The calls follow a review by the Pentagon into its media policies after an investigation concluded that the military broke no rules in planting paid stories in the Iraqi press.
Mr Rumsfeld says demands for his resignation have been going on for more than five years and are nothing new.
US President George W Bush has this week re-affirmed his support for Mr Rumsfeld.
Mr Rumsfeld refused to take sides on the issue but acknowledged that General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believes that readers should know if a story is planted with military money.
"I'm not going to make a judgment off the top of my head," he told reporters.
The investigation was opened after US newspapers reported that a Washington-based contractor paid Iraqi newspapers to run hundreds of stories written by US military information operations officers in Iraq.
Stories planted
The Lincoln Group was used to plant the stories to hide the fact that they were originated by the US military.
The army also was reported to have paid Iraqi reporters through a Baghdad press group to write favourable stories.
General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, said earlier this month that an investigation found the military acted "within our authorities and responsibilities." Casey said he had not stopped the practice, nor did he intend to.
Mr Rumsfeld said General Casey had not yet reviewed and passed on the findings of the investigation.
"The rumor is that it does not find anything that was done outside of
policy because the policy is silent on that issue, as I understand it,"
Mr Rumsfeld said.
"When it is sent here and as it is being sent, obviously, we're addressing the broader question, not the question of whether policy was breached, which it wasn't, apparently, but the broader question," he said.