Pentagon’s Little staying, hoping to expand press ops
Pentagon press secretary George Little is staying on as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s spokesman and head of DOD’s massive press operations, Pentagon sources tell the E-Ring – at least, for now. Little’s fate, along with many civilian senior staffers at the Pentagon, remains somewhat in limbo. Hagel began his tenure on Wednesday and the ex-senator ...
Pentagon press secretary George Little is staying on as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s spokesman and head of DOD’s massive press operations, Pentagon sources tell the E-Ring – at least, for now.
Pentagon press secretary George Little is staying on as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s spokesman and head of DOD’s massive press operations, Pentagon sources tell the E-Ring – at least, for now.
Little’s fate, along with many civilian senior staffers at the Pentagon, remains somewhat in limbo. Hagel began his tenure on Wednesday and the ex-senator arrived with few staffers in tow looking for top slots – including a spokesman.
But Little and Hagel appear to have bonded well already, and plans remain on the table to expand the Pentagon press shop under Little’s guidance as head of public affairs. Little, Pentagon sources tell us, wants to begin filling a few empty seats in the Pentagon press shop with one or two more supporting players to create a new model for press engagements. Those assistants, the idea goes, would permit the Pentagon to hold additional media engagements, including occasionally standing at the briefing room podium to take questions from reporters, and to conduct daily press gaggles, which are informal on-the-record but off-camera question and answer sessions.
Panetta’s departure has not caused a mass exodus of loyalists from the building, as did the 2011 retirement of Robert Gates and his cabal of Republican holdover staffers from President George W. Bush’s administration. But there are actual empty offices once occupied by public affairs officials in the E-Ring, some unfilled for months amid the turn over from Geoff Morrell’s years as Gates’ spokesman, to the dual-spokesteam era of Little and Adm. John Kirby, who now heads Navy public affairs. Currently, Little relies heavily on his assistant press secretary, Carl Woog, and Lt. Col. Steve Warren, who oversees the many desk officers that field reporter questions.
Presumed candidates to cross the river to aid DOD include Marie Harf, who ran press operations for Hagel during his confirmation. Harf was a national security spokeswoman for the Obama campaign last year and previously was a CIA spokeswoman under George Little and Panetta. Other candidates could include Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence (ODNI) under James Clapper and a veteran of Pentagon press operations.
Meanwhile, as Hagel’s team sets in place in the coming weeks, Little plans on delivering a speech soon about the state of DOD public affairs, the E-Ring has learned. The date and location remain undetermined.
Kevin Baron is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy, covering defense and military issues in Washington. He is also vice president of the Pentagon Press Association. Baron previously was a national security staff writer for National Journal, covering the "business of war." Prior to that, Baron worked in the resident daily Pentagon press corps as a reporter/photographer for Stars and Stripes. For three years with Stripes, Baron covered the building and traveled overseas extensively with the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, covering official visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, in more than a dozen countries. From 2004 to 2009, Baron was the Boston Globe Washington bureau's investigative projects reporter, covering defense, international affairs, lobbying and other issues. Before that, he muckraked at the Center for Public Integrity. Baron has reported on assignment from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific. He was won two Polk Awards, among other honors. He has a B.A. in international studies from the University of Richmond and M.A. in media and public affairs from George Washington University. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Baron has lived in the Washington area since 1998 and currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, three sons, and the family dog, The Edge. Twitter: @FPBaron
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