The Pentagon has issued new guidance to its senior military and civilian leaders reaffirming Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s commitment that Pentagon leaders should engage more with the press.
The guidance could open the door to more press access to senior military and civilian leaders at the Department of Defense who have kept a relatively low profile in recent years and to more press briefings at the Pentagon.
“Based on direction from Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper for department leaders to more actively engage with the public, I strongly encourage you, as the foremost experts in your area of responsibility to seek out engagement on policies and operations in your domains through formal and informal channels,” wrote Jonathan Hoffman, the assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, in a memo sent Friday to the Pentagon’s senior military and civilian leaders.
Esper’s memo is similar in tone to one issued by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in October, 2017 where he told senior leaders to engage with the press and communicate their missions to the public. Mattis often held press conferences with reporters at the Pentagon, but they were almost always off camera and hardly ever in the Pentagon Press Briefing Room. It was believed by many that Mattis chose to not go into the briefing room to reduce the chances that his televised comments might be seen by President Trump.
The new guidance issued Friday was “a reflection of the secretary’s commitment to engage with the press which he has expressed in his on the record engagements”, Hoffman told ABC News.
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