Trump's Trials - Pentagon press corps gets a right-wing makeover

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

The Pentagon has announced the new members of its press corps after major news organizations refused to sign a new policy. The replacements are decidedly more partisan.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detrow, and this is Trump's Terms from NPR. We're under invasion from within. If you're not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will. We all serve at the pleasure of the president. The golden age of America is upon us. We are in the golden age. Every episode, we bring you one of NPR's latest stories about the 47th president, and now he is trying to remake the federal government.

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has gotten a right-wing makeover. The defense secretary rolled out a new policy for covering the military a few weeks ago and told news organizations they had to sign off by the middle of last week. Nearly all the journalists, including NPR, chose to turn in their media credentials instead,

and now there are new reporters in their places. Here to tell us more about that is NPR media correspondent, David Fulkenflict. David, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so the Pentagon had this announcement. We are announcing a new press corps. The military announced this group

of people. So who are they? Well, for some of the president's, you know, strongest fans, these might be familiar names and people to whom they tune for information. For others, they may know them only through headlines and lawsuits. If you take a couple of them, think of Gateway Pundit or Lindell TV founded by the pillow guy, Mike Lindell. Both Lindell and Gateway Pundit were successfully sued for defamation over claims they made supporting President Trump's lives about the 2020 race. Tim Poole is podcaster, his outlets, among those credentialed. He was found to have, he said, unknowingly, but nonetheless accepted money on behalf of Russian state media. These aren't paragones of independent, hard-hitting journalism from at least a conventional standpoint. Others include the

Federalist, Just the News, One America News Network resolute supporters of the president and what they put out. I pay attention to the Federalist. They put out some statements essentially saying, this press policy is fine. It doesn't limit us at all. We love this press policy. We're in. But a lot of news outlets, including NPR news, that have had Pentagon credentials for decades, chose to give them up last week rather than sign on to this new policy. And I want to pause to note that is across the political spectrum, whatever you think of the politics of the Wall Street Journal or Fox News or the New York Times or the Washington Post all the way across, they walked out. These are people who've covered the Pentagon for decades. What did they find so troublesome about the new policy? Well, you've heard Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth and Sean Parnell, his top press aide, say the Pentagon reporters are wandering all over the Pentagon and now they'll be required to wear badges.

They were always required to wear badges and they were always quite limited in where they could go, although slightly more restricted in recent months. In reality, news outlets and reporters were asked to sign something that said essentially they were not entitled to broadcast, print, or even ask for information that the Pentagon hasn't authorized for release. And I want to stress that's information. That's not simply classified or national security information. It's anything the Pentagon hasn't authorized for release. Now, news outlets publish national security secrets all the time after weighing it with due care. But nonetheless, here's the Pentagon essentially saying we have to have a rubber stamp of yes or no, what you can publish. That's prior restraint that conventional news outlets aren't willing to go for.

I guess I should note, I've covered the Pentagon in the past. You could walk the halls, but you couldn't go everywhere. and sometimes, of course, the military is hiding information from you because they're the military. That's right. Other times they could be very open, and it was very useful for citizens who are paying for the military. So what does this mean for Americans' access to news and information? Well, I think the way to think about it is that what we're going to hear from folks at the Pentagon is what Hegseth and his crew want you to know, and a little more.

The Press Corps will trade the privilege of being in the Pentagon for that access to be able to beam out what the presence people want, you know, others including Pete Hegsett's former network, Fox News say that's not reporting. That's just transcription. They're not willing to accept that. The so-called independent journalist touted by the Pentagon right now, don't feel that independent at all. It's interesting. Pete Hexeth berated the Fox News Pentagon correspondent at a press briefing earlier this year. This is not about some kind of conservative ideology. It's about who gets information and who controls it. That's right. David, thanks so much. You bet.

That's interesting, David Falkinflik. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms. from NPR.