The Pentagon Press Chamber has not changed much since it started covering the US military at the height of America’s war in Iraq.
When I saw her for the first time, I believed that it was very similar to the total newspapers offices: a large group of snacks, interviews, a Satalian -Korean map at night, and bright lights in the Democratic South against a northern dictatorship that has decreased permanently in the dark.
The big difference, of course, was experienced correspondents. In the Pentagon Press Corps, there are always a few beginners as you were, but we were surrounded by some of the best journalists in this field – the magician and beaches, but difficult and dug in the privacy and generalities of the American army.
Why did we write this
The United States has maintained the most open Ministry of Defense in the world for reporters, and our military correspondent writes. The recent changes to the Pentagon Press Corps, the relationship between real estate and the fourth defense forces shakes.
I am still covering the defense, but I am now reporting global security as well, from Brussels. The timing of my last trip to Washington came a few days after the office of Defense Minister Beit Higseth announced that PRENTAGON Press Corps NBC, New York Times and NPR must “rotate” from their office space for a long time to make way for Breitbart News and American News Network, outlets It was an audio in support of President Donald Trump. (HuffPost, which The left tendsIt is also provided with new office space.)
When the PRENTAGON PRESS Association protested the step of Minister Higseth, the administration doubled the number of outlets “spinning” from its spaces to include CNN, Politico and Washington Post. The deadline for their departure is Friday.
In my report on the defense and armies departments around the world – from the Pentagon to Iraq, Afghanistan and the NATO headquarters – I saw the battlefields and the grass war. But what is happening now in the Pentagon is the first.
How to report in the Pentagon
Be amateurs when I arrived in 2006, I thought the Pentagon would be an opposition place – we wanted facts, and defense officials did not want to abandon them. There is a lot, but I also met many people who are happy to shoot at the breeze with correspondents – to rotate, for sure, but also to share news and learning.
More than one speaker officially told me, early in his term, that they learned more than veteran journalists who cover the rhythm more than they transferred in terms of politics when they started the mission.
The Press Corporation largely informs it by roaming in the Pentagon halls. It is the most open Ministry of Defense in the world – rarely in that while there are classified corridors, accredited journalists can go to almost anywhere else in the building, fall by offices to chat or go to the dining hall to Starbucks.
The general work of the press occurs in the briefing room. Questions and answers sessions are broadcast with defense officials on the Pentagon channel via the Internet and networks when there is urgent news. Through the traditions, the Associated Press asks the first question, then the rest of us will turn, follow our inquiries or follow up the colleagues’ questions when they appear to be evading or answers to the platform.
In this way, the Press Corps works as one team. He also travels together, with defense secretaries and military officials on trips around the world. It is a narrow collection.
Thus, the Pentagon’s correspondents’ reaction was to alert to the announcement earlier this month the new annual “rotation program”.
In a memorandum determining the details, critics, assistant Minister Higseth, John Ullent, hits a tone, at the intersection of generous care and veiled threat. It builds that the Pentagon space – on loan from the Minister of Defense, and confirms – is a privilege that the press has the pleasure of Mr. Higseth. The phrase “loan” and “enjoyment” are used several times in the brief memorandum.
In some cases, Mr. Ullotte writes for decades, the outlets that have abandoned the offices that they occupied, in some cases for decades, will continue to cover and look at travel. This, as he says, “stands as a tribute to the importance that the administration has long put in to inform the public of the American army and everything it does to show peace through strength. He also honors many correspondents who put their lives on the line, and in many cases they died, while covering the best Our battle.
The protest data issued by the news organizations in the wake of the memo indicate that its presence in the building thanks to the United States constitution, with the law of rights that guarantee freedom of expression, and not because of the interest of any specific defense official or the president.
Press Parties
However, there is an increasing concern that the Ministry of Defense note is a growing style of the administration’s efforts to restrict the press and make it more subject. The White House announced last week, for example, that the Associated Press will prevent the events of the oval or flying offices with the president at Air Force One to use the new name chosen by President Trump to the Gulf of Mexico – Bay of America. (News Agency, which produces stories published by many other media, He said It will continue to use the term Gulf of Mexico, with a recognition of the name change.)
The National Press Club wrote in a statement last week, that the punishment of a news group “refuses to correspond to the language imposed by the government is more than just an attack on one correspondent or an executive-it is an attack on the first amendment.” “The role of the press is not to take orders from the government, but to hold the government accountable.”
American forces, leaders and defense officials covered by journalists, although the great people and leaders often are not always “our best”, as Mr. Ullewite said, due to bad decisions, more category, or absence, or service cover Self -OPS, for example, and not limited to scenarios.
However, they have billions of dollars in taxi dollars at their disposal-the Pentagon spends more than any other country, which represents 40 % of the total military spending in the world-a license in which the state is killed. Through the press, Americans can track money and power at work here – and the life of the forces that are at stake to support American policies.
Job defense officials say the new administration has never asked whether there is enough space in the press room to accommodate more journalists before formulating the memo. They add, there is a space for all the ports they cite without taking out any of them.
It is concerned that the new policy reaches a personal attack on journalists who broke news about the troubled Mr. Higseth marriage, the allegation of rape, and his conflicts with alcohol before his confirmation sessions.
Forces protect freedom of expression
Many in the army find the latest annoying developments as journalists do. As when the American war was covered in Iraq, some forces are excited to meet a correspondent; Others are guarded and they do not want anything with us. But they take the right to fight to defend the constitution, Which includes freedom of the press.
Anna Mulrin Group/Christian flag monitoring
In the ineffective camp, the army’s infantry commander was tolerant with my presence, but he did not want me to travel with him during the operations.
As a result, when Humve had a bomb on the side of the road, I was not with this driver but rather in the car directly behind it. The driver was seriously injured, and his colleagues sold him in our car. When the convoy prepared to rush to the medical care base, they assembled his head, comfortable while distorting and receiving.
After the soldier was handed over to the American military paramedics awaiting his arrival, our driver, a private young man, was crying, convinced of the pressure of the attack that he did not lead quickly enough. His colleagues embraced him and then carried his cheeks in their hands, forcing him to look at their eyes so that they could to a base after this bombing.
When the leader called his forces together later that evening, he told me to leave before he shared an update. The forces beside me, gently, needed. They also indicated that I was in the bombing as well, nodded in the direction of vomiting the soldier on my clothes. I stayed. We have learned together that the soldier had died.
Today, there is an addition to the Pentagon Press Room, a sign of the door that is simply read, #notthenemy.
It was recorded there by a reporter, most likely – I did not ask around him – but perhaps by a supporter believes that although we stand far, we are part of the place and defending freedoms, like anyone else in these halls.
Editor’s note: This story, which was originally published on February 21, was updated to run HuffPost in the press rotation program.
