Much Ado About Nothing? The Military and the Press

It has recently been discovered that the US military has been tracking the media. Tom Ricks suggests that this may not be as problematic as it sounds, as he has seen the files the military has on him, and actually they were useful as feedback--that he could be more persistent!!

Of course, Ricks is perhaps a bit friendlier to the military than other journalists, having a good relationship with General Petraeus and frequently blaming the civilians for messing up the military's plans (Fiasco, anyone?).

Of course, it does remind me of a conversation I had during my first month in the Pentagon:

Me: So, is the State Department the enemy?
Colonel x: No, the Washington Post is our enemy.

Of course, in reality, during the early aughts (2001-2006 or so), the enemy of the military was really the civilians in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, micro-managing them into mission failure.

Anyway, we need to keep in mind that the journalists do have pretty good access, as I often saw the CBS Pentagon expert wandering the halls of the building by himself--he had a badge that allowed him to that, whereas we had to provide escorts to most other visitors. Of course, having that badge just gets you into the halls, not in the offices.