Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin received a First Amendment Award at the RTDNA’s annual dinner and spoke about leaving the Pentagon press corps last year.
In her acceptance speech, Griffin — who has spent the past 30 years with the network, 18 working the national security beat — shared the reasoning behind joining the walkout of other Pentagon reporters that took place on October 15th.
“We walked out and protested the strict reporting guidelines and restrictions imposed by the new Pentagon leadership,” Griffin said. “They had already kicked out some reporters from CNN, Washington Post, NBC, New York Times, and Politico, out of those workplaces and they had severely curtailed already our movements within the building, even threatening our sources who normally were authorized to speak to the press, in fact encouraged to. They subjected them to polygraphs. It had a real chilling effect on all of us and on our sources.”
Griffin added that she remains worried about the way the Defense Department continues to be covered, the actions taken by the department’s leadership, and what it means for national security coverage in the future.
“I’m concerned that during this time of war, that news organizations, which have reported uninterrupted from inside the Pentagon since 1947, are no longer given that access,” Griffin said. “I’m very grateful to my bosses at FOX News, Jay Wallace, Brian Boughton, Kim Rosenberg, and Doug Rohrbeck, who are here with me tonight. They did not hesitate to stand united with the rest of the news organizations and fight for press access. They continue to do so every day. Tonight, I accept this award on behalf of all of my colleagues who make up the Pentagon Press Corps. Our work continues. We won’t stop.”
