Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth barred his agency’s own military news publication from attending his press conference. Hegseth, 45, held an on-brand briefing Thursday to provide updates on President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, where he blasted a “dishonest media.” The Department of Defense’s own newspaper, Stars and Stripes, was spared from the slander—but only because it wasn’t invited to attend. “Stars and Stripes was not approved by the Pentagon to attend this press conference. I will be watching it on a screen instead,” Matthew Adams, a journalist at the 165-year-old independent military newspaper, wrote on X Thursday morning. Read more at The Daily Beast.