Media organizations and lawmakers are pushing back at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new crackdown on journalists working in the Pentagon that would revoke the press credentials of reporters who obtain military or defense information without the building’s approval.

The new policy, laid out in a 17-page memo on Friday, requires credentialed press members to sign a pledge to not report information that has not been authorized for release, including unclassified information, or risk losing credentials that provide access to the Pentagon.

The mandate quickly drew the criticism of Democratic and even some Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who called the move “so dumb that I have a hard time believing it is true.”

“We don’t want a bunch of Pravda newspapers only touting the Government’s official position. A free press makes our country better. This sounds like more amateur hour,” Bacon wrote on the social platform X, referring to the Soviet Union's........

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