Among the multitude of changes that have arrived with the second Trump administration, one is how the administration interfaces with the media. Press rooms once made up of mostly liberal outlets are beginning to go the other way.

One such change includes offering press room access to so-called “new media” – this means the inclusion of entities like podcasters, influencers, or other non-traditional sources that the White House presumably deems influential enough to get information from the horse’s mouth. 

In announcing this, press secretary Karoline Leavitt also said the White House would be reinstating credentials for around 440 journalists the Biden administration “wrongly revoked.”

However, while the White House appears to be about adding more cooks to the kitchen, the Defense Department has taken a different approach.

Now led by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the department has sought to switch outlets that previously had designated workspaces within the Pentagon for new ones, maintaining a numeric homeostasis but not necessarily one of bias.

The Pentagon’s swap has ultimately resulted in the removal of several outlets from the left and the addition of ones from the right. According to AllSides Media Bias Ratings, there has been a net shift of minus five outlets on the left, minus one in the center, minus one not rated, and plus seven on the right.

Pentagon Boots Liberal Outlets, Adds Conservative Ones

The Pentagon’s first move came on February 1, when it informed NBC News (Lean Left bias), The New York Times (Lean Left), NPR (Lean Left), and Politico (Lean Left) that they should vacate their offices in favor of four new outlets.

The outlets to replace them were One America News Network (Right), The New York Post (Lean Right), Breitbart (Right), and HuffPost (Left). 

At the time, CNN (Lean Left) noted “Curiously, though, [HuffPost] does not currently have a Pentagon correspondent,” but that the outlet said it is “ready to deliver.”

Whether the administration did this on purpose or not is unknown, yet earlier this week on February 10, President Trump shared his thoughts on HuffPost, saying, “Are they still around? I haven’t read them in years. I thought they died.”

Since the first batch was announced, the Pentagon announced four more outlets that should leave the Pentagon, CNN (Lean Left), Washington Post (Lean Left), The Hill (Center), and The War Zone (Not rated by AllSides).

Subbing in lieu of them are, Newsmax (Right), Washington Examiner (Lean Right), The Free Press (Lean Right), and The Daily Caller (Right).

AllSides Analysis of Pentagon Press Corps Changes

It goes without saying, but these outlets on the right have been friendlier to Trump and his administration than the ones being removed.

Yet, in terms of balance, AllSides was not able to easily find how many dedicated workspaces for media outlets there currently are in the Pentagon and which outlets occupy them. Without this context, we can’t determine whether or not the full roster is balanced.

If some of the most-read conservative outlets like Newsmax, Breitbart, and The New York Post hadn’t occupied office spaces before, it’s possible there was little representation of right media before this change.

Similarly, with such massive outlets from the left being rotated out, it’s also possible that there aren’t many more office spaces available than the eight recent reports have revealed. 

One would logically think there are at least a few more, considering Fox News (Right) was not involved in either of the swaps and has had a correspondent reporting daily from the Pentagon since 2007.

Nonetheless, AllSides will continue to monitor reports and keep an eye out for which outlets are currently occupying Pentagon office spaces, and what the net bias of the Pentagon press corps may be.

Andy Gorel s a News and Social Media Editor at AllSides. He has a Center bias.

This piece was edited and reviewed by Johnathon Held, News and Bias Analyst (Lean Right), and Emily Allen, News Editor and Bias Analyst (Lean Left), Henry Brechter, Editor-in-Chief (Center), and Julie Mastrine, Director of Marketing and Media Bias Ratings (Lean Right).