Fox News, CNN and More Refuse to Comply With Defense Department Media Rules

Pete Hegseth‘s Defense Department has threatened to revoke press credentials of news organization that do not agree to restrictive new coverage rules — and says it may bar journalists who don’t agree to abide by the rules from physical access to the Pentagon’s grounds. But more than three dozen news orgs have said they are refusing to sign on to the requirements.

On Tuesday, in a joint statement five major TV news outlets — ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News — said they were not agreeing to the new rules. The Pentagon has told reporters they must sign an agreement for the new rules by Tuesday or turn in their press passes by Wednesday.

According to the Defense Department’s press office, which outlined the new rules last month, reporters covering the Pentagon must sign a pledge not to obtain or use unauthorized material (even if the information is unclassified). If they do not, they will potentially be barred from the Pentagon.

“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 networks said in the statement. “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.”

The five networks join a number of other that have already said they won’t agree to the new rules being imposed by Hegseth, a former host on Fox News. Those include the New York Times, AP, Reuters, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and Politico, along with conservative-leaning outlets like Fox News, Newsmax and The Washington Examiner.

At press time, only one outlet has said it plans to sign on to the new rules: pro-Trump network One America News Network (OANN).

“Pete Hegseth has united the media! Fox joins the rest of legacy media in pushing back against his radical press censorship policy,” Chuck Todd, former host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” wrote in a post on X. “Congrats or something.”

Here’s the current full list of news outlets that have refused to sign the Pentagon’s new rules, as compiled by the Washington Post: