I am a little annoyed by the breathless attention given to Defense Secretary Austin for his “failure” to release a notice of his absence due to illness. Yes, he is the SecDef after all and he is an important player in our national defense establishment and US foreign policy. But if any organization has an extensive chain of command it is the Defense Department. His position can be covered by his direct-reports while he is out. To say that the Pentagon depends on a single person every moment of the day for critical decisions only he personally can make is to say that SecDef represents a single-point failure for the entire military apparatus of the US. This is absurd. 

Could it be that the news media are hyperventilating over this? Are they so daft as to believe that this was some kind of close call? It seems likely that in the Pentagon’s PR office handbook on protocol there is a paragraph on notifications like this. Well, they muffed it. Some poor fool will get their tit in a wringer over this. Big Freaking Deal. Move on.

I imagine that in 6 AM staff meetings in newsrooms across the country, staffers buzzing on 4 cups of Folgers coffee were trying to come up with fresh news “stories”. In some eager beaver’s mind they imagined that a breach of protocol at the Pentagon involving SecDef was going to attract attention. And if one broadcaster does it, they all have to. Are you listening NPR? I think some 4^th estate swimmers dove into the pool and scraped their noses on the bottom.