Pentagon Ejects WaPo and CNN From Offices in Favor of The Daily Caller, The Free Press, and Others
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
The US Defense Department announced Friday night that it would double the number of news organizations that would be removed from physical offices to make room for more conservative outlets such as The Daily Caller and Newsmax.
In a memo obtained by NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer, the Pentagon said that CNN, The Washington Post, The Hill, and The War Zone would join Politico, NBC News, NPR, and The New York Times in being forced to vacate their offices. Conservative outlets that will be rotated in to replace them are The Washington Examiner, The Free Press, The Daily Caller, and Newsmax.
Last Friday, the DoD said in a memo that NBC, NPR, Politico, and the Times would need to vacate “their physical office space” by Feb. 14 as part of its new “Annual Media Rotation Program.”
This week’s announcement said CNN, The Washington Post, The Hill, and The War Zone had until Feb. 21 to make way for seven total conservative outlets – those named above, plus Breitbart News, One America News Network, and The New York Post.
HuffPost – a traditionally progressive outlet – will also have a seat at the media table at the Pentagon. Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense John Ullyot called for conservative outlets to have “their turn” at the Pentagon. Ullyot wrote:
The previous Administration set a hostile tone with reporters by revoking over 440 White House press credentials and restricting access by credentialed journalists covering public events at the White House, drawing a protest letter from the White House Correspondents Association.
By contrast, under this Administration, the AMRP revokes not a single press credential and places no restrictions on access for credentialed journalists covering public events at the Pentagon. Outlets that vacate the spaces currently on loan to them by the Secretary will remain full members of the Pentagon Press Corps under the AMRP. They will continue to enjoy the same media access to the Pentagon as they have previously.
The only change will be rotating out of their physical workspaces in the building to allow other outlets to have their turn to become resident members of the Pentagon Press Corps.
To the outlets losing their officers, Ullyot wrote, “By turning over the office space loaned to you by the Secretary, you will ensure that other outlets will enjoy the same opportunity to cover our nation’s finest up close from office spaces inside the walls of the Pentagon this year and each year going forward.”
It is unclear if Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was involved in the Pentagon’s media rotation program.
