Pentagon Boots NBC, NPR, NYT, and Politico from Offices – To Be Replaced by Breitbart and One America News
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images.
The Department of Defense ordered a handful of news media outlets to vacate their offices inside the Pentagon so that they may be replaced by some conservative press organizations.
In a memo issued on Friday, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense John Ullyot said the Pentagon wanted to “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.”
It was not clear what if any role Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth played in the decision.
The department’s “new Annual Media Rotation Program” will begin on Feb. 14, and will require The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio, and Politico to vacate “their physical office space effective” on that date.
In their stead, The New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News, and HuffPost will move into the vacated office space. The memo makes clear that the outlets getting the boot “will remain as full members of the Pentagon Press Corps.
The Post, OAN, and Breitbart are all extremely pro-Trump organizations, though the inclusion of HuffPost – a historically liberal website – is curious. The president has long railed against legacy media outlets such as The New York Times and NBC News. On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr sent a letter to NPR and PBS to inform them that the agency is investigating them for airing sponsorships.
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Carr wrote of the standard practice. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”
In a statement to Mediaite, NPR criticized the office space shakeup.
“More than 40 million Americans depend on NPR for daily news about their communities and the world. This decision interferes with the ability of millions of Americans to directly hear from Pentagon leadership, and with NPR’s public interest mission to serve Americans who turn to our network of local public media stations in all 50 states,” it read. “NPR will continue to report with vigor and integrity on the transformation this Administration has promised to deliver. NPR urges the Pentagon to expand the offices available to press within the building so that all outlets covering the Pentagon receive equal access.”
The New York Times also responded.
“This move to expel The Times and other independent, fact-based news outlets from the Pentagon’s press spaces is a concerning development,” Managing Director of Communications Charlie Stadtlander told Mediaite. “The Department of Defense has the largest discretionary budget in the government, millions of Americans in uniform under its direction and control of a vast arsenal funded by taxpayers. The Times is committed to covering the Pentagon fully and fairly. Steps designed to impede access are clearly not in the public interest.”
