Phoenix, Your Tax-Dollars and the New “Pentagon Press” Featuring Extremists

It broke quietly on October 23, 2025, that the Pentagon’s traditional press corps, which exited en-mass over new restrictions, has been replaced by roughly 60 journalists from far-right outlets. Among them are a few names with Arizona roots and connections to extremist organizations. 

Names tied to Arizona emerged prominently:

• Wade Searle, formerly of Prescott, Arizona, and once an aide to Representative Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), was reported to be a “prominent member” of the so-called “groyper” movement, described as a white-nationalist online current. Searle has since been writing for the outlet LifeSite News, characterized by fact-checkers as prone to misleading information.

• Jordan Conradson, a former Arizona Republican Party communications staffer, has been associated with election-misinformation outlets and announced his credentialing via Gateway Pundit.

• R.C. Maxwell, previously a communications operative within the Arizona GOP, will cover national-security matters from the Pentagon on behalf of RedState.

• Arizona’s Turning Point USA will also have a presence in the press corps at the Pentagon.

Think about what being in the Pentagon media pool means: walking into press briefings, asking questions, representing that pool and that body of media. If the representative has extremist connections, yes, that matters. Especially when the institutions claim to enforce standards. The Pentagon’s re-shaping of its press-access pool invites a re-examination of how we guard the integrity of military oversight and media independence. For those of us guided by conservative principles of responsible governance and secure national defence, ensuring that access does not come at the cost of accountability merits serious attention. When you tie extremist actors into official channels, you extend their legitimacy, whether you like it or not.