The U.S. Defense Department is requiring journalists to agree to use only pre-approved information about the military or lose their credentials to cover the Pentagon, the latest White House effort to shape media reporting.
The new rule — part of an updated press credentialing process presented to news organizations this week — came in a memo by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. The memo said that journalists will be required to sign the 10-page form as a condition of receiving and holding a press pass to report on the Defense Department.
Anyone who signs agrees that Pentagon information "must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.”
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