As CNN reported on Friday evening, several renowned media outlets have been ordered by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to vacate their workspaces in the Pentagon’s “Correspondents’ Corridor” – in favor of pro-Trump media outlets.
Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Ullyot describes the measure as a new “annual media rotation program”. This will “expand access to the Correspondents’ Corridor’s limited space to those media outlets that have not previously enjoyed the privilege and journalistic value of working in physical office space at the Pentagon,” Ullyot said in an internal memo to the Department of Defense Correspondents’ Corridor.
The Pentagon just doubled the number of media “rotating out” from 4 to 8 to “make room for other outlets.”
OUT- NYT, WAPO, NBC, CNN POLITICO, THE HILL, THE WAR ZONE, NPR
IN: NY Post, Washington Examiner
TV, OAN, Newsmax, HuffPo, The Free Press, The Daily Caller, Breitbart pic.twitter.com/bbA1wRVDla– Kellie Meyer (@KellieMeyerNews) February 8, 2025
CNN is losing its bureau to Newsmax and said in a statement, “CNN’s mission to report on the Department of Defense, the U.S. military and the Trump administration will continue regardless of the bureau agreements. We will not be diverted from our duty to hold all three fairly and fully accountable.”
National Public Radio (NPR), an association of non-commercial radio stations with over 1,000 affiliated stations and around 40 million listeners, has to cede its office to the Breitbart News Network – a medium described as “misogynistic, xenophobic and racist” according to Wikipedia.
And NBC, which produces some of the most-watched news programs in the US, also has to make way: its bureau goes to One America News (OAN), a station so small that it dispenses with ratings measurement services.
NBC News stated “We are disappointed with the decision to deny us access to a broadcast booth at the Pentagon that we have used for decades.” Despite the obstacles, the company intends to continue reporting with its usual integrity and accuracy.
Other prominent media outlets on the “hit list” include the New York Times – the most-read US website with more than 460 million monthly hits – as well as the Washington Post, The Hill, Politico and The War Zone. They all have to vacate their offices by Friday, February 21.
Only right-wing and explicitly pro-Trump media will take their places: New York Post, Washington Examiner, The Free Press, HuffPost and The Daily Caller. Fox News, where Pete Hegseth worked for almost a decade, is allowed to keep its offices.
In the internal memo mentioned at the beginning, Pentagon spokesman Ullyot emphasized that the rotation “does not revoke a single press accreditation and does not introduce any new access restrictions for accredited journalists”. The affected media will therefore continue to have access to military information and press conferences.
Access figures comparison December 2024:
- nytimes.com: 463 million / nypost.com: 142 million
- cnn.com 356: million / newsmax.com: 30 million
- nbcnews.com: 115 million / oann.com: 4 million
- washingtonpost.com: 82 million / washingtonexaminer.com: 4 million
- npr.org: 79 million / breitbart.com: 121 million
- politico.com: 29 million / huffpost.com: 43 million
- thehill.com: 28 million / thefp.com: 6 million
- twz.com: 10 million / dailycaller.com: 5 million
