After several photos of US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addressing the press about the attack on Iran went viral on the internet, the Defense Department has issued a decree banning photographers from taking snapshots in the Pentagon’s press briefing room. Members of Hegseth’s staff reportedly also expressed their displeasure with how the federal official appeared in the said images, describing the pictures as “unflattering.”
Pete Hegseth’s photos reportedly led Pentagon to make a decision
Reporters have now been barred from clicking pictures inside the Pentagon’s briefing room during conferences, as conveyed by two people familiar with the situation.
According to The Washington Post, the decision comes after Pete Hegseth took to the podium, along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on March 2. The two shared details regarding the joint military strike on Iran that claimed the life of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The conference was attended by photographers from several media outlets, including Associated Press, Reuters, and Getty Images. However, after they published photos of Hegseth from the said briefing, the Secretary of War’s staff retaliated by claiming that they were disgruntled with how he was portrayed in the said images.
As a result, allies of the former television news host denied access to certain media personnel in two subsequent press briefings, which took place on March 4 and March 10. Since then, Kingsley Wilson, who currently serves as the Pentagon press secretary, has come out to shed light on the decision to ban photographers from the briefing room.
“In order to use space in the Pentagon Briefing Room effectively, we are allowing one representative per news outlet if uncredentialed, excluding pool. Photographs from the briefings are immediately released online for the public and press to use. If that hurts the business model for certain news outlets, then they should consider applying for a Pentagon press credential,” Wilson noted.
Meanwhile, as per The Washington Post’s two sources, photographers who went to cover the March 4 briefing weren’t allowed in. Consequently, the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) also issued a statement against the Defense Department’s new rule, adding that it curbs free press and calling Hegseth’s decision “a poor sense of priorities” amid war.
Originally reported by Apoorv Rastogi on Mandatory.
