Veteran Pentagon reporter mocks Hegseth’s ‘brave’ response to media outlets rejecting his press restrictions

Longtime Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr took Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to task this week over his “brave” response on social media to news organizations that are refusing to sign his new press restrictions, which saw Hegseth use a hand-waving emoji.

Starr’s swipe at the Pentagon chief comes as all but one media outlet has rejected the department’s prohibitive press rules, which would require reporters to refrain from soliciting or gathering any information – including unclassified materials – that the department has not officially approved for release.

After releasing the revised press policy last week, the Pentagon sent an email warning that any reporters and journalists who do not sign the letter by the end of the day Tuesday would be required to return their press badges within 24 hours. Meanwhile, no reputable publication has agreed to the censorious press policy, with several pro-Trump outlets also rebuffing Hegseth’s pledge.

Newsmax and The Washington Times joined a slew of legacy and mainstream outlets in announcing Monday they would not sign the letter. While Fox News – where Hegseth once worked as a morning show host – has so far remained quiet, the conservative cable giant is coordinating with other television networks to release a joint statement through the press pool.

As of Tuesday morning, the only organization that’s been willing to agree to the Pentagon’s restrictions is the small far-right network One America News, which largely serves as a MAGA propaganda channel. Notably, OAN fired its chief Pentagon correspondent earlier this year after she criticized Hegseth for limiting media access and rarely holding press briefings.

With the media broadly spurning the Pentagon’s press agreement, Hegseth reacted by tweeting out hand-waving emojis in response to the statements released by the New York Times, Washington Post and The Atlantic, as if he were saying goodbye to those publications and their reporters.

Starr, who served as CNN’s lead Pentagon correspondent for more than two decades before retiring in 2022, blasted the leader of the Department of Defense – recently rebranded the War Department by the Trump administration – for his juvenile X posts. Additionally, she noted that Hegseth was doing this while accompanying the president to the Middle East to sign the Israeli peace deal.

“Mr. Hegseth has responded with this lazy use of an emoji to several news organizations that issued statements they are not signing his new anti First Amendment press access policy,” she tweeted. “Darn ‘brave’ of him to blast social media on a day POTUS wants no diversion from Middle East peace news.”

Starr added: “Here’s the real news: journalism thrives and lives on. Rudeness and insults will clearly be met [by] continuing to inform the American people where their troops are going and how their tax money is being spent.”

In a separate post on Substack, Starr also pushed back on Hegseth’s claims that he is merely requiring that credentialed Pentagon reporters must always wear a visible badge, no longer roam free through the building, and are “no longer permitted to solicit criminal acts.”

“The fact: the press only could walk in non classified areas anyhow. All classified information and workspaces are behind security locked doors,” Starr wrote, adding that it has “been the case for decades” that press members have worn badges while in the Pentagon.

As for Hegseth’s suggestion that reporters had been soliciting “criminal acts,” Starr retorted that “this is an incredibly serious allegation” and Hegseth needed to “show the world your evidence” in cases that aren’t being prosecuted already. “Talking to a source is not soliciting a criminal act,” she wrote.

Starr, meanwhile, has some experience with the government attempting to force her to reveal her sources. In 2021, it was revealed that CNN had engaged in a lengthy legal battle with the first Trump administration to obtain Starr’s phone and email records related to a 2017 leak investigation. “I am genuinely horrified by what happened,” she said at the time, calling the incident a “sheer abuse of power.”

In an op-ed on Tuesday, NPR Pentagon reporter Tom Bowman – who has held a defense press pass for 28 years – wrote that he was handing in his credentials this week because of the “unprecedented” policy from the department.

“That policy prevents us from doing our job,” Bowman stated. “Signing that document would make us stenographers parroting press releases, not watchdogs holding government officials accountable.”

The Pentagon Press Association, which initially labeled the new rules an “unprecedented message of intimidation,” issued a statement on Monday night regarding the prospect of Hegseth enforcing his restrictive policy.

“This Wednesday, most Pentagon Press Association members seem likely to hand over their badges rather than acknowledge a policy that gags Pentagon employees and threatens retaliation against reporters who seek out information that has not been pre-approved for release,” the group said. “Our members did nothing to create this disturbing situation. It arises from an entirely one-sided move by Pentagon officials apparently intent upon cutting the American public off from information they do not control and pre-approve.”