After the backlash triggered by last week’s announcement that NBC, NPR, Politico and The New York Times would be rotated out of the Pentagon press corps in favor of OANN, Breitbart, HuffPost and The New York Post, the Pentagon press office doubled down and announced four additional changes: The Washington Post, CNN, The Hill, and The War Zone will be swapped out for the Washington Examiner, Newsmax, The Free Press and the Daily Caller, respectively.
That brings the total number of media outlets rotated out to eight, with staff expected to vacate their physical office spaces by Friday, Feb. 21.
With the exception of HuffPost, all of the outlets lean conservative and pro-Trump, and the majority of the incoming outlets are significantly smaller than the ones they’re replacing.
In a two-page memo, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Ullyot argued that in contrast to the Biden administration, which “set a hostile tone with reporters by revoking over 440 White House press credentials,” this administration has revoked “not a single press credential” and placed “no restrictions on access for credentialed journalists covering public events at the Pentagon.”
In a statement, CNN said, “CNN’s mission to report on the Department of Defense, U.S. military and Trump Administration will continue regardless of office arrangements. We will not be deflected from our duty to hold all three fairly and fully to account.”
Following the initial announcement, a source close to defense secretary Pete Hegseth expressed glee at the move, telling Axios, “Hope those hit pieces were worth it.” Meanwhile, veteran journalist Katie Couric expressed concern, tweeting, “This is how news becomes propaganda. It’s begun. Pay attention.”
While the press credentials of the eight outlets are not being revoked, as former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr explained in the Columbia Journalism Review, having a “steady presence inside the building,” as some of the ousted outlets have had for more than 30 years, is beneficial not just for the reporters and their outlets, but for an informed public.
