This rising dissatisfaction with press coverage of the 
    military doesn’t mean, however, that the public wants the 
    press to become a propaganda outlet for the Pentagon. A 
    large majority consistently agrees that “neutral” 
    coverage of the war is better than coverage that is 
    explicitly “pro-American,” but the public simply doesn’t 
    think it is getting neutral coverage. Public perceptions 
    of political bias in the press are up to 60 percent from 
    53 percent in 2003, and 72 percent think the 
    press “favors one side in politics.” 

    These numbers combined with declining favorability 
    ratings for all news media suggest that it is time for a 
    reorientation in the way the press covers the military. 
    This study suggests that almost half of the population 
    thinks that press coverage of the military — suspicious, 
    cynical, focused on the negative — is weakening the 
    nation’s defenses. In order to realign themselves with 
    their audiences’ priorities, the news media must start 
    treating critics of the military with the same skepticism 
    they apply to Pentagon spokesmen.

    The aim, he wrote, is "to stretch beyond our 
    predominantly urban, culturally liberal orientation, 
    to cover the full range of our national conversation." 

    The point, Keller wrote, "is not that we should begin 
    recruiting reporters and editors for their political 
    outlook; it is part of our professional code that we keep 
    our political views out of the paper. The point is that 
    we want a range of experience. We have a recruiting 
    committee that tracks promising outside candidates, and 
    that committee has already begun to consider ways to 
    enrich the variety of backgrounds of our reporters and 
    editors.

    "First and foremost we hire the best reporters, editors, 
    photographers and artists in the business. But we will 
    make an extra effort to focus on diversity of religious 
    upbringing and military experience, of region and class."