I wish they gave out Pulitzers for blog posts, because Nathan Hodge deserves one for this. It’s a raised eyebrow at the increasing willingness of think tanks to underwrite national security journalists. Nathan’s judicious conclusion:

In my earlier posts on the defense-intellectual complex, some bloggers seized on the topic to suggest that think tanks were somehow in the pocket of the defense industry. I disagreed: I think the industry’s support to think tanks is usually a hedge, like advertising and lobbying, not some insidious cash-for-opinions scheme. But I do worry about the susceptibility to groupthink. Defense trends come and go — anyone remember network-centric warfare? — and these policy shops are in the business of selling them. I’d hate to see skeptical, public-spirited reporters be accused of fronting for some policy agenda.

As someone who enjoyed a nice glass of red wine at the Center for a New American Security’s holiday party last night — and as someone briefly on the payroll of the Center for American Progress last year — I applaud Nathan for his real talk. We should be constantly asking ourselves if we’re captives, especially as our revenue models change so rapidly. Intellectual honesty is well served by oversensitivity to the crucial issue of our independence.