\n<\/p>\n
U.S. Central Command<\/span> maintains a secret directory of journalists who have been blacklisted by the press office, according to an official with CENTCOM public affairs. The disclosure comes amid a failed war in Iran<\/a>, a \u201ccover-up<\/a>\u201d of U.S. casualties<\/a> from that conflict, and repeated refusals by CENTCOM to address questions about civilian deaths in Iran, including the killing of a family recently disclosed by The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n The CENTCOM official who revealed the existence of the list threatened that this reporter could be added to it for calling the command too often.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll be put on a list of people to disregard,\u201d Richard Allee, an executive assistant with CENTCOM public affairs told this reporter. When asked for clarification \u2014 \u201cYou have a list of people to disregard?\u201d \u2014 he confirmed it with an emphatic: \u201cYes.\u201d\u00a0When asked which reporters or outlets were currently on the list, he replied: \u201cI\u2019m not privy to give you that information.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Under self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. military has mounted the most aggressive assault on press freedom in memory, from an effort to outlaw \u201cunauthorized<\/a>\u201d questions from reporters to imposing unconstitutional restrictions<\/a> on journalists\u2019 access<\/a> to the Pentagon. Hegseth has compared reporters to \u201cPharisees,\u201d who in the Bible call Jesus\u2019s teachings into question, while the secretary\u2019s minions<\/a> regularly hurl insults<\/a> at reporters<\/a>. This is part of a broader war on press freedoms by the Trump administration, that includes demonizing journalists; filing so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, to intimidate and silence criticism through expensive legal proceedings; and employing grand jury subpoenas<\/a> and search warrants<\/a> to intimidate reporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThreatening journalists with placement on a blacklist in retaliation for reporting the government doesn\u2019t like is as unconstitutional as it gets,\u201d said Seth Stern, the director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation. \u201cThis should put to rest the Pentagon\u2019s prior claims that it\u2019s anti-press policies \u2014 like its infamous requirement that reporters sign pledges to only print authorized information \u2014 are somehow content neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n Allee revealed the existence of the blacklist after this reporter was left on hold for more than two hours and complained about a long-standing lack of transparency by the command. In calls earlier that morning, Maj. Emma Thompson, CENTCOM\u2019s media operations chief, repeatedly refused to answer questions about Iranian attacks on U.S. bases across the Middle East, disparate U.S. casualty counts, and medical evacuation flights: \u201cNothing for you,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t have anything for you,\u201d \u201cNo comment.\u201d Thompson then hung up on this reporter mid-question.<\/p>\n The Intercept called back multiple times until Allee picked up the phone. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to answer your call if you just keep calling and calling,\u201d he told this reporter.<\/p>\n Allee chastised this reporter to be more respectful. He said a \u201cless accusatory attitude towards the personnel here would go a lot further than badgering them when you don\u2019t get something you want, when you want it.\u201d<\/p>\n Allee then revealed the existence of the blacklist. He declined to provide additional details about the list but said, \u201cIt\u2019s not a list that we publicize.\u201d He also hung up on this reporter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The command\u2019s press office responded in an email to additional questions about the journalists who have run afoul of the command. \u201cCENTCOM does not have a \u2018blacklist,\u2019\u201d the agency wrote.<\/p>\n A U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Hegseth\u2019s office had a standing order not to engage with this reporter and would deny it if challenged.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of it has anything to do with security, all of it has everything to do with censorship and intimidation,\u201d Stern told The Intercept. \u201cCENTCOM needs to stop blacklisting journalists and tell the public who is on the blacklist and why they were placed there. Whoever was behind the blacklist should be blacklisted from government employment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNone of it has anything to do with security, all of it has everything to do with censorship and intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has mounted an unrelenting assault on press freedom despite the fact that the secretary began his tenure by sharing secret information<\/a> on airstrikes in Yemen<\/a>, hours before the actual attacks occurred, on a Signal group chat<\/a> that inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of\u00a0The Atlantic.<\/p>\n As part of his war on the press, Hegseth evicted<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0New York Times, NPR,\u00a0and other outlets from their long-held desks in the Pentagon and replaced them<\/a> with sycophantic fellow-travelers like the One America News Network, the\u00a0New York Post, and\u00a0Breitbart.<\/p>\n In May 2025, Hegseth issued a memo barring credentialed reporters<\/a> from most of the Pentagon without an escort. (Last month, a federal appeals court said that the Pentagon can continue<\/a> doing so.) The Pentagon later introduced a policy requiring journalists to pledge<\/a> not to even gather, at the risk of their credentials, unclassified information unless the government authorized its release. (This drove nearly the entire Pentagon press corps to surrender their badges<\/a>.) After the Times sued<\/a> and a federal judge struck the policy down in March 2026 as unconstitutional<\/a>, Hegseth shuttered a decades-old Pentagon pressroom<\/a> and began conducting polygraph tests<\/a> to prevent leaks.<\/p>\n For his part, Trump has long cast reporters as the \u201cENEMY OF THE PEOPLE<\/a>,\u201d a riff on a phrase employed by both Nazi Germany\u2019s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels\u00a0(to refer to Jews<\/a>) and Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin\u00a0(in reference to dissenters<\/a>). The administration defied a court order and blocked The Associated Press from presidential events over its refusal<\/a> to use the Trumpian term \u201cGulf of America\u201d instead of Gulf of Mexico; moved to strip NPR and PBS of more than $1 billion<\/a> in federal funding; utilized Federal Communications Commission merger approvals and \u201cnews distortion\u201d investigations<\/a> against ABC, NBC, and CBS; subpoenaed<\/a> the phone records of multiple New York Times reporters and their relatives<\/a>; and launched an official media \u201chall of shame<\/a>\u201d to discredit disfavored outlets.<\/p>\n Trump also filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit after\u00a0the Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported on a letter sent from him to convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein<\/a>; he also banned WSJ reporters from flying aboard Air Force One. This year, Trump also told journalists to give up a source<\/a> \u201cor go to jail,\u201d threatened<\/a> the press with \u201cCharges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information,\u201d and praised FCC chief<\/a> Brendan Carr for threatening \u201cthe licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic \u2018News\u2019 Organizations.\u201d\u00a0(The Intercept is currently suing Trump for restricting First Amendment-protected information<\/a> in a scheme<\/a> to enrich himself.)<\/p>\n\n