CNN
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One America News Network would soon replace NBC News and Breitbart would swap with National Public Radio in coveted Pentagon press corps workspace under a plan shared with journalists Friday night.
In what the Pentagon is calling a new “annual media rotation program,” The New York Post will also be invited to move into The New York Times’ workspace. And a fourth outlet affected by the rotation program, Politico, would be replaced by HuffPost.
Three of the changes, set to take effect on February 14, elevate relatively small and ardently pro-Trump media outlets while sidelining more popular, more mainstream news organizations.
The fourth is the exception: HuffPost, which has a progressive brand, is openly critical of President Donald Trump. Curiously, though, the site does not currently have a Pentagon correspondent.
“If the Trump Administration and Secretary Hegseth are interested in more hard-hitting coverage of their stewardship of the Defense Department from HuffPost, we are ready to deliver,” a HuffPost spokesperson said Friday night.
NBC News said in a statement, “We’re disappointed by the decision to deny us access to a broadcasting booth at the Pentagon that we’ve used for many decades. Despite the significant obstacles this presents to our ability to gather and report news in the national public interest, we will continue to report with the same integrity and rigor NBC News always has.”
CNN has reached out to representatives for The New York Times, NPR and Politico for comment.
The Friday night announcement is bound to provoke challenges from members of the Pentagon press corps. But it is in line with the Trump administration’s stated goals to challenge long-held norms and create space for new, opinionated online media outlets.
Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Ullyot said in the internal memo to the Pentagon Press Association that the changes apply to individual office spaces in the “Correspondents’ Corridor” at the Defense Department — both a practical and symbolic move.
The year-by-year rotation program will “broaden access to the limited space of the Correspondents’ Corridor to outlets that have not previously enjoyed the privilege and journalistic value of working from physical office space in the Pentagon,” Ullyot wrote.
Officials apparently chose one outlet “from each press medium” — print, online, radio and TV — to forfeit their existing space for one years’ time.
The news outlets that are being replaced were effectively given two weeks’ notice.
Members of the Pentagon press corps were left wondering why The Times, NBC, NPR and Politico were told to vacate the office space, and whether the decisions were related to their rigorous coverage of new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host who took charge at the Pentagon earlier this week.
“To be clear, the outlets that vacate the spaces loaned to them” by the defense secretary “will remain as full members of the Pentagon Press Corps,” Ullyot wrote. “They will continue to enjoy the same media access to the Pentagon and will be able to attend and cover briefings and be considered for travel with civilian and military leaders in the Department as they have previously. The only change will be giving up their physical workspaces in the building to allow new outlets to have their turn to become resident members of the Pentagon Press Corps.”
Ullyot’s memo billed the rotation system as a fair way to welcome more media outlets into US military headquarters, but the announcement came under immediate scrutiny.
Breitbart, for example, was selected as a radio outlet, replacing NPR this year. But Breitbart – a well-known web site for pro-Trump coverage and commentary – barely has a radio operation of its own. The word “radio” doesn’t appear on its home page at all. The media outlet has a distribution deal with SiriusXM and one big podcast, Breitbart News Daily. Its footprint pales in comparison to NPR, which provides news coverage for local stations all across the country.
One America News was selected as TV outlet, replacing NBC this year. While NBC produces some of the most-watched news programs in the country, like “NBC Nightly News” and “Today,” One America is so small that it eschewed the Nielsen ratings measurement service. The far-right channel, headquartered in San Diego, faced multiple lawsuits stemming from the outlet’s lies about the 2020 election.
Kevin Baron, a former vice president of the Pentagon Press Association, called the development “the erasure of journalism at the Pentagon.”
“Kicking out reporters HURTS coverage. If you can’t file your stories from inside the building you are disadvantaged. If you don’t have a work space you are disadvantaged,” Baron said in a series of posts on X.
The National Press Club, an advocate for press freedom, said in a statement that it was troubled by the Pentagon’s announcement and called on the Defense Department to provide greater clarity about the decision.
“The National Press Club is deeply concerned by the Defense Department’s decision to remove certain media organizations from their dedicated spaces in the Pentagon,” National Press Club President Mike Balsamo said in a statement. “Any action that restricts the ability of journalists to report on the operations of the U.S. government should alarm all who value transparency and press freedom.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
