Arizona figures with extremist connections join new Pentagon media pool

In the vacuum left following the en
masse departure of the Pentagon press corps when most news outlets
wouldn’t agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work,
a new crop of 60 journalists from far-right outlets are replacing them —
including some notable Arizonans with extremist ties. 

“I am honored to announce that I have
received press credentials from the Department of War, and (Life Site
News) has officially joined the Pentagon press corps,” Wade Searle
posted on social media site X. “I look forward to bringing LifeSite
readers news directly from the Pentagon and greatly appreciate this
tremendous step forward into unprecedented transparency.”

Searle, who used to live in Prescott, was an aide to U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, when he was outed by Talking Points Memo in May 2023
as a prominent member of the “groyper” movement. That’s the name for a
collection of young white nationalists who use online trolling tactics
and aim to normalize extreme and racist views by aligning them with
Christianity and so-called “traditional” values.

Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and Hitler-loving racist, is largely seen as the leader of the groyper movement, which has a strong presence in Arizona. When Searle was working with Gosar, the congressman often posted memes steeped in white nationalist and neo-Nazi subculture. Searle was one of several Gosar staffers  active in white nationalist and groyper communities. 

Last year, he was also spotted at events with former TV anchor Kari Lake while she was running for U.S. Senate. 

Earlier this year, Searle, who has no background in journalism, began working as a correspondent for Life Site News, an anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ website that has been described as a “known purveyor of misleading information.” The site has also published conspiracy theories, including boosting widely debunked claims around the COVID-19 vaccine.  

Searle will be joined in the Pentagon
press room by another Arizonan who is a veteran of the far-right
misinformation ecosystem. 

“Excited to join the new Pentagon press corps with (Gateway
Pundit) and help restore honest journalism after agreeing to follow
basic rules… something the legacy media refuses to do!” Jordan Conradson
posted on X. 

Those “basic rules” largely violate standard journalistic practice and ethics.
For instance, publishing information about the U.S. military that isn’t
approved in advance by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth results in
expulsion from the press corps.

Conradson has a long history in the state, and was one of the members of the right-wing media that was given preferential treatment to cover the Arizona Senate’s partisan “audit” of the Maricopa County 2020 election. 

Conradson is a former staffer for
Republican activist Merissa Hamilton’s unsuccessful 2020 campaign for
Phoenix mayor and one-time purveyor of Trump-themed merchandise. 

He also won a lawsuit against Maricopa County
after he was denied credentials to attend press conferences during the
2022 election. Gateway Pundit and Conradson are both known for spreading election misinformation. 

Conradson also appears on RiftTv, run by Elijah Schaffer, who has said that racism “makes you a better friend” and has made a number of antisemitic and misogynistic remarks on his shows and has vowed to hire neo-Nazis. 

And a former Arizona Republican Party communications staffer will also be in the press corps covering the U.S. Department of Defense.

“Proud to announce that I will be a credentialed Pentagon Correspondent for (Red
State) covering defense and national security,” R.C. Maxwell posted on
X. “A reporter’s burden isn’t to undermine or delegitimize the subjects
they cover, but to report the truth to the people. The next generation
is here.”

Maxwell has also worked for groups like Project Veritas, but has no background in journalism. 

RedState, the media organization
Maxwell will be working for, is part of the Salem Media Group, a media
group based out of Texas that focuses on “Christian and Conservative audiences.” Both the founders of Salem Media group serve on the secretive Council for National Policy, which also includes some notable Arizonans. 

Salem was also the distributor and publisher for the debunked film and book 2000 Mules, and apologized to a man who was falsely accused of ballot stuffing and filed a defamation lawsuit. 

RedState is a partisan online news outlet. In 2018, the site published a story questioning if David Hogg was present
at the Parkland school during the deadly shooting. In 2020, a notorious
online troll who had called for the “execution” of Dr. Anthony Fauci
was revealed to be a writer for the site, and in 2021, RedState retracted an article claiming there was “no riot” on January 6.  

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