There’s a New, Trump-Friendly Pentagon Press Corps. Let’s Have a Look at Their Greatest Hits.

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The Pentagon has remade its press corps, and we’re starting to get an understanding of which people now are allowed access to the halls of power.

On Sept. 18, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth circulated a memo declaring that in order to retain access to the Pentagon, journalists would have to agree not to report anything without formal authorization from the Defense Department. On Oct. 6, the department, after negotiations with the press, clarified^[2] that the reporters wouldn’t need official sign-off, but they would still need to sign an agreement limiting their access^[3] and acknowledging that encouraging government officials to “violate the laws and policies concerning the disclosure” of information could lead to the journalist being declared a security risk.

Almost all major media outlets refused to sign this agreement, from the New York Times to HuffPost to Fox News. Most reporters turned in their badges last week.

A week later, the Pentagon’s spokesman, Sean Parnell, announced that more than 60 journalists had been approved to make up its “next generation” of the press corps. In a statement Wednesday, Parnell praised^[4] these new media outlets and independent journalists for being “far more effective and balanced than the self-righteous media who chose to self-deport from the Pentagon.”

To get a sense of what this new press corps really is—and what Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department considers valid journalism of interest to the public—it’s worth looking at some of the top hits.

Timcast
Tim Pool, a streamer who developed a following as a sympathetic chronicler of the Occupy Wall Street movement, has over the years evolved into a major right-wing influencer with his own media enterprise (Timcast is his main YouTube channel). Pool’s credibility took a hit last year when the Justice Department exposed a company called Tenet Media as a Russian operation^[5]; Pool had been hired to produce weekly videos with what turned out to be Kremlin talking points, at a rate of $100,000 per video^[6]. He has said he was duped.

Just the News
This digital outlet is run by John Solomon, a media figure with a long history of dubious reporting. The site spread misinformation about the 2020 election^[7], about FBI agents^[8] during the Jan. 6 insurrection, and, most significantly, Ukraine^[9] and the “deep state.” In 2022, Kash Patel said on Just the News’ John Solomon Reports podcast that he and Solomon both had “been on a mission” as “the president’s representatives^[10] to the National Archives” to prove Trump had declassified the documents at the center of the scandal.

The Gateway Pundit
The Gateway Pundit often makes lazy mistakes: It once falsely accused a Washington Post editor of misbehavior during a confirmation hearing when that reporter wasn’t at that hearing^[11]. Jordan Conradson, the journalist credentialed for the Pentagon, was one of the writers whose election denial stories were cited in a lawsuit from Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, Georgia election workers who were accused of election fraud.

RedState
RedState, once a more mainstream publication for conservative dialogue, took a hard pro-Trump turn in 2018 with a purge of the president’s critics. Since then, it has spread conspiracy theories^[12] about the murdered Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich and questioned^[13] whether the mass shooting survivor David Hogg had actually been at school the day of the shooting.

Human Events
This is the latest home for Jack Posobiec^[14], a content creator so inflammatory that being seen as cozy with him—as Hegseth was, in inviting Posobiec^[15] on an overseas trip—can lead to major scandal. Posobiec, who has connections to various hate groups, is known primarily as the man behind Pizzagate, the ur-QAnon conspiracy theory. He remains extreme: “Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely,” he said at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference. Posobiec once had a security clearance as a U.S. naval intelligence officer on reserve, but the Navy revoked it^[16] in 2017 after the Unite the Right white supremacist rally.

The Post Millennial
A Canadian site with a largely American readership, the Post Millennial was founded by far-right figure Andy Ngo. One of its best controversies involved a story about the U.S. women’s soccer team’s behavior during the performance of the national anthem. Its initial headline read^[17]: “DISGRACEFUL: US Women’s Soccer Team Members Turn Their Backs to 98-Year-Old WWII Vet Playing the National Anthem.” When it was pointed out that the women who turned away from the veteran did so in order to face the U.S. flag, the headline was changed^[18] to focus on the women who instead faced the performer: “DISGRACEFUL: US Women’s Soccer Team Members Turned Away From Flag as 98-Year-Old WWII Vet Played the National Anthem.”

LindellTV
The MyPillowCEO peddled his 2020 election conspiracy theories through a number of avenues, including his video streaming site. As a result, LindellTV has been subject to the same defamation lawsuits that Lindell himself courted, but it carries on with a host of right-wing shows, including the signature Mike Lindell Show. This show has been in the White House press briefings; in April, a reporter for LindellTV asked^[19] press secretary Karoline Leavitt if the White House would “consider releasing the president’s fitness plan” because “he actually looks healthier than ever before.”

OAN 
The One America News network is about as extreme as it gets without tipping fully into Alex Jones lizard-people territory. It has promoted hydroxychloroquine^[20] as a “miracle cure” for COVID; spread ominous conspiracy theories about George Soros^[21]; speculated that Michael Cohen, not Donald Trump, had an affair with Stormy Daniels^[22]; and declared that Roy Moore was innocent and actually won his election^[23]. It has also hired Matt Gaetz^[24] as a host.

The National Pulse
The National Pulse is led by Raheem Kassam, who made his name as an edgy figure in British politics as a far-right activist and adviser to Nigel Farage. He was so inflammatory that Australia’s Labor Party asked^[25] for Kassam, who was then associated with Breitbart, to be banned from entering the country, citing comments he’d made about the Quran being “fundamentally evil” and a tweet arguing^[26] the Scottish National Party leader’s legs should be taped shut. His publication has taken up a similarly provocative tone^[27]. Will Upton, whom Kassam has said^[28] will be the lead Pentagon correspondent (with Kassam “picking up the slack occasionally”), has written articles such as^[29] “Canada’s Infamous ‘Wax My Balls’ Transgender Is Wanted by the Cops.”

The Epoch Times
One of the great distinctions of this publication is its ties to the Falun Gong, a Chinese new religious movement. (You may also be familiar with their other major media outreach effort, the Shen Yun^[30] dance troupe.) Despite its bizarre backing, it is a giant in the conservative media world, and it is a dedicated promoter of right-wing conspiracy theories, going so far as to create a network of YouTube channels^[31] intended to amplify hoaxes and election misinformation. It has also been charged with money laundering^[32].

This is not an exhaustive list; some of the members of the new press corps have yet to be identified. This list also excludes the foreign journalists, most of whom seem to work for state-run media in Turkey. There are individuals acting as independent journalists, as well. Breanna Morello, who is known for her work for InfoWars, secured a credential, even as she told^[34] the Washington Post she didn’t have plans to move to D.C. She has, among other bold stances, defended^[35] Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, and she has spread false claims^[36] about the Federal Emergency Management Agency giving disaster‐relief funds to migrants. Other individuals are less known. One woman, who runs social media accounts under the name “AWPS News,” has a miniscule following and appears to do little beyond stating the schedule for the White House. Another woman runs a blog called USA Journal Korea that appears to be dedicated to the cause of the unification of the Korean Peninsula.

To their credit, some conservative media outlets also refused to bend to Hegseth’s demands. Fox News, Newsmax, the Washington Examiner, the Washington Times, and the Daily Caller all refused to sign the agreement. Those that chose to sign on have made it clear that they see their relationship with the Pentagon as a naturally friendly one. According to the Washington Post, two people from a Jordanian TV broadcaster were so willing to sign on for mouthpiece journalism that they accidentally signed the original agreement—the one that appeared to ban all reporting without Pentagon authorization.

The reporters who refused to agree to Hegseth’s terms have reported and will continue to report on Defense Department news using sourcing these reporters have already developed and leaning on honest, traditional tools of journalism. But their jobs will be harder, while the members of the new press corps will inevitably benefit from a veneer of legitimacy from the credentialing and from the “scoops” they’re given.

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