The top executives at five major television news networks have affirmed their refusal to sign a new policy that largely prohibits their journalists from soliciting and reporting on non-public information while holding press credentials for access to the Pentagon.
In a statement released on Tuesday, officials at ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN and the Fox News Channel said they would not sign the new policy as directed by Secretary of Defense (Secretary of War) Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News personality.
“Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues,” the news outlets said in a joint statement e-mailed to The Desk. “The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.”
Separately, a source confirmed to The Desk that Nexstar-owned NewsNation and The Hill are also among the news outlets that have rejected the new Pentagon press access policy. They join a growing number of other press organizations that have refused to sign the policy, including the Washington Post, Newsmax, the Associated Press, the Guardian, HuffPost (the Huffington Post), Reuters, NPR and the New York Times.
Only one major news outlet — Herring Networks-owned One America News (OAN) — has agreed to sign the policy in order to maintain their access to key areas of the Pentagon.
The policy requires journalists and their news outlets to promise they won’t solicit non-public information from Department of Defense (Department of War) employees in order to maintain their press passes at the headquarters of the U.S. military.
These are the news organizations that have refused to sign the new Pentagon press access policy, which prohibits the solicitation of non-public information from military employees.
Read more: thedesk.net/2025/10/abc-…
— TheDesk.net (@thedesk.net) October 14, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Matt Murray, the Editorial Executive of the Washington Post, said the policy “undercut First Amendment protections by placing unnecessary constraints on gathering and publishing information.” Executives from other news outlets affirmed the same, and some hinted at legal challenges if the policy moved forward.
The edict comes amid a broader crackdown on press freedom within the Trump administration, and follows months of revolving door antics at the Pentagon that found several news outlets evicted from their offices within the building’s Correspondents’ Corridor.
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