4:14 p.m.: The government of President Donald Trump announces that it wants to remove four US media organizations from the offices assigned to them in the Pentagon. The reason for this is to want to create space for other media representatives.
The “New York Times”, National Public Radio (NPR), NBC News and the online newspaper “Politico” are affected by the decision. In a memo of the Pentagon about a “New Annual Media Rotation Program” it says that the media representatives would have to clear their rooms by February 14th.
In their place, the “New York Post”, “One America News Network”, “Breitbart News Network” and “Huffpost News” would receive the office space. Two of the new news agencies are conservative, the Huffpost is rather progressive. “Breitbart News” is meanwhile considered an ultra -law medium that spreads conspiracy theories. With the current decision, Trump’s Defense Minister Pete Hegseth apparently also wants to set an example – and possibly prefer to have a positive media representative on site.
As the Deputy Minister of Defense Assistant for Public Affairs, John Ullyot, explains, the four media organizations still remain full-fledged members of the Pentagon Pressing Corps. Every year, a media company in the field of print, online, TV or radio should now clear his office so that a new medium can move in and thus get the opportunity to report as a resident of the Pentagon press corps.
NBC News was disappointed with the decision and explained: “Despite the considerable obstacles that this measure for our ability to collect and report messages in the national public interest, we will continue to report with the same integrity and strict.”
The Pentagon Press Association was concerned: “We are deeply worried about this unprecedented step by the Ministry of Defense to exclude highly professional media that have been covering the Pentagon for decades among both Republican and democratic governments.”