gotchanewsdaily.com 
CNN
—
The Washington Post, CNN, The Hill and The War Zone will lose workspace at the Pentagon this year under an expanded “media rotation program” instituted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s press office.
The rotation makes room for a number of right-wing and explicitly pro-Trump media outlets that have not had workspace at the Pentagon before.
The Friday night announcement was criticized by some journalists as a way to score political points and penalize tough-minded news outlets.
The changes only affect workspaces, not credentials, so journalists from the affected outlets will not lose access to military officials and press briefings.
CNN said in a statement that “CNN’s mission to report on the Department of Defense, US military and Trump Administration will continue regardless of office arrangements. We will not be deflected from our duty to hold all three fairly and fully to account.”
When it was first announced a week ago, the rotation program called for four outlets to give up their space this year.
Effective later this month, One America News Network will replace NBC News for the remainder of the year; Breitbart will replace National Public Radio; The New York Post will replace The New York Times; and HuffPost will replace Politico.
HuffPost has a progressive bent, but the other three beneficiaries are all Trump-boosting brands that are notably smaller than the outlets they are replacing.
The workspaces are provided by the Pentagon, so media outlets have little recourse, particularly because credentials are not being revoked. Still, having a “steady presence inside the building” carries many advantages, former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr wrote in an essay for Columbia Journalism Review. It means “that the reporters who cover the Pentagon can be in touch with trusted sources throughout the day and be ready to quickly file news stories. It’s a very valuable relationship, most importantly for an informed public.”
Representatives of several newsrooms met with Pentagon officials earlier this week and expressed concerns over the rotation program.
One concern entailed the “strategic disadvantage” of losing office space in the building.
In response, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Ullyot said Friday night that he was doubling the number of rotating outlets, in part to “minimize any strategic disadvantage.”
In a two-page memo, he said the Washington Post will be replaced by the Washington Examiner, a much smaller publication.
CNN will be replaced by Newsmax, a lower-rated channel with an ardently pro-Trump posture.
The Hill and The War Zone will be replaced by The Free Press and The Daily Caller.
Ullyot’s memo emphasized that the rotation “revokes not a single press credential and places no restrictions on access for credentialed journalists covering public events at the Pentagon. Outlets that vacate the spaces currently on loan to them by the Secretary will remain full members of the Pentagon Press Corps.”
Fox News, where Hegseth worked for about a decade, will keep its office space.
