On Wednesday approximately 40 to 50 reporters at the Pentagon packed up their desks and turned in their press passes. This wasn’t because of politics or pay, it was over journalistic principles and morals.
The Department of Defense has rolled out a new policy under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requiring reporters to sign an agreement limiting how journalists can gather and share information. Anyone refusing to sign would lose access to the building. Most major outlets such as NBC News, CNN News, Fox News Media and ABC News, as well as other news organizations such as The Washington Post, The Associated Press, NPR, Reuters and others, refused to sign; the decision was nearly unanimous. By the end of the day, the Pentagon press room was nearly empty.
To someone outside of Washington, D.C., this may seem like another power struggle. This moment reaches further than the marble halls of The Pentagon. It affects every person who relies on credible information to make sense of the world. The people who walked out are the very individuals who track how tax dollars are spent, where troops are deployed and how government decisions impact the lives of everyday citizens. When their access gets restricted, so does your access to truthful information. This new policy wouldn’t allow journalists to solicit information the DOD has not authorized for release, even unclassified information. Therefore, asking journalists to suppress or withhold important details from their journalistic work punctures morals and credibility.
The policy states reporters could lose access if they seek unauthorized information, even if it isn’t classified. Simply put, this policy asks journalists to stop digging unless they have official permission from the Pentagon to publish. That is not protection, it’s control masked as caution.
The policy was framed as a matter of “national security,” with the United States government even calling these new rules “common sense.”
For journalists and journalism students, this should hit close to home. The reporters who stood their ground are doing what every college student is learning to do: question power, chase uncomfortable stories and refuse to be silenced. The Pentagon’s policy would turn that mission upside down. It would turn journalists from reporters to puppets. For students preparing to enter the field, this sets a dangerous precedent.
Even for those who never plan to write a story, this walkout matters. The subjects the Pentagon reporters cover, such as government action, foreign policy and veteran care, shape the world we live in. They report on school funding, healthcare and public programs. If those stories are suddenly filtered through government approval, we all lose the ability to see the full picture. You can’t hold power accountable if you don’t understand it.
The reporters who turned in their badges didn’t choose an easy path. They gave up access, connections and the convenience of working inside the DOD. They chose the hard truth of losing access rather than integrity.
This isn’t a distant media problem; it’s a local one. Press freedom isn’t a national luxury; it’s a public right. It links the Pentagon Press to every campus newsroom and community paper in America. When the core weakens, we all feel it. Local newsrooms all over the country, which often depend on national press reporting from Washington, D.C., would find it much harder to provide independent coverage of government activity.
The Pentagon walkout may have happened hundreds of miles from Athens, but its echo reaches here. The purpose of journalism is to question power, not ask permission, and the day that stops, we will all be worse off for it.
Heidi Bartolone is a sophomore studying communications at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Heidi about her column? Email her at hb963023@ohio.edu. @heidibartolone
