Pete Hegseth targets news outlets, leakers as defense secretary

Jan. 15, 2026 | Defense Department announces overhaul of military newspaper, calling it ‘woke’

Oct. 1, 2025 | Pentagon to require nondisclosure agreements, random polygraph testing

May 26, 2025 | Defense Department attempts to bar CNN reporter from foreign trip

March 21, 2025 | Defense Department announces investigation into media leaks

Jan. 15, 2026 | Defense Department announces overhaul of military newspaper, calling it ‘woke’

The Department of Defense announced plans on Jan. 15, 2026, to take over editorial decision-making for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, in a move that jeopardizes its long-held editorial independence.

In a statement posted to social media, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell defended the move as “returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters.”

“We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members,” he continued. “It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints.”

While the newspaper is partially funded by the Pentagon and its staffers are department employees, the outlet reported that it is directed to emulate the best practices of commercial news organizations and provide a free flow of “news and information to its readership without news management or censorship.”

Stars and Stripes Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin wrote in a Jan. 15 note to staff that the military deserves independent news.

“The people who risk their lives in defense of the Constitution have earned the right to the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” Slavin wrote. “We will not compromise on serving them with accurate and balanced coverage, holding military officials to account when called for.”

The Daily Wire reported that department officials told the outlet that Stars and Stripes’ content will no longer be written by its civilian staff but by active-duty service members. Half the newspaper’s content will be generated by the Pentagon, including materials written by the department and images captured by combat cameras.

Stars and Stripes reported that its ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, said the changes would amount to “unnecessary control and the perception of propaganda.” The ombudsman is a congressionally mandated position tasked with ensuring the outlet’s editorial independence.

“That is public relations, not independent journalism,” she said. “The other ‘fifty percent’ of the content would hold no credibility.”

The news came the day after The Washington Post reported that applicants for positions at the newspaper were being asked, “How would you advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”

Leadership at Stars and Stripes wasn’t aware of the questions until asked about them, Smith told the Post, later confirming that they had been added by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management without notifying them.

“Asking prospective employees how they would support the administration’s policies is antithetical to Stripes’ journalistic and federally mandated mission,” Smith told the Post. “Journalistically, it’s against ethics, because reporters or any staff member — editors, photographers — should be impartial.”

Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee told Stars and Stripes that any efforts to infringe on the newspaper’s editorial independence amounted to an attack on the First Amendment, with several voicing support for the newspaper. None of the Republican lawmakers contacted by Stars and Stripes responded to requests for comment.

Oct. 1, 2025 | Pentagon to require nondisclosure agreements, random polygraph testing

In its latest move to combat leaks, the Pentagon plans to require all employees within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff to sign nondisclosure agreements and to subject them to random polygraph testing, The Washington Post reported on Oct. 1, 2025.

The estimated 5,000 military service members, civilian employees and contractors will be asked to sign an NDA that “prohibits the release of non-public information without approval or through a defined process.”

The Post reported that the requirements are part of a larger strategy to identify and remove not only leakers but also those deemed insufficiently loyal to the Trump administration.

News of the planned measures also comes on the heels of new press restrictions issued on Sept. 19, which mandate that journalists pledge to obtain approval before releasing information gathered at the Pentagon, even if unclassified.

A seventeen-page memo, signed by Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, asserted that “information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” Refusal or noncompliance could result in the loss of press credentials and access to the Pentagon.

The new rules, issued under the insignia of the “Department of War,” the newly designated “secondary title” for the Department of Defense, also forbade unescorted access to large areas of the building. A May memo issued by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth already mandated that journalists have official approval and escorts from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs to enter building areas once freely accessible to credentialed reporters.

May 26, 2025 | Defense Department attempts to bar CNN reporter from foreign trip

The Pentagon attempted to bar CNN national security reporter Haley Britzky from traveling as the designated television pool journalist during Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s trip to Singapore, Status reported on May 26, 2025.

“Pentagon officials—apparently irked by some of her tweets, despite their innocuous nature—relayed to CNN brass that she was not welcome,” Oliver Darcy wrote.

On May 24, Britzky highlighted her Signal username in a post on the social platform X amid the Department of Defense’s efforts to crack down on leaks, including by limiting press access to areas of the Pentagon.

Arthur Schwartz, one of Hegseth’s closest advisers, reposted Britzky, adding, “Any reporters that are encouraging DoD employees to bypass DoD Public Affairs and violate the terms of their employment with the government should be permanently banned from the Pentagon. Start with this one.”

Status reported that the move to exclude Britzky from Hegseth’s Singapore trip triggered an immediate backlash: Multiple other outlets indicated that if she was excluded they would boycott the trip.

“They don’t get to decide who covers them,” one correspondent told Status.

The Pentagon relented, and Britzky traveled with Hegseth as originally planned.

March 21, 2025 | Defense Department announces investigation into media leaks

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office sent a memo on March 21, 2025, initiating an investigation into “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information.”

“This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense,” wrote Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff. “I expect to be informed immediately if this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure, and that such information will be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution.”

The memo also noted that department employees will be subject to polygraph exams “in accordance with applicable law and policy.”

The memo came hours after Elon Musk, head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, posted on social media calling The New York Times’ reporting on the planned content of his briefing at the Pentagon “pure propaganda.”

“I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT,” Musk wrote. “They will be found.”

Musk’s meeting with members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ultimately did not take place, Reuters reported.

A Times spokesperson told Reuters that leak investigations are “meant to chill communications between journalists and their sources and undermine the ability of a free press to bring out vital information that may otherwise be hidden.”