Ask Donald Rumsfeld about access

As I read the articles by Cunningham and McGill I was particularly looking for solutions to the problem of maintaining access when those you write about consider your work to be biased and of a nature that it reflects negatively on them, on their business or on the institution.
I didn't find what I wanted to read.

One of the three government institutions that I would suggest has the greatest impact on our lives is that of the Department of Defense. Holding media credentials there is is generally a measure of one's success as a journalist. Yet, it was those that held those credentials that let us down at the start of this "Global War on Terrorism."

Tell me where Mr. Cunningham or Mr. McGill tells us how a journalist that would have done his or her job at Pentagon briefings during the build-up to the war would have retained their access by agressively taking on Donald Rumsfeld. The flippant answers that went unchallenged by seasoned reporters all because concern for their access to the Pentagon briefing room. Rumsfeld owned the room. He decided which questions he would give credence to, which he would answer seriously, and which he would use to marginalize a journalist.

Eric Black gives serious reflection to how he could have or should have reported on Bachman's mean streak. Let's now hear the same thoughtful reflection by those correspondents in the Pentagon briefing room that marginalized their impact by showing clips that featured Rumsfeld taking on the media as humor as opposed to a portrayal of a senior government that wouldn't answer the question.

Yes, it was all about access to be able to get in that briefing room for the opportunity to even ask a question. But what good does it serve if the questions and follow-ups (assuming there are some) aren't seriously answered or pursued..