A Kind Word For Inside Washington Publishers

I discovered after writing my previous posting today that the Army didn’t announce termination of the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile on Tuesday. The news was broken by Inside Washington Publishers, also known as insidedefense.com, which reported that the Army and Navy are recommending termination — a recommendation that may or may not be accepted by defense secretary Leon Panetta’s staff. Inside Washington gets credit for alerting the rest of us to the news.

If you’re wondering why this correction required a separate posting, it’s because I rely heavily on Inside Washington for my understanding of what’s going on, and I didn’t want to join the legion of scribes who regularly “borrow” from them without giving proper credit. There’s only a handful of defense trade publications that really matter, like Defense News and Aviation Week. But Defense News speaks to a broad global audience and AvWeek is mostly about things with wings, both military and commercial. The outlet that most consistently speaks to the interests of Washington insiders is, appropriately enough, Inside Washington Publishers. It is a unique resource that seldom gets the credit it deserves for driving the defense debate.

Since I have occasionally criticized Inside Washington in the past for things I didn’t like (most of which turned out nonetheless to be true), I thought I should take a moment to admit how indebted I am to their coverage. I also should add a word of congratulations to star reporter Jason Sherman, who managed to write the story in question just days after his wife gave birth. He’s a gifted journalist.