Why Is Pete Hegseth Afraid of the Press?

Over 100 Pentagon reporters cleaned out their workspaces and turned in their press credentials this week, refusing to sign a restrictive reporting policy advanced by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Hegseth, dogged by reports highlighting his unfitness for the job, wants to control the flow of information from the department he leads. He wants the press to be his stenographer, rather than the free and independent fourth estate.

The defiant move by the press is a much-needed and united show of force by the media, whose independence has been under assault by the Trump administration and which has too often ceded ground — see the CBS and ABC settlements. Some 30 media outlets, including Bloomberg News, have declined to sign the new Pentagon policy, guaranteeing that the government’s largest federal department will be harder to cover. Even conservative outlets Newsmax and Fox News — Hegseth’s old employer — declined to sign the new policy. One America News Network, a Trump-friendly network, did agree to the new restrictions.