“Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media. We look forward to beginning a fresh relationship with members of the new Pentagon press corps.”
So wrote Sean Parnell, spokesman for the recently rechristened U.S. Department of War, when he announced in October the installation of a new Pentagon press corps, made up of reporters and outlets that had agreed to the Pentagon’s new rules for coverage. The new rules represented such a drastic infringement on the ways journalists do their jobs that even conservative outlets like Fox News Channel and Newsmax refused to sign on and chose to quit the building instead. The New York Times, on Dec. 4, sued to halt their enforcement.
But many outlets from the far right were clearly unfazed. Some 60 reporters representing them signed on. And among them St. Louis’s very own Gateway Pundit, the conspiracy-minded website owned and operated by Jim Hoft…