New York — The Pentagon did not allow photographers to cover Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s last two briefings on the matter War in IranHe did not explain the change in long-term policy.
Pentagon spokesman Joel Valdez declined to comment on this story.
The Ministry of Defense under Hegseth had a controversial relationship with the media assigned to cover him. Most mainstream news organizations have They left their offices at the Pentagon instead of accepting new Trump administration rules restricting their movements and who they can talk to.
They were replaced at the Pentagon by A.J The newly formed press corps Which agreed to the rules and works largely for the benefit of the media supporting President Donald Trump.
The Pentagon was granting passes to journalists who vacated their Pentagon offices to attend Hegseth’s briefings on the war. Although Hegseth rarely recognizes these news reporters at press conferences, he called one of them, Eric Schmidt of the New York Times, on Tuesday.
The Times sued the Trump administration to overturn the Hegseth rules, and held a hearing In this case before U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman last week.
“As The Times has long said, there is a clear importance and public service to allowing journalists to fully report on the U.S. military,” said Charles Stadtlander, a spokesman for the newspaper. “This includes photojournalists, who are entitled to access and accreditation to attend Pentagon briefings.”
The Associated Press had no immediate comment on the blocking of its photographers. Hegseth still allows video cameras at his briefings.
The Times’s war coverage caught the attention of White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt. She said on Tuesday that the administration would not be “harassed” by The Times over the investigation into the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran. An estimated 175 people were killed, including many school children.
Levitt said Trump would accept the results of the Defense Department’s investigation into who was responsible for the bombing. “We will not be harassed by the New York Times, which has published a lot of articles on this matter, claiming that the War Department has not been verified, to quickly end this investigation because the New York Times calls on us to do so,” she said.
The newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, that the administration’s initial conclusion was that the United States was responsible for the bombing. The report said that the army believes that outdated information was relied upon to identify a target for the Tomahawk missile used in the attack.
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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him on http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.