NPR’s veteran Pentagon reporter warns new media coverage stifles journalism : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2Fcf%2F6e351f0045efa4cb33f35d925782%2Fgettyimages-2221457199.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2Fcf%2F6e351f0045efa4cb33f35d925782%2Fgettyimages-2221457199.jpg" class="img" alt="U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (L), accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine (R), speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon in June in Arlington, Va." fetchpriority="high"/> U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth (L), accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees Air Pressure Gen. Dan Caine (R), speaks throughout a information convention on the Pentagon in June in Arlington, Va. Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs cover caption

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Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs Right this moment, NPR will lose entry to the Pentagon as a result of we is not going to signal an unprecedented Protection Division doc, which warns that journalists might lose their press credentials for "soliciting" even unclassified info from federal staff that has not been formally accepted for launch. That coverage prevents us from doing our job. Signing that doc would make us stenographers parroting press releases, not watchdogs holding authorities officers accountable. No respected information group signed the brand new rule — not mainstream shops like NPR, the Washington Put up, CNN, and the New York Occasions, nor the conservative Washington Occasions or the right-wing Newsmax, run by a famous ally of President Trump. Some 100 resident Pentagon press will likely be barred from the constructing if they do not signal by the tip of enterprise on Tuesday. I've held my Pentagon press cross for 28 years. For many of that point, after I wasn't abroad in fight zones embedding with troops, I walked the halls, speaking to and attending to know officers from all around the globe, at instances visiting them of their places of work.

Did I as a reporter solicit info? In fact. It is known as journalism: discovering out what's actually happening behind the scenes and never accepting wholesale what any authorities or administration says.

I bear in mind how then-Protection Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was ecstatic after the autumn of Baghdad in 2003, insisting that it confirmed the success of the U.S. invasion. Not lengthy after, I bumped into an officer on the Pentagon who instructed me, "No, Tom. It is not successful. Saddam Hussein's supporters are attacking our provide traces. Now, we have now to ship extra troops again to protect them." That was as a result of the USA, at Rumsfeld's insistence, by no means despatched an enough variety of forces to Iraq to start with — a reality one other Military common warned me about, unsolicited — and I reported on, earlier than the conflict even started. As an alternative of toeing the official line, that reporting helped folks perceive what U.S. troops have been actually dealing with. Removed from being successful, the autumn of Baghdad marked the start of an insurgency that stretched on for years.

(Protection Division officers, by the way in which, have already restricted reporter actions within the Pentagon. They closed that individual hallway to reporters a number of months in the past.) In 2009, when the Obama administration introduced a "surge" of State Division staff to Afghanistan to assist the army maintain the peace in restive, far-flung provinces, one Marine officer instructed me months later: "If there was a surge, we by no means noticed it." And when the administration touted an Afghan "authorities in a field," to carry skilled Afghans to the provinces, it proved to be a failure. One common instructed me: "Subsequent time they inform you there is a authorities in a field, test the field." Once more, I reported each tales. That is my job. Through the years, to have the ability to inform the general public and maintain the federal government to account for the wars being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan and the combat in opposition to the Islamic State in Syria, NPR reporters, producers, photographers and I've spent loads of time in fight zones.

We obtained to know troopers and Marines over time whereas embedding with them, speaking with them and getting their perspective, which was typically far totally different from what we have been instructed formally on the Pentagon. Generally officers on the Pentagon would declare progress or success. Out in dusty fight outposts or on patrols, we'd study the reality was way more difficult. I am nonetheless in contact with a lot of these troopers and Marines we met way back. I am having a beer with certainly one of them the tip of this week. They need the reality to get out, too. In June 2016, U.S. officers have been insisting that Afghan troops have been making progress in opposition to the Taliban. I used to be a part of a crew of NPR reporters that embedded with Afghan forces to seek out out if that official line was certainly true, making an attempt to get the bottom reality about what had grow to be America's longest conflict. We have been travelling in an Afghan convoy in western Afghanistan once we have been ambushed. I misplaced two pals and NPR misplaced two courageous colleagues, photographer David Gilkey and translator Zabihullah Tammana, that day. Producer and colleague Monika Evstatieva and I have been in that convoy, took small arms hearth, however have been unhurt. Once we flew by helicopter to carry David and Zabi's our bodies to a close-by American base, the U.S. common there ordered an honor cordon, a tribute that's often reserved for fallen troops, not civilians from the USA and Afghanistan. Out of respect for 2 individuals who'd misplaced their lives of their line of responsibility, doing their jobs documenting the reality as journalists, U.S. troopers lined up within the darkness on both aspect as David and Zabi have been carried off the helicopter. I fought onerous to not weep at some of the first rate, humane, and heartfelt gestures I've ever seen.

In NPR's foyer, there is a memorial to David and Zabi, together with one of many cameras David was carrying that day, scorched and broken. So sure, we have acquired solicited and unsolicited info on all the pieces from failed insurance policies and botched army operations that led to pointless army and civilian deaths, to wasteful authorities tasks that each Democratic and Republicans administrations would relatively keep within the shadows. That is our job. Now, we're barely getting any info in any respect from the Pentagon. Within the 10 months that the Trump administration has been in workplace, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth has given simply two briefings.

And there have been nearly no background briefings, which have been frequent prior to now each time there was army motion anyplace on the planet, as there was with the latest bombings of Iran's nuclear amenities and of boats off the coast of Venezuela alleged to be carrying illicit medication. In earlier administrations, Protection Division officers — together with the acerbic Rumsfeld — would maintain common press briefings, typically twice every week. They knew the American folks deserved to know what was happening.

Thomas Jefferson, no fan of the press himself, as soon as wrote that our liberty will depend on the liberty of the press, "and that can't be restricted with out being misplaced." He knew a free and truthful press is a necessary safeguard to a functioning democracy. So now, how will the American folks discover out what's being carried out on the Pentagon of their title, with their hard-earned tax {dollars}, and extra importantly, the choices that will put their little children in hurt's approach? With no reporters in a position to ask questions, it appears the Pentagon management will proceed to depend on slick social media posts, fastidiously orchestrated brief movies and interviews with partisan commentators and podcasters. Nobody ought to assume that is adequate.