforts to tighten the information flow at the Pentagon. The goal is clear: to convey a single, unified message from the Trump administration, rather than a litany of opinions and contradictory information.

Evidently, Hegseth sees the presence of journalists in the Pentagon as problematic and seeks to limit their ability to interact with military officials. This explains the new press policy that news organizations must sign on to. Those that refuse risk expulsion from the Pentagon.

Unsurprisingly, almost every news organization, save one — the One America News Network — has refused to sign on to the new press policy. These media organizations released the following statement:

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 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.

Hegseth had argued that “Pentagon access is a privilege, not a right.” And his response to media companies rejecting the policy was to post a “waving hand” emoji on X.

Hegseth’s new policy is framed as mitigating “security or safety risk.” And given the current global climate, it is understandable. Trump himself has expressed support for the new press restrictions, calling the press “very dishonest” and saying that Hegseth “finds the press to be very disruptive in terms of world peace and maybe security for our nation.” Speaking to the press at the White House, Trump added, “I find that when it comes to war … it bothers me to have soldiers and even high-ranking generals walking around with you guys on their sleeve.”

Given that almost every major media organization has objected to this new Pentagon policy, calling it a violation of the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press, it would not be surprising to see some form of legal action taken.

In the meantime, it’s possible that only OANN will have direct access to the Pentagon.