The Pentagon’s new press corps — journalists or advocates?
For years, the Department of Defense — one of the most important, scrutinized and reported-on departments in our government — has been covered extensively by reporters from inside the Pentagon. This included journalists from some of the most respected and accomplished news outlets in the business, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN, just to name a few. In fact, CBS’s Eleanor Watson noted, “During D-Day, CBS News radio correspondent Joseph F. McCaffrey reported live from the Pentagon about the strategy and General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s background.”
CBS, like many of the top journalism outlets, has reported from inside the Department of Defense headquarters for more than 60 years.
But those outlets are no longer in the Pentagon after refusing to sign a new press policy that prohibits journalists from accessing or soliciting information that the Defense Department doesn’t make available to them, including even unclassified information.
It’s troubling which news outlets are no longer at the Pentagon.
Just as troubling is which outlets and so-called “journalists” are.
In a statement on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said more than 60 journalists have agreed to the new rules. He wrote that they represent “a broad spectrum of new media outlets and independent journalists.”
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