Pentagon Announces Replacement Press Corps

Several outlets supportive of the political right said Wednesday they had agreed to a new press policy rejected by virtually all legacy news media organizations and will take their place in the Pentagon, the AP reports. The new Pentagon press corps will include the Gateway Pundit, the National Pulse, Human Events, podcaster Tim Pool, the Just the News website founded by journalist John Solomon, Frontlines by Turning Point USA, and LindellTV, run by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Many of those outlets were not staffed for the job; Just the News, for example, posted an online ad seeking a Pentagon reporter.

The Pentagon's announcement came less than a week after dozens of reporters from outlets including the New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN, and the Washington Post turned in their access badges rather than agree to a policy the journalists say will restrict them to covering news approved by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Sean Parnell, Hegseth's spokesman, announced the "next generation" of the Pentagon press corps with more than 60 journalists who had agreed to the new policy. He said 26 journalists who had previously been part of the press corps were among the signees. The department wouldn't say who any of them were, but several outlets reposted his message on X, saying they had signed on.

There isn't unanimity among organizations that appeal to Republican consumers. Fox News Channel, by far the most popular news source for fans of President Trump, was among the walkouts, as was Newsmax. Some of the outlets moving in pronounce themselves conservative in their mission statements, and the "about" page on the National Pulse features a picture of Trump. The journalists who left the Pentagon haven't stopped covering the military. With them out of the Pentagon, "reporters will have to work harder," said Barbara Starr, a longtime Pentagon reporter retired from CNN. "But the real price is paid by the American people and the American military families," Starr said. "Military families who have their sons and daughters serving, they want to know everything and they want to know it fast."