The Pentagon secretly hired conservative influencers as special government employees while they publicly posed as independent voices online — and refused to say what any of them actually do. Using taxpayer money to run a partisan influence operation through figures like DataRepublican, Rob Maness and Kurt Schlichter is a brazen abuse of public funds. The lack of disclosure makes a mockery of the administration's claims of unprecedented transparency.
Bringing in retired military veterans with real expertise to serve on a task force reviewing war college curricula is exactly the kind of outside perspective that improves national security. Thomas Anderson joined after publishing substantive policy recommendations, received no pay for his writing and served exclusively on that task force. Framing dutiful, uncompensated public service as a secret propaganda scheme distorts what these people actually did.
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