![\"ARLINGTON,](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/GettyImages-2304648057.jpg?fit=4416%2C3316\")
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/seth-stern-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSeth Stern is the director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Before the effort<\/span> to impeach him failed Tuesday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth lashed out at a group he despises even more than \u201cbeardos\u201d and \u201cweirdos\u201d<\/a>: the press. His security team threatened<\/a> to physically remove journalists from a news briefing, Hegseth\u2019s first in several months, if they didn\u2019t maintain decorum.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s nothing new for Hegseth. He may want to pump soldiers up with testosterone<\/a>, but he\u2019s spent the last couple years trying to neuter the Fourth Estate. It\u2019s unfortunate that his unconstitutional attacks on journalists were not part of the official case for removing him. Next time, they should be. And Congress should not stop with Hegseth.\u00a0<\/p>\n The impeachment resolution Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., brought against Hegseth included eight articles, alleging that the so-called Secretary of War acted illegally in military campaigns in Iran, Venezuela, and the Caribbean, among other things. The resolution touched on free speech violations \u2013 Article VI is about Hegseth\u2019s retaliation campaign<\/a> against Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., for reminding troops of their right to refuse illegal orders \u2013 but it didn\u2019t mention the press.\u00a0<\/p>\n A recap is in order: In February of 2025, Hegseth\u2019s Pentagon evicted<\/a> the New York Times, NBC, Politico, and NPR from their dedicated workspaces in the building, replacing them largely with sycophantic right-wing outlets like Breitbart and One America News Network. Some elements of the fawning right-wing press were on full display during his Tuesday press conference: \u201cHow does it make you feel,\u201d asked a reporter<\/a> from an outlet called Real America\u2019s Voice, \u201cwhen our own politicians don\u2019t support taking out the narco-traffickers that kill their own constituents?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Months later, Hegseth concocted<\/a> a requirement that journalists who wish to access the Pentagon pledge not to solicit unauthorized information from the government, under threat of losing their credentials. Dozens of reporters from outlets across the political spectrum turned in<\/a> their access badges rather than comply. They were replaced<\/a>, once again, by loyalists who could be counted on to treat Hegseth and his fragile ego with kid gloves.\u00a0<\/p>\n A judge soon struck down the pledge policy as an unconstitutional effort to force out disfavored journalists. The Pentagon immediately issued new restrictions<\/a> on unauthorized disclosures that were, in some ways, even worse than the originals. The judge rejected that policy too. Hegseth also imposed<\/a> a requirement for reporters to be escorted around the Pentagon, which is still working<\/a> its way through the courts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hegseth\u2019s Pentagon cracked down on the military\u2019s newspaper, Stars and Stripes, barring it from briefings<\/a> and demanding<\/a> it stop publishing \u201cwoke\u201d content. After all, it used to run columns<\/a> from that well-known leftist Ann Coulter. His Pentagon then fired key personnel<\/a> and otherwise did<\/a> everything it could think of to try to turn Stars and Stripes into a propaganda organ unrecognizable to its readership \u2013 mostly troops, veterans, and their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n It gets even pettier: Hegseth\u2019s staff barred<\/a> press photographers from briefings after they published pictures of him that he found unflattering.<\/p>\n Hegseth\u2019s illegal war on transparency has extended not just to reporters but also to their sources. He forced staff to take unreliable polygraph<\/a> tests to identify leakers until the White House itself halted<\/a> the effort after a Trump loyalist complained about being targeted. He\u2019s formed a joint task force with the Justice Department to push<\/a> for prosecution of leakers and adopted<\/a> President Donald Trump\u2019s alarming habit of equating national security reporting to \u201ctreason.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There will almost certainly be another effort to impeach Hegseth in the next Congress, if not sooner. Censorship may not be the lede \u2014 alleged international war crimes understandably tend to take the spotlight over other infractions \u2014 but it also shouldn\u2019t be an afterthought.\u00a0<\/p>\n