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Late Friday, the Department of Defense announced that it would be removing four major news organizations—The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio, and Politico—from their in-house offices to implement a new “annual media rotation program” for its press corps.
They are being replaced by One America News Network, the New York Post, Breitbart News Network, and HuffPost. OANN and the Post lean conservative, Breitbart is a right-wing news organization, and HuffPost leans progressive.
According to NBC News, the Pentagon sent a memo to the press corps instead of individually notifying the organizations.
“In order to broaden access to the limited space of the Correspondents’ Corridor to outlets that have not previously enjoyed the privilege and journalist value of working from physical office space in the Pentagon,” acting assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs John Ullyot said in the memo sent to the Pentagon Press Association, there will be “a new Annual Media Rotation Program for those dedicated media spaces.”
The four outlets will still remain full members of the Pentagon Press Corps, according to Ullyot. The program is set to begin on February 14, giving the organizations just two weeks to leave the offices that some of them have held throughout several presidents’ tenures.
“We’re disappointed by the decision to deny us access to a broadcasting booth at the Pentagon that we’ve used for many decades,” NBC News said in a statement. “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.”
The directive comes from an administration that has made its disdain for media outlets and journalists who hold President Donald Trump accountable abundantly clear in the few weeks since officially coming to Washington.
Karoline Leavitt, the new White House Press Secretary, has presented a combative tone with journalists in the briefing room and emails. In late January, she announced the creation of a dedicated seating section for “new media.” She also said the Trump administration would restore the press credentials of 440 individuals that were “wrongly revoked by the previous administration.”
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“While I’ve vowed to provide the truth from this podium, we ask that all of you in this room hold yourselves to that same standard,” Leavitt added during the press briefing. “We know for a fact that there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family. And we will not accept that. We will call you out when we feel that your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House.”
Trump has, through three runs for office, made railing against the media a cornerstone of his politics—including critiquing this publication in 2020 for its “third rate Fake reporters” who write “phony & boring” hit pieces. According to a U.S. Press Freedom Tracker database, from the time he announced his candidacy in 2015 to early 2021, Trump posted negatively about the media more than 2,490 times on Twitter. And, only counting online posts, Trump has called individual networks, the press, or “fake news” the “enemy of the people” tens of times.
During an August rally, Trump again called journalists the “enemy of the people.” Less than ten minutes later, a man stormed the media section at the event, attempting to climb up the side of the enclosed area. Trump, appearing to be watching the incident unfold, said it was “beautiful” before repeatedly noting, “He’s on our side.”
Following the DoD’s Friday memo, the Pentagon Press Association said it was “greatly troubled by this unprecedented move by DOD to single out highly professional media who have covered the Pentagon for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.” In a statement, the National Press Club wrote, “The ability of journalists to work without undue restriction, particularly in covering an institution as critical as the Department of Defense, is fundamental to a free and open democracy.”
