Dr. Larry Burriss: Trump Administration Reshuffles Pentagon Media Spaces Amid Controversy

Editor’s Note: Reflections on Free Expression

As an MTSU media student who has had the privilege of learning from Dr. Larry Burris about the profound importance of the First Amendment, I found myself marveling at the foresight and wisdom of our Founding Fathers in creating the U.S. Constitution. Dr. Burris always emphasized that the Constitution isn’t just a document—it’s a living, breathing guarantee of our fundamental right to free expression and a free press.

The First Amendment isn’t a suggestion; it’s a constitutional safeguard designed precisely to prevent the kind of administrative maneuvering we’re witnessing. Our Founding Fathers understood that a free press serves as a critical check on governmental power, ensuring transparency and holding those in authority accountable.

What the current administration fails to understand is that true journalism cannot be contained, redirected, or silenced by physical relocations or strategic positioning. The spirit of investigative reporting—which Dr. Burris instilled in us—is about persistence, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to truth.

The beauty of our constitutional system is its resilience. As we learned in class, information will always find its way. Whether through leaks, alternative sources, or the sheer determination of committed journalists, the truth has a way of emerging—regardless of how tightly power tries to control the narrative.

Pentagon Access
02/10/2025

Back during World War II, CBS News correspondent Edward R. Murrow went on a bombing raid over Berlin. Two reporters on the same raid were lost, and in tribute Murrow said,

“There is something of a tradition amongst reporters, that those who are prevented by circumstances from filing their stories will be covered by their colleagues.”
In other words, when reporters today are unable to file their stories, for whatever reason, competitors will step up and file their stories for them.
What this also means is it impossible to prevent the news, good or bad, from getting out.
So, for example, last week Pentagon officials told four news outlets, “The New York Times,” NBC, PBS and Politico, they would be vacating their office space for four new occupants, all of which, by coincidence no doubt, are media favorable to the Trump administration.
In case you are counting, those four news operations are a newspaper, radio, television and Internet outlet.
None of the media, by the way, are being barred from the Pentagon. Rather, they involve reporting and production spaces that make it easier for reporters to do their jobs.
The four outlets will still be able to write their stories, but it will be harder, and they will no longer have the easy access on-site reporters have.
From past experience I can also tell you, it is something of an ego-boost to have special access to places most people can’t visit. So I bet part of the outcry against the moves is a loss of perceived importance, prestige and status.
And while administration officials say the moves are not retaliation and retribution, the all-important optics say otherwise.
But let’s be very clear here: these forced moves will not slow down the news coming from the Pentagon or the White House. Reporters, favored or not, will still gather their stories and report to the American people.

And even if the briefing rooms are completely filled with pro-administration reporters, those on the outside will simply use those stories as a springboard to search out alternative facts and sources.
After all, it’s often said Washington leaks like a sieve. So to paraphrase one of my favorite philosophers, Princess Leia Organa, the more officials tighten their grip, the more news will slip through their fingers.
I’m Larry Burriss.