Letters to the Editor: Pentagon’s media restrictions demonstrate exactly why we need a free press

To the editor : The reason we need a free press is so it can report on government and business failures as well as their achievements. The Defense Department’s policy that only information authorized by the department can be reported by the media is ridiculous ( “‘Without precedent’: Virtually all news outlets reject restrictive Pentagon press policy,” Oct. 14).

Just about every governmental agency in the nation and every corporation would no doubt love to set this type of policy in place: “Print and broadcast only what we give you, do not dig out anything that makes us look bad.”

Of course, the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin exerted control over the press, as did Germany’s Adol f Hitler . Does President Trump want to fit this mold?

Martin A. Brower, Corona del Mar