Four major news outlets will no longer have highly coveted office space at the Pentagon after the Defense Department released an internal memo announcing it's giving their space to other outlets. CNN's Haley Britzky posted the memo on X that said NBC News, the New York Times, NPR, and Politico will each need to vacate their offices at the Pentagon on Feb. 14 to give space to the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News Network, and the Huffington Post. As CNN reports, three of the outlets are relatively small and conservative organizations that are openly pro-Trump.
The internal memo said the Pentagon calls the plan its "annual media rotation program," and spokesman Jonathan Ullyot said the outgoing outlets will remain full members of the Pentagon Press Corps with "the same media access" as before. But they won't have office space in the building this year. Ullyot said the 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." Officials chose one outlet each from print, online, radio, and TV mediums to give up their space for one year.
Members of the Pentagon press corps can only speculate if the decision is related to intense coverage of the Senate confirmation of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary last week. Hegseth is a former Fox News host, and his confirmation followed weeks of coverage about allegations of sexual abuse and heavy drinking. NBC News, which had reported on the allegations, released a statement saying, "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."
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