Anamika Dey, editor
Brief news
- The Pentagon announced a new “annual media rotation program” that will remove major news outlets, including NBC News, from their office spaces to allow access to other media organizations.
- NBC News expressed disappointment over losing its long-standing broadcasting booth, which has been crucial for timely reporting, while new conservative outlets like One America News Network and Breitbart will take their place.
- The Pentagon Press Association raised concerns about this unprecedented action targeting established media, emphasizing the importance of professional coverage from diverse perspectives.
Detailed news
WASHINGTON — On Friday night, the Department of Defense announced that it will be implementing a new “annual media rotation program” for its in-house press corps. This program will effectively remove several major news outlets, including NBC News, from their Pentagon office spaces in favor of other outlets.
NBC News, The New York Times, National Public Radio, and Politico are all required to leave their designated workspaces. The news organizations learned about it through a document that was distributed to the press corps without any individual notifications. An accompanying email carried a note that said, in part, “no additional information will be provided at this time.”
The memo that Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot wrote to the Pentagon Press Association stated, “For over a half-century, the Pentagon Press Corps has benefited from working out of individual office spaces that provide coveted and open access to some of the Department’s top military and civilian leaders.”
Ullyot wrote that “a new Annual Media Rotation Program for those dedicated media spaces” will be implemented on February 14, 2025. This program is intended 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.”
NBC News expressed their disappointment in a statement, saying, “We are unhappy with the decision to deny us access to a broadcasting booth at the Pentagon that we have used for many decades.” We will continue to report with the same honesty and rigor that NBC News has always had, even though this presents major impediments to our ability to acquire and cover news in the national public interest.
Seven days after the Senate confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by the smallest of margins, Pentagon officials made this move. This came after weeks of reporting on his conduct and treatment of women, which included accusations that he drank too much alcohol, causing his coworkers to be concerned, and that his second wife was afraid for her safety when she was near him. Hegseth has rejected the accusations.
Some of the accusations made against Hegseth were covered by NBC News.
The message listed the rotating organizations by media, choosing one each from television, print, radio, and online news to replace them. It stated that the news groups who were rotating out had two weeks to leave their locations.
The new outlets that are coming in are One America News Network, which will replace NBC News, as well as the New York Post, Breitbart News Network, and HuffPost.
Three of the new outlets are conservative, but HuffPost is more progressive.
According to spokesperson Lizzie Grams, HuffPost does not have a correspondent at the Pentagon, and the site did not ask for a presence there.
Grams stated, “If the Trump administration and Secretary Hegseth would like HuffPost to provide more critical coverage of their management of the Defense Department, we are prepared to do so.”
According to a statement from a representative of One America News, the news organization has had a bureau in Washington since 2013 and “looks forward to having access to physical office space at the Pentagon and will utilize the accommodations full-time as soon as it’s available.”
NBC News contacted the other news organizations to ask for their comments.
The memo did not provide any additional information about the new “rotation program.” This includes how officials decided which outlets would be the first to vacate their office space, how they selected the new outlets and which ones would be next, and how long an outlet would be without an office space before it was rotated back into the building.
For decades, NBC News has maintained its own workplace at the Pentagon, allowing the network to report on the news throughout the day and within minutes of major events. The “booth,” as it is referred to, is equipped with technical equipment, phone lines, and a camera that was installed by NBC.
It is uncertain whether NBC News will have the technological ability to broadcast from the Pentagon after it removes its equipment from its workstation.
Ullyot pointed out that the exiting outlets are still part of the Pentagon press corps. This means that, in part, they will be able to attend and report briefings and be considered for travel with civilian and military leaders in the Department as they have previously.
On Friday evening, the Pentagon Press Association released a statement that read, “Our resident press corps has greatly expanded over the years and we have always welcomed new members and will continue to do so.”
The statement added, “However, we are very concerned about this unprecedented action by the Department of Defense to target highly professional media who have covered the Pentagon for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.” “We have requested a meeting and will keep everyone updated.”
During her first press conference this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that President Donald Trump’s administration was “opening up the briefing room to new media voices.” Mike Allen, a political writer who has worked for a long time at Axios, a site that is considered mainstream, and Matt Boyle, who works for the conservative site Breitbart, were the first people she called.
Leavitt also stated that her team was “working diligently to restore the press passes of the 440 journalists whose passes were wrongly revoked by the previous administration.”
Source : CNBC news
