Pentagon Has 'Obligation' to Explain How Its Keeping US Safe, Says John Kirby

Retired Rear Admiral and former White House national security communications advisor John Kirby said that the Pentagon has an 'obligation' to explain to the American people how their tax dollars and troops are being used in 'matters of life and death' to keep the country safe. Kirby, who also worked as the Department of Defense press secretary during the Biden administration, spoke out against the Pentagon's move to take press out of the building, saying that it isn't a good for the country or the department itself.

The Defense Department will no longer allow media organizations to keep offices in the Pentagon building after a federal judge ruled that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had improperly revoked credentials for dozens of them.

The Pentagon will close what’s known as the Correspondents’ Corridor after deciding that access to the building in Arlington, Virginia, “cannot be responsibly maintained without the ability to screen credential holders for security risks,” department spokesman Sean Parnell announced on X.

Parnell said that a “new and improved” press work area would be established in an annex facility outside that will be “available when ready.”

The decision upends decades of precedent to which reporters with media credentials maintained work spaces in the Pentagon building — an arrangement that successive defense secretaries in both Republican and Democratic administrations found posed no security risks.

It marked an escalation by Hegseth’s office three days after US District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by the New York Times, which accused the administration of free speech violations.

Last fall, Hegseth demanded that news organizations agree to new limits on their reporting. The Pentagon policy put journalists in danger of being labeled “a security risk” that could’ve led to credentials being pulled if they were found soliciting material that could be considered classified or Controlled Unclassified Information, a ubiquitous label on Defense Department documents.

--------

Watch Bloomberg Radio LIVE on YouTube

Weekdays 7am-6pm ET

Follow us on X

Subscribe to our Podcasts:

Bloomberg Daybreak

Bloomberg Surveillance

Bloomberg Intelligence

Balance of Power

Bloomberg Businessweek

Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app:

Apple CarPlay

Android Auto

Visit our YouTube channels:

Bloomberg Podcasts

Bloomberg Television

Bloomberg Originals