Covering the Pentagon, from Sy Hersh to Laura Loomer

66 snips

Dec 5, 2025

Guest

Cam Higby

Anna Merlan, a Senior reporter at Mother Jones, explores the rise of a new Pentagon press corps filled with right-wing influencers and conspiracy theorists, such as Kingsley Wilson and Laura Loomer. Dan Lamothe from the Washington Post shares insights on the Pentagon's restrictive press policies and discusses the fallout of covering military actions like strikes in the Caribbean. Cam Higby, a member of the new press corps, adds his perspective on accessing military information while challenging traditional journalistic boundaries.

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INSIGHT

Shrinking Physical Access Harms Reporting

Pentagon physical access shrank from roughly 70% to about 5–10% of the building for reporters over the year.
That reduction hindered informal reporting and relationship-building that produce accountability journalism.

ADVICE

Prioritize Relationships And Tradecraft

Build relationships through informal contact to get context and cooperation on contentious stories.
Prioritize trust and tradecraft to protect sources when formal access is limited.

INSIGHT

Vague Rules That Chill Newsgathering

The new press-agreement would bar soliciting broadly defined 'defense information' and could be arbitrarily enforced.
Dan saw this as ethically problematic because it chills routine newsgathering and source protection.

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The New York Times has sued the Pentagon for restricting access to journalists. On this week’s On the Media, meet the new cast of right wing influencers and conspiracy theorists replacing the press corps in the Pentagon. Plus, a new documentary examines the life and work of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.

[01:00] Host Micah Loewinger sits down with Dan Lamothe, who covers the US military and Pentagon for the Washington Post, to talk about the Trump administration’s shifting narrative around a second strike that killed two survivors on a boat in the Caribbean. Lamothe used to have a desk in the Pentagon as part of the press corps, but left alongside reporters from major news outlets after they refused to sign onto stringent new rules on how they could do their reporting.

[16:58] Micah talks with Anna Merlan, senior reporter at Mother Jones, about the cast of right wing influencers and conspiracists now staffing the Pentagon press corps. Plus, Micah interviews Cam Higby, a member of the new press corps, about why he agreed to the Pentagon’s restrictions on access.

[30:15] Micah spoke to another of the new Pentagon press corps; Cam Higby, who reports for his independent online outlet Fearless Media. He has over 750,000 followers on TikTok and over 400,000 on Instagram.

[43:18] Micah speaks with Laura Poitras, a journalist and filmmaker whose past works include CitizenFour, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, and Risk, to discuss her newest documentary. Poitras shares the process of making Cover-Up, coming soon to Netflix, which chronicles the life of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Poitras describes Hersh's ferocious drive to uncover government wrongdoing, and what today’s press corps can learn from him.