Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has done it again.

As his latest outrage touched off an unprecedented revolt by almost every media outlet covering the Pentagon, I once again was reminded of my own Army days when we called it the “five-sided funhouse,” although not within earshot of the “brass,” our superior officers.

The headquarters of America’s military didn’t sound like much fun as dozens of reporters on the military beat turned in their press passes after they refused to sign Hegseth’s restrictive new press policy regarding coverage of military affairs.

I could see trouble coming last month after Hegseth’s press office unveiled new rules to sharply restrict reporting, for which military reporters need press credentials to allow physical access to the Pentagon complex.

The most objectionable of the rules forbids reporters from obtaining or using any unauthorized material, even if it is not classified, without permission. Media outlets called that a violation of First Amendment rights. Almost all refused to sign.

The new policies “appear designed to stifle a free press” and “further isolate reporters” who are trying to do their jobs, the Pentagon Press Association said in its prepared statement.

“Limiting the media’s ability to report on the U.S. military fails to honor the American families who have entrusted their sons and daughters to serve in it, or the taxpayers responsible for giving the department hundreds of billions of dollars a year,” the statement added.

Understandably, I agree. Yet, as someone who has become accustomed to Hegseth’s past excesses, I sort of saw it coming.

Hegseth signaled as much last month when he addressed a captive audience of hundreds of generals, admirals and other senior military officers flown in from around the globe, largely to dress them down about the need to tighten up on such questionably urgent issues as grooming and fitness standards. No more “beardos” or “fat generals,” among others.

Yet, at the same time, it is no small matter that Adm. Alvin Holsey, head of the U.S. Southern Command, announced he was stepping down.

This is happening while the Pentagon has rapidly built up some 10,000 forces in the region to fight what it terms “narcoterrorism.” On Sept. 2, after the first of several deadly airstrikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, US Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.” Eleven people were killed in that airstrike, and at least 21 more have been killed in subsequent strikes.

Critics have questioned the legal justification for the attacks. In an exchange on the social media platform X, journalist Brian Krassenstein argued that killing “civilians without any due process is called a war crime,” to which Vice President JD Vance replied, “I don’t give a s— what you call it.”

Despite the Trump administration’s wish to impose new press restrictions, we Americans will continue to depend on unnamed sources to inform us about what our government is doing with our tax money and with the lives of the young people serving in our military. Sometimes unofficial channels are the only way vital information can get through to the public.

That’s why an independent free press matters, in war or peace. Citizens deserve the chance to judge which news sources are credible. And journalists deserve the freedom to gather information in good faith to inform their audiences. To have these rights taken away is the real peril to our

nation.