Pentagon Promises Greater Access For Media

By: Todd Shields The Pentagon's top spokesperson, acknowledging "severe shortcomings" that sharply limited reporting of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, has pledged greater efforts to ease constraints on reporters in the field.The small pool of journalists in Afghanistan with a Marine detachment were barred from virtually all reporting of American casualties from a U.S. bombing raid gone bad on Wednesday. The seven journalists at Camp Rhino, as the Marine base is known, were not allowed to interview survivors of the air strike that killed three soldiers. Nor could reporters talk to the doctors who treated survivors or the pilots who flew them to the base.On Thursday, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke issued a memo to Washington bureau chiefs of major news organizations. "We owe you an apology," Clarke wrote. She pledged more public affairs officers with more seniority would be deployed in Afghanistan "to provide better and faster access to our troops there."We intend to provide maximum media coverage with minimal delay and hassle," Clarke wrote. "That has not always been the case over the last few days."The Washington Post in Friday editions said reporters at Camp Rhino were not allowed to accompany Marines beyond the base and were barred from contact with senior Marine officers until the final hours of their five-day stay. The Marines pledged to improve access, the Post reported.