OPINION:
The War Department doesn’t mess around.
The Pentagon, no doubt at the direction of President Trump, has announced an “annual media rotation program,” which moves several of the nation’s biggest news outlets — The New York Times, NBC News, NPR and Politico — from their coveted Pentagon digs. In their place will be the New York Post, Breitbart News, One America News Network and HuffPost.
In a weird twist, HuffPost doesn’t even have a Pentagon correspondent, and they never even asked for a seat.
“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,” Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot said in a memo to the Pentagon Press Association (PPA). The association said it was making the move “in order 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.”
In a romantic twist, the rotation kicks off on Valentine’s Day.
NBC News responded with all the grace of a scorned prom queen. “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.” Maybe from the hallway.
The New York Times also bemoaned the move, calling it “a concerning development.” “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,” the Times told … The Times.
Meanwhile, NPR lamented the decision with the passion of a public radio pledge drive. “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,” the taxpayer-funded outlet said. “NPR urges the Pentagon to expand the offices available to press within the building so that all outlets covering the Pentagon receive equal access.”
As expected, the PPA hated the move. “Our resident press corps has greatly expanded over the years, and we have always welcomed new members and will continue to do so. We are, however, greatly troubled by this unprecedented move by DOD to single out highly professional media who have covered the Pentagon for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations,” the statement read.
And then there’s the Trump administration stamp on it all. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, freshly confirmed despite allegations of heavy drinking and low respect for women, waved his magic wand, and voila: OANN now has prime office real estate. Coincidence? Well, NBC did go overboard covering those allegations, so maybe not.
And the White House has already been setting the pace. In her first official press briefing, Mr. Trump’s press secretary announced they would revamp the briefing room to allow “new media” outlets. Karoline Leavitt said, “We welcome independent journalists, podcasters and social media influencers,” adding, “As long as you are creating news content of the day and are a legitimate independent journalist, you are welcome to cover this White House.”
Here’s the thing: The legacy media are dying. Outlets like the ones being ousted from their lofty Pentagon perches have enjoyed unfettered access and prime real estate for years, and now it’s someone else’s turn. The shunned outlets will have to do what all the lesser news orgs have had to do for years: work harder.
Ms. Leavitt explained exactly why in her first briefing. “The Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who are seated in this room, because, according to recent polling from Gallup, Americans’ trust in mass media has fallen to a record low. Millions of Americans, especially young people, have turned from traditional television outlets and newspapers to consume their news from podcasts, blogs, social media and other independent outlets,” she said.
The spokeswoman added that part of her job is “correcting the lies and the wrongs of the past four years, many of the lies that have been told to your faces in this very briefing room.”
The Pentagon went one step further: It just exiled those lying legacy media. Seems like a no-brainer, right?
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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