First Thing: Defense department bars reporters from Pentagon press room

Key Takeaways

• In another apparent affront to press freedom from the Trump administration, journalists may no longer enter the Pentagon’s press office, which has been designated as a classified space.
• The defense department began rolling out new restrictions to press access in September, when the military demanded journalists pledge not to gather any information – including unclassified documents – that had not been authorized for release, or else risk revocation of their press passes.
• Joel Valdez, the acting defense department press secretary, said in a social media post: “This is the most transparent war department in history.
• No amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that.” He claimed the redesignation was because “speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War” shared the facility.
• How have the media reacted?