Ethics verdict: it’s about time!
This is one of those situations where my ethics alarms steered me to exactly the opposite position of almost everyone I know. Like the Axis media, they are generally pronouncing Sec. Hegseth’s cracking down on leaks at the Pentagon as one more “assault on democracy.” No, it is just another example of the Trump Administration having the guts to do what should have been done long ago.
What Hegseth called in a tweet “Press Credentialing for Dummies,” news organization reporters are now subject to the following rules:
1. No roaming free in the Pentagon. Good.
2. Reporters must wear badges identifying them as such. Good.
3. Press can not solicit criminal acts. Best of all.
Ethics Alarms has long held the position that “journalists” abuse their privilege under the First Amendment by freely (smugly, irresponsibly) engaging in information laundering by publishing leaks from individuals who broke the law or their ethical duties by telling reporters what they were forbidden to reveal. Since we now know that these untrustworthy professionals (which means they are not professionals at all) do not have the best interests of the nation at heart, making news organizations agree to reasonable restrictions as a condition of holding press credentials is the responsible course.
I endorse the analysis at Victory Girls on this issue, which wrote in part,
Freedom of the Press means that you get to REPORT news items. It does not mean you get to demand and be granted access to wherever you want. The media and far too many politicians have forgotten or are willfully ignoring that salient point….in World War II there was a slogan. A very important slogan: “Loose lips sink ships.” To be blunt, people were shitcanned from their jobs or even thrown in prison during that time period for breaking those rules. [But]in the last twenty years at least, Pentagon weenies and the media have cultivated relationships that have led to media breaking stories chock full of those “unnamed sources” about Pentagon dealings. Too many of those reports, especially during President Trump’s first term, were designed as hit jobs.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. In protest of the new restrictions, most of the news organizations covering the Pentagon, even Fox, are boycotting the assignment rather than agree to Hegseth’s terms. The news media brought this on themselves; they will find no sympathy here. They have been, after all, “enemies of the people.” I see no reason to trust enemies with access to Pentagon secrets. In fact, doing so is unethical: incompetent and irresponsible.
Ethics Alarms 
No question about it. We seem to have reached a point where it has become fashionable to make up rights that never existed. The Left’s recent habit of interpreting some enumerated rights stringently and some far more broadly than ever intended is almost amusing if it weren’t so seriously maladjusted.
For the life of me, I can’t understand why news media aren’t happy to just publish whatever officially authorized spokespersons in the DoD spoon feed to them. It would make their job so much easier. They can’t believe there would be anything more that the public needs to know.
On this site, presidential spokespersons are regularly referred to as paid liars. I am grateful that those in the DoD are different, universally candid and honest. That has been the long tradition in the DoD, and there is no reason at all to suspect differently.
Churchill’s term “bodyguard of lies” is always applicable. National defense and the militaray have to have a measure of secrecy inappropriate to other areas of the government. And you know that. I smell a devil’s advocate….
You smell the devil; I smell a rat. There is no reason to trust either Trump or Hegspeth on this. Maybe not me, either; my youth was significantly impacted by the ‘bodyguard of lies’ about Vietnam, and that can change one’s perspective. Even for a government spokesman, which became my fate for awhile.
We saw Hillary’s tap-dancing around the issue of using an insecure server so she wouldn’t be burdened by having (in reality, her staff) to carry two cell phones. We saw Hegspeth (sorry, my mind keeps saying Hogspit) say that giving away attack plans was nothing. Both, liars.
People like that cannot be trusted. The counter is a free press. For that to exist, we have to accept bias, misreporting, attack journalism, and every other journalistic flaw.
Or, alternatively, we can just submit. Both left and right would like that.
As a commissioned active duty officer I had an occasion to enter the Pentagon in uniform. I was given a clip on tag that boldly said VISITOR. I was led to the place of my appointment. Whe my business was complete I was led bak to the entrance where the tag was removed before exiting th ebuilding. I see no reason why the Press will not comply with the same rules. I also see n reason why the Presss have actual office space inthe Pentagon. The photo of them leaving en masse carrying office equipment made me ask if they are in fact stealing government property?
Wow! Three rather non-controversial requirements laid out in less than two-dozen words!
So, why in the world did it take 17 pages for Hegspeth to specify the restrictions. Could there possibly be something, anything, beyond those three requirements that got the press annoyed?
Anyone here seen the whole thing?
https://www.rcfp.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025-10-06-Revised-Pentagon-press-access-in-brief.pdf
skimmed it, having been military, contractor, and government employee, nothing is out of the ordinary for limited access to secure areas. Requiring signatures might be new to the press, but is not unusual.
O. M. G.
I just want to reiterate what others have already said: in every government building I’ve ever been to, and certainly any area where classified information might be found, I’ve always had to abide by those exact same restrictions AND MORE, even when the location was the regular workplace to which I reported for work every day.
(My badge would identify me as a “contractor” or “visitor” rather than “Press” of course.)
The Press are being entitled whiny babies here, complete with a temper tantrum. I say don’t let ANY of them back in.
–Dwayne