Gates clamps down on military interviews

Military officials now have to receive Pentagon clearance for interviews and other media contacts.

Defense
Secretary Robert Gates issued the new order on Friday, just days after
President Barack Obama accepted the resignation of Gen. Stan
McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, because of inflammatory
comments published in a Rolling Stone article. 

The New York Times first reported on Gates’ order and memo issued to military and civilian personnel worldwide.

In the memo, Gates requires top-level Pentagon and military leaders
to notify the office of the Defense Department’s assistant secretary
for public affairs “prior to interviews or any other means of media and
public engagement with possible national or international
implications,” according to the New York Times.

“I am concerned that the department has grown lax in how we engage
with the media, often in contravention of established rules and
procedures,” Gates wrote in the memo.

The tightening of the media rules has been in the works before the McChrystal-Rolling Stone controversy.