In a rebuke of the Defense Department, NPR National Security Correspondent Tom Bowman has surrendered his Pentagon press credentials after nearly three decades, joining the network’s refusal to sign a controversial new press access policy.
“Today, NPR will lose access to the Pentagon because we will not sign an unprecedented Defense Department document,” Bowman wrote. “That policy prevents us from doing our job. Signing that document would make us stenographers parroting press releases, not watchdogs holding government officials accountable.”
The Defense Department’s policy, introduced under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, requires all Pentagon-accredited journalists to sign an acknowledgment that they could lose access for “soliciting” certain types of information, including some unclassified material, if it has not been officially cleared for release. The move would allow the government to label journalists “security risks” for seeking unapproved information.
Bowman, who has covered the military for NPR for 28 years, said “no reputable news organization” has agreed to the terms. Around 100 Pentagon reporters, from NPR to Newsmax, have lost access to the building for declining to sign by Tuesday’s deadline.
“Did I as a reporter solicit information? Of course. It’s called journalism: finding out what’s really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says.”
Bowman recalled covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, where his reporting frequently challenged official narratives. After the 2003 fall of Baghdad, he said he was told by a Pentagon officer that US forces were under attack along their supply lines, contradicting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s public declaration of success. “That reporting helped people understand what US troops were really facing,” Bowman said. “Far from being a success, the fall of Baghdad marked the beginning of an insurgency that stretched on for years.”
The veteran correspondent said the Pentagon’s new restrictions come amid a larger collapse in transparency. In the ten months since Hegseth’s appointment, he noted, the Pentagon has held only two briefings and ended nearly all background sessions, even as U.S. military operations continue in multiple regions.
“Thomas Jefferson, no fan of the press himself, once wrote that our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost,” Bowman said. “He knew a free and fair press is an essential safeguard to a functioning democracy.”
Bowman warned that without reporters inside the Pentagon, the American public risks hearing only what officials choose to share. “With no reporters able to ask questions, it seems the Pentagon leadership will continue to rely on slick social media posts, carefully orchestrated short videos, and interviews with partisan commentators and podcasters. No one should think that’s good enough.”
