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Where's the MAGA-approved Pentagon 'press corps'? |
That's what some veteran defense and intel reporters are asking in the wake of the US attack in Venezuela.
Traditional media outlets have led the way with thorough coverage of the military action and its aftermath, despite lacking physical access to the Pentagon complex.
All the while, that purported "new" Pentagon press corps has been MIA.
Recent news gives us a reason to reassess Pete Hegseth's effort to push out the traditional press corps last year.
National Review's Jim Geraghty took the words out of my mouth: "The ostensible justification for the Pentagon's drastic new restriction on reporter access to the building and talking to sources was, as the 21-page memo stated, 'preventing leaks that damage operational security and national security.' And yet, in this recent operation in Venezuela, two major U.S. media institutions faced a choice and made their priorities clear, withholding the news for a period to avoid endangering U.S. troops." (He's referencing that Semafor report about The New York Times and Washington Post holding off on reporting about the raid.)
As I'm sure you recall, Pentagon beat reporters gave up their press passes last fall, largely on the advice of media lawyers who said Hegseth's new rules risked criminalizing basic journalism.
Thus, viewers didn't see any live shots from the Pentagon during the Venezuela raid over the weekend. Nor did they see anyone from the Pentagon hold a briefing, though Hegseth did speak at President Trump's Saturday press conference.
Reporters say military spokespeople have been ignoring basic questions. "It’s a low point for press when it comes to the Pentagon," one military correspondent told me.
But the coverage has continued unabated. Reporters gathered info from sources throughout the US military. And they couldn't help but notice that the MAGA influencers, once christened "the next generation of the Pentagon press corps," were absent. Figures like Matt Gaetz and Laura Loomer were given press passes, but for what? Hegseth's team didn't even hold a post-strike briefing for them.
Status chief Oliver Darcy reported that the Pentagon invited "sycophantic media figures" to join Hegseth on a trip yesterday.
The last few days have made clear that Hegseth's access theater isn't journalism — and never was. But of course, that was always the point.
"The fact that the Pentagon's officially approved 'press' corps hasn’t reported a single story of importance since it was created isn’t a surprise. It’s working exactly as it was designed," Paul Farhi commented.
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The NYT's case against the Pentagon over the new press access restrictions "will move quickly," Erik Wemple reported this morning, because the two sides agreed to "skip discovery proceedings and set up a schedule for summary judgment. The case is headed for oral arguments on March 6..." |
'Media repression' in Venezuela |
Rights groups are reporting "checkpoints and media repression as security forces patrol the streets" in Venezuela, CNN's Jack Guy reports. "The SNTP Venezuelan journalists' union denounced repression against journalists on Monday." Meantime, as the BBC notes here,"foreign journalists are unable to enter." |
Newsy interviews with Team Trump |
Jake Tapper's interview with Stephen Miller made a lot of news yesterday. The NYT's headline: "Miller Asserts U.S. Has Right to Take Greenland." TheWrap said the segment was a "fiery throwdown."
Trump also continues to talk to the press. Yesterday, he got on the phone with NBC's Kristen Welker and MS NOW's Joe Scarborough.
This morning, Scarborough revealed that he has spoken with Trump "probably half a dozen times since he was back in the White House." Yesterday's "20-minute call" was mostly "filled with the president recounting the US military's flawless execution of the operation," but once Scarborough got a word in, he asked about future plans, and Trump's response was, "Joe, the difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn't keep the oil. We're going to keep the oil."
And on the subject of cable interviews, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado clearly sought to persuade Trump during an appearance on "Hannity" last night. She stroked Trump's ego and talked about sharing her Nobel Peace Prize with him...
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Megyn Kelly warns against Fox 'cheerleading' |
Megyn Kelly went after her former employer in a big way on Monday. "I turned on Fox News yesterday, and I'm sorry, but it was like watching Russian propaganda. There was nothing skeptical. It was all rah-rah cheerleading, yes, let's go," she said on her SiriusXM show.
"I love our military as much as anyone, and I believe in President Trump, but there are serious reasons to just exercise a note of caution before we just get on the rah-rah train, all right," she continued. "I have done that enough times in my career as a Fox News anchor to have been embarrassed enough to know I'm going to stay on the yellow light for this. I'm not in the green-light territory. I'm not in the red-light territory either, but I am staying in the yellow-light territory for now."
>> Meanwhile, Nick Fuentes and Alex Jones have joined that rah-rah brigade — and both are getting roasted by their "America First" audience, The Bulwark's Will Sommer reports.
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"It's important for those of us in the media to state facts where they plainly exist, even if some people from political positions don't want those facts to be acknowledged," Niall Stanage of The Hill said on C-SPAN yesterday. And the fact is that the US is clearly engaged in "an imperialist or colonialist effort," he said.
So who do you call at a moment like this? How about... the author of "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq." CNN's Zachary B. Wolf checked in with Stephen Kinzer, author of "Overthrow," who said Trump's new form of American imperialism "is one of the oldest stories in American history." Read that here...
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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has officially dissolved itself after almost 60 years, months after Republicans clawed back all of the org's funding. As I said on CNN this morning, this is a concrete example of a Project 2025 proposal turning into reality.
There was some talk about whether the CPB board would keep the corporation in hibernation. But the board determined that wasn't an good idea. "A dormant and defunded CPB could have become vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse," the board said in a statement.
Now public media advocates are turning their attention to the midterms, hoping that if Democrats win power, they will restore some funding in the future. "I am convinced that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children's education, our history, culture and democracy to do so," Ruby Calvert, the chair of CPB's board, said.
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Today's new nonfiction releases |
I have been reading an early copy of Jacob Soboroff's book "Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster," and it's incredible.
Also today, on the fifth anniversary of the January 6 attack, Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick is out with "Storm at the Capitol: An Oral History of January 6th." Another new arrival in bookstores: Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel's "Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life."
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Rough review of CBS reboot |
Bari Weiss started the week with a triumphant announcement about The Free Press and its "expanding newsroom," with a raft of new hires and promotions.
Then came a busy day at CBS News, preparing for Tony Dokoupil's "Evening News" relaunch. There have been so many relaunches of the newscast over the years — "Dokoupil's arrival marks the fifth anchor change" since 2017, Stephen Battaglio noted — but this time is different because of Weiss and the political environment.
The 6:30 premiere was mostly clean, but this awkward minute of malfunctions prompted lots of snickering on social media. And later in the evening, this scathing review by Variety critic
Daniel D'Addario made the rounds among TV insiders. He predicted that few "will choose this reboot."
I suspect ordinary viewers liked the half-hour a lot more than D'Addario did. The bigger problem for CBS is the same as it's been for decades: Cable channels, smartphones and now chatbots keep reducing the demand for an evening newscast. And ABC and NBC are awfully good at meeting what demand is still there.
>> Dokoupil is anchoring from Miami tonight, belatedly beginning the cross-country tour that was planned to accompany his start date.
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Two days after signing off from his government X handle, former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino signaled that his radio show/podcast is, indeed, coming back in some form. "Thank you for your interest in the show and its return date," Bongino wrote from his personal X account. "We will have something for you soon."
Judging from his posts, Bongino is clearly furious with some of the right-wing critics of his FBI tenure and eager to get even — from behind a podcast mic. Julia Alexander quipped, "Leaving a big job that you thought you wanted in order to focus on podcasting absolutely encapsulates the last few years."
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Remember the Epstein files scandal? In a Monday night legal filing, "the Justice Department told a judge it has released about 12,285 documents so far," CBS's Joe Walsh reports. "More than 2 million documents that may need to be released under the law are still 'in various phases of review.'"
This means the DOJ "has reviewed less than 1% of its total possible records on Epstein," Walsh noted. Many of the records may be duplicates, but still...
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>> This just in: "Will Welch is stepping down as editor of GQ." Jessica Testa says "a successor has not been named." (NYT)
>> Versant shares fell about 13% in the first day of trading. The stock is down another 1.5% this morning. (CNBC)
>> CNN's New Year's Eve special with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen delivered strong #s as 2026 arrived. (TheWrap)
>> The California Post now has a launch date: Monday, Jan. 26. (NYPost)
>> Vox has hired Benjy Sarlin as a senior editor for policy, politics, and ideas. (X)
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>> Some of the news out of CES so far this week: Nvidia laid out its next big plans; Intel launched a next-gen computer chip; and Lego announced a "Smart Brick."
>> Another "antidote to social media" app: "Two Silicon Valley veterans behind Twitter and Pinterest have launched" Tangle, which "suggests users share personal objectives or 'intentions' with their friends, support each other's goals and 'reflect' on how they are achieved." (FT)
>> "A hacktivist remotely wiped three white supremacist websites live onstage during their talk at a hacker conference last week, with the sites yet to return online." (TechCrunch)
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Kimmel mocks Trump's Nielsen #s |
Jimmy Kimmel roasted Trump in his first show of 2026 last night. "After boasting about what a great host he is and how much better he is than I am and how huge his ratings would be, Trump hosted the lowest-rated Kennedy Center Honors telecast of all time," Kimmel remarked.
He went on: "You know, as I recall, he said he'd step down if this happened. He said, 'If I can't beat out Jimmy Kimmel, then I don't think I should be president.' Hey, a deal is a deal. Back to Mar-a-Lago you go."
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>> Netflix is renewing "Emily in Paris" for a sixth season. (THR)
>> Peacock "is integrating Dolby's full set of picture and sound technology, calling the move a streaming first." (Deadline)
>> The sophomore season of HBO Max's "The Pitt" is pulling in favorable reviews ahead of its Thursday premiere, with TheWrap's Zaki Hasan writing that the series "slips smoothly back into its pressure-cooker rhythms with the quiet confidence of a show that knows exactly what it is and why it became a watercooler sensation." Can't wait to watch on Thursday... (TheWrap)
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