What I want to know is: why would anyone else bother staying given these new rules?
If you did agree to the terms you'd be limited to publishing the official story (and can't talk to anyone for off-the-record stuff), but you get that for free anyway even if you never show up, so why bother with the extra expense of actually going to the Pentagon?
They'll get exclusive interviews, they'll get to be visible on TV asking questions to important people, they'll get invited on trips where they can film in front of a cool background like a military base or something.
I think it's worth it for anyone that cares about the aesthetics of journalism more than actually reporting anything of value.
Lol you're making it out like the individual reporters make these calls. If anyone stayed it's because their employer believes there's money to be made in staying. The end.
So those news agencies made the decisions to stay in the press corps just as a nice treat for those reporters (nice trips etc)? Is that what you're saying?
Can you first clarify what point you're trying to make in the context of these news agencies staying or going?
Edit: the equivocation about people not being cynical always in their roles in a corporation (a very trite claim to begin with) is extra funny in the context of the literal laws that bind employees of corporations to do exactly what we all already know they are bound to do:
> They must discharge their actions in good faith and in the best interest of the corporation, exercising the care an ordinary person would use under similar circumstances.
Well I don’t live in the US, maybe there are only cynical people there.
Somehow I doubt that though.
Also remember that “best interests of the corporation” doesn’t necessarily mean get money now and lose reputation for a long time.
Some people might interpret it that way, others not. It is all context dependent and there is no guarantee people would be convinced for taking the long view if they can provide justification.
I can buy that. But even then, I've seen plenty of videos where one person is just commenting on another video, so even for those influencers… they can do it without actually showing up.
Edit: I suspect you're right anyway. Typical mind fallacy on my part, as there have been people giving anecdotal stories of DOGE recruiters offering them a pay cut relative to their current roles just for the chance to do that work and get DOGE on their CVs, recruiters very confused that the response was that DOGE would be seen as a negative by future employers.
> why would anyone else bother staying given these new rules?
Imagine being an aspiring blogger/independent journalist. One can only dream of such a possibility as to join the press corp of Pentagon. Of course many will agree to all restrictions and rules for the opportunity.
Your audience chooses you over the press releases because you sound like a human, trim out the boring items and more obvious propaganda, place things in context, reduce jargon/simplify things, also report on other things the pentagon doesn't have press releases about, and throw in some jokes.
You choose to keep at it because you think military stuff is pretty neat; you get paid by the view; getting briefings from the pentagon makes you seem important to yourself and others; and you like being a celebrity (albeit a very minor one)
If you do a good enough job publishing the official government narrative, you might get promoted to cabinet member. Half this cabinet are former teenage youtubers who did a good enough job supporting the regime's first term.
As somebody from former Eastern Block, getting promoted by your own party often times meant that you will be also first to end up in gulag/labor camp/prison as a scape goat when dear leader made wrong decision because you have provided him misleading information.
So many communists ended up imprisoned by other communists because they weren't pure enough or because scape goat was needed.
It means you'll either to go to gulag or you'll become supremely wealthy. Possibly both, first the latter, then the former when you outlive your usefulness.
Which is better than just being a normal person who goes to gulag with no wealth.
You saw it on a smaller scale before. Supporters of the current regime would get paid a lot for a while, then promptly forgotten about. Remember Steven Crowder complaining that 50 million dollars was too little - but where is he now? He's irrelevant. That was before they had gulags.
> Remember Steven Crowder complaining that 50 million dollars was too little - but where is he now? He's irrelevant.
To be clear, his career imploded when he got caught on camera abusing his wife. It's not like he ended up on the wrong side of a power struggle.
And it's worth noting that as of last month he's now the #1 right wing influencer on Youtube. (The reason why he's now in that spot is left as an exercise for the reader.)
It seems like basically the only ones who stayed are OAN; in their case it's probably just a demonstration of loyalty to Dear Leader. As you say, being there under those rules seems otherwise rather pointless.
If you did agree to the terms you'd be limited to publishing the official story (and can't talk to anyone for off-the-record stuff), but you get that for free anyway even if you never show up, so why bother with the extra expense of actually going to the Pentagon?