Hegseth's emoji taunt comes back to bite him as NYT hauls him back to court

The New York Times filed a new lawsuit challenging Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's press access policy — and going into extensive detail, using an emoji to indicate the clear intent of the policy was to silence freedom of the press.

The policy effectively neutered Pentagon reporters by forcing them, as a condition of receiving Pentagon Facility Alternate Credentials (PFACs), to agree not to publish anything that was the product of leaks from within the administration — something even the vast majority of right-wing outlets refused to agree to.

"Prior to the Department’s deadline, journalists with PFACs at The Times and virtually every other major news organization covering the Pentagon uniformly declined to sign the Acknowledgment," said the complaint, saying that the overwhelming consensus among reporters was that the policy violated the First Amendment. "As a result, on October 15, 2025, they were compelled to turn in their PFACs. The vast majority of journalists and news outlets represented in the Pentagon Press Association (PPA) refused to sign the Acknowledgement."

The lawsuit then went on to detail just how clearly the policy was an "intentional" move to stifle press access.

"Hegseth responded to news organizations making clear they could not sign the Policy by posting to his official X account an emoji of a hand waving goodbye," said the suit.

Likewise, Public affairs official Sean Parnell "celebrated the Department’s success in driving longtime, independent reporters from the Pentagon, posting to X that 'Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media,' and '[w]e look forward to beginning a fresh relationship with members of the new Pentagon press corps,'" — which were exclusively far-right bloggers and other entities favorable to the administration.

Already, judges have ruled against the Pentagon's press access policy multiple times, but Hegseth has come back again and again with only minor revisions, in defiance of court orders.