Fox News media analyst and retired Gen. Jack Keane joined Fox News anchor Bret Baier in bashing the Pentagon for attempting to establish a new press policy.
The Pentagon attempted to force journalists to pledge to only release information expressly authorized by the Pentagon. If journalists violate the policy or possess confidential or unauthorized information, their credentials can be revoked. So far, every major news outlet has denounced the pledge rather than sign it.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth stood by this new policy and an earlier policy that requires journalists to have an escort when they are in the Pentagon. Hegseth claimed the previous practice allowed journalists “to go anywhere, pretty much anywhere in the Pentagon, the most classified area in the world.”
Baier denied Hegseth’s assertions during Fox News’s Special Report with Bret Baier on Tuesday. This came hours after Fox News also refused to sign the pledge.
“I covered the Pentagon for six and a half years,” Baier said. “And we knew not to — you don’t walk into the tank and the classified areas are off limits.”
“These are stipulations that essentially are changing the dynamic about how to get information and how they disseminate information,” Baier said of the pledge.
Keane, who served as the Army’s acting chief of staff and vice chief of staff, said he had “never, ever seen” a policy like the one Hegseth proposed.
“What they’re really doing, they want to spoon-feed information to the journalists, and that will be their story. That’s not journalism,” Keane said. “Journalism is going out and finding the story and getting all the facts that support it.”
President Donald Trump, in apparent solidarity with Hegseth, suggested he’d physically distance White House journalists on Wednesday when it was clear no major outlet would sign on.
The War Department has already walked back an even stricter press policy that would have required journalists to seek approval from the Pentagon on articles before they were published.
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The Washington Examiner also did not sign the pledge.
“We do not plan to sign the Pentagon document. The Washington Examiner does not sign agreements with people we cover in our reporting in any other area, and we do not plan to make an exception in this case. The Department of War will set its rules and we will continue to provide our readers with strong independent news reporting,” Washington Examiner Editor-in-Chief Hugo Gurdon said.
