Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth barred his agency’s own military news publication from attending his press conference.
Hegseth, 45, held an on-brand briefing Thursday to provide updates on President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, where he blasted a “dishonest media.” The Department of Defense’s own newspaper, Stars and Stripes, was spared from the slander—but only because it wasn’t invited to attend.
“Stars and Stripes was not approved by the Pentagon to attend this press conference. I will be watching it on a screen instead,” Matthew Adams, a journalist at the 165-year-old independent military newspaper, wrote on X Thursday morning.
“Seems a bit odd since the Pentagon published a memo with changes to the newspaper, including a content overhaul.”
Earlier in March, the Department of Defense released an eight-page memo outlining a “modernization” plan for Stars and Stripes, which Hegseth has previously bashed as “woke.” The plan limits content, including wire services, comics, and syndicated features, and asserts that coverage should align with “good order and discipline,” a phrase drawn from the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell previously told the Daily Beast that the changes would return Stars and Stripes “to its original mission” of being “an independent news source for service members stationed overseas that is by the warfighter and for the warfighter.”
Parnell said this would be achieved through the “transition to uniformed staff at locations outside the continental U.S., and other efficiency measures that will eliminate redundancies and ensure smart use of DOW resources.” The Department of Defense was dubbed the Department of War by the Trump administration.
“The Department’s effort will evolve S&S to meet industry trends and changes in how new generations of service members consume media,” he continued.
In response to the Daily Beast’s inquiry about how barring the publication from attending a Pentagon press conference advances that mission, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson wrote: “While Stars and Stripes remains welcome at our press briefings, we cannot accommodate every request to attend.”
Wilson added that there were 60 seats available in the press briefing room, and each one was filled with a representative from a different news outlet.
“Stars and Stripes was one of 11 outlets that we could not accommodate due to space,” she added.
Stars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer told staff he had not been contacted by anyone at the Department of Defense prior to the memo’s release. The publication receives roughly a third of its funding from the DOD, and its editorial independence has been affirmed by Congress.
The outlet’s own coverage of the memo included experts who condemned the Pentagon’s moves as a threat to press freedom.
For a relatively short tenure as Defense Secretary, Hegseth already touts an impressively long history of clashes with the press, including, reportedly, disputes over unflattering photos.
Thursday’s briefing was no exception, with Hegseth railing against coverage of Trump and Israel’s war, which began without congressional approval and for which his department is now asking for $200 billion—double what one year of the Iraq War cost.
The former Fox News personality-turned-Pentagon chief has frequently complained that the war is not being covered as he wants, or that the president is not receiving the praise he believes Trump deserves.
“I stand here today speaking to you, the American people,” Hegseth declared, pointing directly at the cameras. “Not through filters, not through reporters, not through cable news spin.”
“A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing—we know this, at this point—to downplay progress, amplify every cost and call into question every step,” he raged.
Hegseth also accused the press of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” adding: “Sadly, TDS is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail.”
