Washington D.C. – The Department of Defense (DoD) has announced a new “annual media rotation program” that will restrict access to their in-house press corps, effectively removing major news outlets such as NBC News, The New York Times, National Public Radio and Politico from their dedicated workspaces at the Pentagon.
Under the new program, the existing outlets have two weeks to vacate their spaces, making way for new news organizations to take their place. The news organizations that will be rotated in are One America News Network, the New York Post, Breitbart News Network, and HuffPost.
NBC News has expressed disappointment with the decision, stating that it will make it more difficult for them to gather and report news in the public interest. Other affected outlets have not yet commented on the decision.
The move comes less than a week after the Senate confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by a narrow margin, following weeks of controversy surrounding his behavior and treatment of women. Hegseth has denied the allegations.
The Pentagon Press Association has criticized the decision, stating that it is a “troubled move” that singles out highly professional media outlets that have covered the Pentagon for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
The DoD has not provided further details on the rotating program, including how the new outlets were chosen and how long an outlet will remain without an office space before being rotated back in.
