The New York Times sued the Pentagon on Thursday over press restrictions it claims have violated the First Amendment.
The Times, along with dozens of news organizations, including CNN, Fox News, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post, rejected new access rules in October that they argued would limit their ability to report, leading to a mass exodus of mainstream outlets.
“The Times stands with fellow news organizations across digital, print and broadcast media, including many conservative outlets, in strongly opposing this unprecedented policy,” a Times spokesperson told TheWrap.
“The journalism produced by The Times and other outlets who refused to sign this policy provides critical information to the American public about the actions the U.S. military undertakes in their name and financial expense, and serves members of the military by reporting on matters of health, safety, housing and foreign deployments,” they continued.
In the suit, Times takes issue with language around the “solicitation” of information from Pentagon officials.
“The Pentagon has made clear that lawful, routine newsgathering techniques — asking questions of government employees and interviewing them for stories—whether on or off Pentagon grounds could, in the Department’s view, ‘constitute a solicitation that could lead to revocation’” of press badges, it reads. “But such communications are a core journalistic practice and a public good—the kind of basic source work that led to some of the most important news stories in history, including the Pentagon Papers.”
The Times spokesperson said the new press policy “is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes, in violation of a free press’ right to seek information under their First and Fifth Amendment rights protected by the Constitution” and the paper “intends to vigorously defend against the violation of these rights, just as we have long done throughout administrations opposed to scrutiny and accountability.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond for comment.
This week, the Pentagon welcomed conservative journalists and influencers inside for a press briefing, just as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is under fire over his role in a Sept. 2 strike on survivors of a U.S. attack on an alleged drug-trafficking boat off the Trinidad coast.
