The liberal leadership of the leftist media, Columbia Journalism Review, cries because of the column they landed on in some Army person's Powerpoint slide deck. The context, that this is just someone's Powerpoint, is conveniently left out of CJR's complaint.
It looks like it's official: the United States Army thinks that American reporters are a threat to national security... Make no mistake, this is a very big deal, and every American citizen, not just reporters and soldiers, needs to understand the implications of the Army's strict new policy...
Except the strict policy in question says no such thing. The journalists from the esteemed CJR assume as much by interpreting their location on a Powerpoint slide. The bigger question for CJR is why shouldn't the military treat them as the enemy? After all, they work with our enemies to obtain videos of our soldiers being killed, they run terrorist messages without vetting through the military first, and they take every opportunity they can to attack our government officials, they've also proven that they'll run nearly any secret they can obtain.
What is the purpose behind the Army's policy? They are very clear:
Up to 80 percent of the adversary’s intelligence needs can be satisfied through access to open sources without risk and at minimum cost.
Who needs an intelligence agency when you have the media on your side? Even so, CJR couldn't resist taking a shot at conservatives.
While snake oil salesmen like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh would surely rank the American press up there with Bin Laden and his homicidal ilk, for the Army to do so is shocking, displaying a deep ignorance on the part of at least some segments of the uniformed military over just what the media's role in a democracy is, while sending the unambiguous message to soldiers and DoD employees that reporters are to be treated as enemies.
Again, even the Powerpoint slide does not "unambiguously" tell soldiers to treat reporters like the enemy. In fact, the word "reporter" doesn't even appear in the new policy, which is about military personnel blogging. But CJR takes the distortion of truth to new levels:
Under the new rules, all Army personnel and DoD contractors are told to keep an eye on reporters and anyone seen speaking to the press, and that they should "consider handling attempts by unauthorized personnel to solicit critical information or sensitive information as a Subversion and Espionage Directed Against the U.S. Army (SAEDA) incident."
No one is told to "keep an eye on reporters and anyone seen speaking to the press", and the quote above is in reference to someone trying to obtain secure encrypted messages containing state secrets.
...it's open season on curious reporters.
If by "curious reporters" you mean liberals with an agenda (like CJR) trying to help the enemy by publishing our secrets while promoting terrorist messages, than I say it's about time.
