The Press Leaves the Pentagon

In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled that the New York Times and the Washington Post had the right, under the First Amendment, to publish classified documents exposing serious deceptions by the government during the Vietnam War—revelations that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. The landmark decision prevented the government from preemptively censoring the press. Last week, however, a new media policy took effect at the Pentagon. It requires reporters to sign a pledge agreeing only to use material that is “approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official, even if it is unclassified.” Journalists who refused to fall in line lost their passes.

“It’s like college move-out day,” one reporter told Ivan L. Nagy, who covered the Pentagon’s new policy in a series of articles for CJR, referring to dozens of veteran correspondents packing their desks and leaving the building. Nearly every major media outlet, including Fox News, issued a statement about why they refused to comply. “Securing access to the Pentagon, to the building, is not worth giving up the ability to write more than press releases and official statements,” one editor told Nagy.

Just three US outlets and a handful of independent reporters signed the pledge. Those outlets were One America News, The Federalist, and the Epoch Times, where one national security reporter, Andrew Thornebrooke, resigned in protest. Thornebrooke wrote in his resignation email that signing the pledge was a choice to “abdicate our responsibility as journalists in favor of merely repeating state narratives.”