The New York Times is suing the Pentagon over media gag order

The New York Times just sued the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, and spokesman Sean Parnell over new rules requiring reporters to sign a 21-page agreement before covering the military.

What's in the agreement? Just a prohibition on gathering or publishing any information not authorized by the government—including declassified information and off-the-record conversations, whether collected on or off Pentagon grounds. Failure to sign means you will lose your access badge.

Six Times reporters have already handed in their badges in protest. So did journalists from NBC News and four other major broadcasters.

The lawsuit alleges the policy is "exactly the type of speech- and press-restrictive scheme that the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have recognized violates the First Amendment."

The Pentagon says this is just about "preventing leaks that damage operational security." Common sense, really. Nothing to do with the fact that they recently rotated out several news outlets from in-house workstations and rotated in Breitbart, One America News Network, and the New York Post.

The Department of Defense — or as they now prefer, the "Department of War" — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Previously:
• Pete Hegseth turns alleged extrajudicial killings into parody of a children's story book
• Hegseth's new shaving policy will force out thousands of Black troops