Be a shame if something were to happen to a merger that their parent company is pursuing.
This is a noteworthy rebellion. Generally pro-Trump outlets like NYT, WaPo, starting to get more Trump friendly CNN, Reuters and NewsMax are all doing this. What's the real reason? Do they figure that they can stand up to Hegseth? Do they all have some DoD stories in the pipeline that wouldn't be publishable under Hegseth's news regime? Do they think this will be temporary and disappear shortly?
It may simply be that they want to be first with a story. If you wait for the official release of information, everyone gets it at the same time and publishes it at the same time.