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** OPINION
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** Live from the Pentagon: conservative radio
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The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One as it flies over Washington on March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

We knew that the conservative media has influence in the Donald Trump administration.

Now it is taking up actual space inside Trump’s government.

Axios’ Sara Fischer reports ([link removed]) that a popular conservative radio show has been invited to broadcast from inside the Pentagon. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, who host a nationally syndicated radio program, will do an upcoming show from the headquarters of the U.S. Defense Department. Travis and Sexton replaced the hugely popular conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Premiere Networks following Limbaugh’s death in 2021.

Fischer noted Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell told the hosts on their podcast, “You all are welcome anytime in the Pentagon press room, or if you want to broadcast from the Pentagon, we will figure out a way to make that (happen).”

Later in that show, Travis said, “There's a good chance we’ll be at the Pentagon. I think there's a good chance we’ll be at the White House.”

In a separate interview, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Travis and Sexton, “We love what you're doing and hopefully we’ll see you soon in the briefing room someday. You’re always welcome.”

Leavitt was referring to how the White House briefing room is opening up spots to allow for what the Trump administration considers “new media,” such as podcasters and influencers. Although it’s clear that it really stands for “Trump-friendly media.”

Inviting a radio show to broadcast from the Pentagon might not be normal, but it’s not as if Travis and Sexton will be in some top-secret war room. (Uh, I don’t think they will.) And, there are media rooms inside the Pentagon. In fact, that has become a source of controversy as well. You might remember that the Defense Department kicked out several news outlets — NPR, The New York Times, NBC News and Politico — from their designated office spaces to make room for HuffPost and several conservative media outlets, including New York Post, One America News Network and Breitbart News. Later, CNN, The Washington Post, The Hill and The War Zone were also booted out of their assigned spots. (Those who lost their designated spaces are not banned from the building; they just have to work from open-area media spaces.)

So inviting a radio show to broadcast from the Pentagon isn’t dangerous and doesn’t put the country at risk, but it does show the Trump administration’s intention to give preferential treatment to media they like. Or, more accurately, to media that likes them.

Fischer wrote, “The three-hour talk show, which is broadcast across hundreds of radio stations nationwide, holds weight within the Trump administration.”


** What’s in a name?
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Speaking of Axios and Trump and the press and all that jazz, I missed this news the other day.

While many news organizations are sticking with the name “Gulf of Mexico,” Axios has decided to go with the Trump-ordered “Gulf of America.”

In a statement on X ([link removed]) last Friday at 7:42 p.m. Eastern (talk about a Friday news dump that worked … on Valentine’s Day, no less!), Axios wrote:

Our top priority at Axios is to provide readers with clinical, fact-based reporting.

Our standard is to use ‘Gulf of America (renamed by U.S. from Gulf of Mexico)’ in our reporting because our audience is mostly U.S.-based compared to other publishers with international audiences.

At the same time, the government should never dictate how any news organization makes editorial decisions. The AP and all news organizations should be free to report as they see fit. This is a bedrock of a free press and durable democracy.

While caving to Trump’s wishes (which includes the White House punishing The Associated Press for not using “Gulf of America”), Axios was at least thoughtful enough to write that the AP and all other news organizations should be “free to report as they see fit.” (That’s sarcasm, in case you couldn’t tell.)


** Trump speaks about it
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At a press conference on Tuesday, Trump was once again asked about banning the AP from certain media events and Air Force One. He reiterated that the punishment would continue until the news service agreed to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

Trump said ([link removed]) , “The Associated Press just refuses to go with what the law is and what has taken place. It's called the Gulf of America now. It’s not called the Gulf of Mexico any longer. I have the right to do it. … We’re going to keep them out until such time that they agree it’s the Gulf of America.”

Trump then, without naming specifics, has said the AP has been “very, very wrong” about the election, him and “other things having to do with Trump and Republicans and conservatives.”

Trump then added, “They’re doing us no favors and I guess I’m doing them no favors. That’s the way life works.”

The AP has released several statements and has pointed out that it has been called the Gulf of Mexico for more than 400 years and that is the name the rest of the world recognizes. The AP put in one statement, “As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.”

On Tuesday, following Trump’s latest comments, AP spokesperson Lauren Easton said in a statement, “This is about the government telling the public and press what words to use and retaliating if they do not follow government orders. The White House has restricted AP’s coverage of presidential events because of how we refer to a location. The Associated Press has provided critical and independent coverage of the White House for over 100 years.”


** Buck is back
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Sports announcer Joe Buck, shown here at an NFL playoff game in Baltimore in January 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Sports play-by-play announcer Joe Buck is getting back in the baseball booth. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reports ([link removed]) that Buck will call an Opening Day game on ESPN between the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers on March 27 — his first national baseball broadcast since calling the World Series in 2021.

But, unfortunately, this does not mean Buck is returning permanently to baseball. This is just a one-off.

Buck used to be the voice for baseball on national TV. He called a record 24 World Series for Fox Sports before giving up baseball duties in 2021. A year later, he left as Fox Sports’ top NFL play-by-play announcer to do the same job for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.”

About his return to baseball, Buck told Marchand, “I feel like the right way to do it is to act like I’ve been doing it for the past four years, even though I haven’t.”


** Media tidbits
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* The “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary special on Sunday drew a whopping 14.8 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, according to Nielsen. The Hollywood Reporter’s Rick Porter noted ([link removed]) , “The show is NBC’s biggest primetime entertainment telecast in five years, since 18.33 million people watched the 2020 Golden Globes. The audience is also the second-largest for any non-sports primetime network show so far in the 2024-25 season, behind only the 15.4 million viewers for the Grammy Awards on CBS earlier in February. Sunday’s show more than tripled the same-day season average for regular episodes of SNL, which draw about 4.9 million viewers.”
* Porter also reports that “Saturday Night Live” will return with a new live show on March 1 with Shane Gillis as host and Tate McRae as musical guest. Lady Gaga will be host and musical guest on March 8.
* Speaking of “SNL,” here’s one more really good retrospective piece. It’s The New York Times’ Dave Itzkoff with “‘S.N.L.’ Weekend Update: 50 Seasons of Mocking News and Minting Stars.” ([link removed])
* Alissa Quart — co-creator of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, a journalism nonprofit devoted to covering inequality — writes for the Columbia Journalism Review, “America Needs a Working-Class Media.” ([link removed])
* The Guardian’s Helen Livingstone with “‘Europe challenges Trump-Putin axis’: what the papers say about Paris summit on Ukraine.” ([link removed])
* The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin with “Hearst CEO to Staff: There’s a Difficult Year Ahead Despite ‘Record’ Revenue in 2024.” ([link removed])
* Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel with “ESPN Executive Editor on Leave After HR Complaints: Sources.” ([link removed])


** Hot type
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* The New York Times’ Sarah Maslin Nir and Zachary Small with “Art Adviser. Friend. Thief.” ([link removed])
* The Los Angeles Times’ Cat Woods with “The Bangles’ memoir retraces the band’s steps of walking like Egyptians, meeting Prince and making history.” ([link removed])


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