The Secret Dinners of Cold War Journalism

How invitation-only reporting took root in Washington’s press corps.

Last October, Pete Hegseth, known as the secretary of war, attempted to ban all reporters credentialed to the Pentagon who would not sign a pledge to write exactly what the Trump administration wanted. Around forty reporters walked out in protest rather than sign; their access to the building is now the subject of a prolonged legal dispute. Across the administration, we’ve seen officials blatantly play favorites in giving access to sources and information. While the flagrancy is new, controlled access has a history. The idea of certain reporters having privileged access has persisted since World War II, when an informal system of invitation-only information sessions became commonplace in United States military and diplomatic journalism. These meetings were chummy events over dinner, where information shared by officials was either off the record or not for attribution. Reporters at these dinners—all white, all men, all from mainstream news outlets—then got to set the boundaries of what they would (and would not) report to the public in their newspapers.