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Pentagon Takes Fire Over Blog Briefings

Last fall, the liberal blog Think Progress took the Pentagon to task for giving only Defense Department-friendly bloggers access to regular blog briefings. The Pentagon responded by agreeing to let Think Progress, and presumably other bloggers likely to be critical of defense policies, to future roundtables.

Al Kamen of The Washington Post apparently doesn't read Think Progress, though, because today he ridiculed the Pentagon's new media chief for how the blog briefings are organized. Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation didn't take Kamen's outburst lightly.

Kamen suggests that the Pentagon is limiting these calls to the "right bloggers." That's absolutely untrue. When I saw Holt speak at Blog World in Las Vegas last year, he made a point of stating that he reached out to bloggers of all political persuasions as well as those who cover military issues exclusively. Anyone is welcome to take part on the calls, but liberal bloggers have never expressed any interest. (And why would they when it's so easy pontificate rather than report what’s actually happening.)

In my opinion, Kamen's piece is yet another example of an elite, mainstream journalist expressing jealously about the emerging role of bloggers in the information age. His cushy job at the Post could soon be at risk with the more Americans turning to blogs for their news and information rather than page A17 of the newspaper.

Posted by Danny | 01:06 PM

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