Jettisoning dead weight
Not too long ago, the privilege of traveling with the defense secretary was the province of the elite Pentagon press corps, a close-knit cadre of beat reporters who cover national security for a living and often have government-provided work space just a short walk and one floor away from the secretary’s office.
But Jim Mattis has proven to be an unconventional Pentagon chief in his dealings with the news media, eschewing customary televised briefings in favor of random informal hallway chats, and rejecting the idea that all the major wire services should accompany him on every trip he takes.
Aides say Mattis was taken aback when, on his first trip abroad to Japan and South Korea in February, more than a dozen news organizations traveled with him on his modified 747.
In April, when Mattis went to the Middle East and Africa, the number of reporters had ballooned to 16.
Since then, at Mattis’ direction, the Pentagon has cut back on the number of traveling press, and made a deliberate effort to expand the mix of news organizations that get a coveted invitation for a seat on the secretary’s plane.
An analysis by the Washington Examiner of the secretary’s travel over the past six months shows the average size of his press contingent has shrunk to just over six, with as many as eight seats allocated to the media when a network television pool crew is included.
If Mattis plans few or no on-camera events, his staff doesn’t invite TV along. And even when the Pentagon has included a TV pool, the number of travelers has been cut from the former standard of three people (cameraperson, audio technician and editorial) to just two (camera and editorial).
That’s a departure from past secretaries, who often took 10 to 12 members of the media on official travel, and always included the three major wire services: The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse.
The trend lately is to pick one or two wire service reporters, but not all three.
One aide to Mattis, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says that has a lot to do with his personal style.
While previous secretaries often had carefully choreographed trips with planned news events in the itinerary, Mattis prefers not to make news, the aide said.