Pentagon Commotion

A reader tipped us off to a brouhaha at the Pentagon yesterday. Apparently, there was in fact a squabble when Col. Gary Keck tried to cancel the Monday morning gaggle, stating that a big PAO meeting was overshadowing it.

When the gaggle did take place an hour later, the chatter was surrounding the Pentagon’s PR expansion. The Pentagon press office is adding to its numbers so that they can have a rapid response team in order to get their message out faster and get more officials on television.

There is some fear that the Department of Defense press office is becoming a partisan messenger in arguments rather than the media’s source for facts. With the ever present undercurrent of hostility from the political appointees in the Pentagon toward Washington media, could this be their way of lashing out?

Stay tuned to see who the new staff is, what their roles are, and how many are political appointees etc., and of course what kind of results they get.

As for the state of the gaggles — it seems Pentagon officials are less than enthusiastic on keeping it in place.

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