Hi there,

For three decades, people have counted on Democracy Now! to go to where the silence is and cover the people and movements closest to the most important stories of the day. Please donate today to support our independent journalism. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much!

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

Reporters Turn In Badges and Vacate Pentagon En Masse Rather Than Sign Restrictive Press Policy

HeadlineOct 16, 2025

Dozens of reporters handed in their access badges and walked out of the Pentagon Wednesday instead of agreeing to the Defense Department’s new press policy. The policy states that media outlets and reporters cannot obtain any information that the Pentagon does not explicitly authorize. About 40 to 50 journalists from major news outlets left together before the 4 p.m. deadline. Jack Keane, a retired U.S. Army general and analyst for Fox News, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s former employer, said, “They want to spoon-feed information to the journalist, and that would be their story. That’s not journalism.” Only the One America News Network agreed to sign on to the Pentagon’s new press policy.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top