The United States (US) announced on Friday (Jan 31) to institute a new “annual media rotation programme” for its in-house press corps. The move will remove several major media outlets such as The New York Times and NBC News.
The One America News Network will replace NBC News, Breitbart will be given the space held by National Public Radio, and the New York Post has been offered the New York Times’ workspace, The Guardian reported. Politico's place will be taken by HuffPost.
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According to CNN, the changes will come into effect on February 14.
“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 spokesperson John Ullyot said in a memo sent to the Pentagon Press Association.
“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, beginning February 14, 2025,” Ullyot wrote, there will be “a new Annual Media Rotation Programme for those dedicated media spaces," it further read.
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The Guardian reported that the move is majorly symbolic, as these outlets would not lose access to Pentagon briefings. This is due to Trump's plans to mix the access of traditional news outlets with a cohort of non-traditional news outlets. The US President also plans to give access to podcasters, bloggers, and TikTokers.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a briefing that the White House had been flooded with over 10,000 applications for the “new media” seat in the cramped White House briefing room.
The newly favoured outlet, HuffPost (formerly known as Huffington Post), does not have a Pentagon correspondent. The media outlet told CNN, “If the Trump administration and Secretary Hegseth are interested in more hard-hitting coverage of their stewardship of the defense department from HuffPost, we are ready to deliver."
Meanwhile, NBC expressed its disappointment over the decision of barring it from the broadcast booth at the Pentagon, something that the outlet has had "for many decades".
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(With inputs from agencies)