Pete Hegseth has declared war on the First Amendment. His new Pentagon rules don’t just lock down corridors or escort reporters through hallways—they force journalists to sign away their right to publish unless the brass gives them a stamp of approval. That isn’t security. That’s censorship.

We now have it in black and white. Media within the Pentagon covering the U.S. military will face new restrictions on what they can report—or face the loss of access to the building—according to a memo officials handed out on Friday. Reporters are being told to sign a document promising not to disclose classified or even so-called “controlled unclassified information” unless it’s been formally authorized.

The memo—bearing the new “Department of War” letterhead that the Trump administration slapped on the old Department of Defense—spells it out: credentials may be revoked for “unauthorized access, attempted unauthorized access, or unauthorized disclosure” of classified information or anything designated “controlled unclassified.” It goes even further: “DoW information must be approved before public release … even if it is unclassified.”

Read that again. Even if it is unclassified. That means reporters can’t rely on unnamed military sources, can’t publish what they see and hear, and can’t do the job of watchdog without risking their badge. Add to it the new escort rules—journalists needing an official handler just to walk the halls—and the Pentagon press corps is being herded like schoolchildren on a field trip.

Hegseth is doubling down in public. “Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home,” he posted defiantly on X.

The policy language is stark:

  • No information may be released unless approved by an “appropriate authorizing official,” even when unclassified.

  • Reporters are warned that determinations on credentials will be tied to any “unauthorized disclosure” of classified or controlled unclassified information.

  • Failure to comply may trigger suspension, loss of access, or being deemed a “security risk” to Pentagon personnel and property.

In short: the government, not the press, decides what counts as publishable.

We’ve Seen This Before

This isn’t the first time the Pentagon has tried to put the leash on reporters. About a decade ago, it came out that the Department of Defense had hired The Rendon Group to “vet” reporters before they could embed in Afghanistan. Their job was to comb through a journalist’s past stories and grade them as positive, negative, or neutral toward the U.S. military. Those profiles then fed into decisions about who got access.

The scandal broke when Stars and Stripes exposed the practice in 2009. The Pentagon tried to claim it was just “background research,” but everyone knew what it really was: a loyalty test. Write stories that challenged the mission, and you risked being quietly blacklisted from embeds. The program was shut down under pressure, but the impulse never went away. Hegseth’s memo shows it’s alive and well.

The Society of Professional Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others have already raised hell. They know prior restraint when they see it, and they’ve seen plenty of it from regimes we once called enemies. Now it’s being written into Pentagon policy.

Make no mistake: this isn’t about troop safety. It’s about brass afraid of embarrassment, afraid of sunlight. Every real soldier knows the truth gets bloody in the field, and covering it up only makes the wounds worse.

This Friday’s memo was another move in Trump’s long march to muzzle the press and keep government out of public view.

Hegseth can wrap this in talk of “discipline” or “order” all he likes. What he’s really doing is muzzling the watchdogs. If reporters accept this, we won’t have a free press—we’ll have a Pentagon press office with better lighting.

The First Amendment is not a permission slip the government hands out. It’s the bedrock right of a free people. Hegseth may think he can bully the press into silence, but it won’t work—unless the press itself forgets how to bark and bite back.