Pete Hegseth's press crackdown is backfiring

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Pete Hegseth’s press crackdown is backfiring
Even Fox News is fed up with the Pentagon’s new press restrictions

By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published October 15, 2025 9:05AM (EDT)


(Salon) Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has managed to ignite cross‑ideological media solidarity with his unprecedented attempt to silence journalists.

Today, over 100 resident Pentagon press members who failed to sign Hegseth’s new policy, which restricts reporters to only publish information preauthorized by Pentagon authorities, are required to turn in their passes and vacate the premises. And in a remarkable act of repudiation, the U.S. press corps stands virtually united in defiance of the former “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host — even his former employer Fox News.

“Well, we’re all standing in solidarity,” Fox News host Bret Baier told his audience after the passing of Tuesday’s deadline to sign the 21-page policy, adding, “almost all of us.”

In what CNN’s Brian Stelter reported as “an impressive show of solidarity,” nearly every major U.S. news outlet — including conservative companies like Fox News, Newsmax and the Washington Examiner — refused to sign the Pentagon’s new press access policy, arguing it undermines the First Amendment. The Associated Press described the act of defiance from Fox News as “a significant step.” Only the right-wing One America News agreed to the new reporting stipulations from Hegseth, with one of the channel’s hosts, former Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, saying the pro-Trump outlet “is happy to follow these reasonable conditions.” .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/10/15/pete-hegseths-press-crackdown-is-backfiring/