A number of prominent American journalists are associated with a think tank funded by the Pentagon and big corporations, according to a report from independent news site Grayzone, which has raised questions about a conflict of interest between the mainstream media and military-intelligence apparatus.

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), an influential foreign policy think tank based in Washington, D.C., has offered residencies to top national security and foreign policy reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post and the Foreign Policy, the report said.

These reporters are "therefore indirectly affiliated with, and likely paid by, the U.S. government and corporations – the very forces that they should be holding accountable," wrote investigative journalist Dan Cohen, who detailed in the Grayzone article how some of the well-known names in the U.S. media have consistently promoted hawkish foreign policy stances that are aligned with the interests of the weapons industry.

Cohen cited examples of residence writers' reporting on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the alleged Russian hacking and most recently, the unfounded "lab leak theory" about the origins of COVID-19, suggesting that the media might have had an overlooked role in the country's "permanent war state."

The report could not confirm whether the CNAS paid these reporters, but alluded to sizable financial rewards for having residencies at the think tank, which has launched the careers of more than a dozen top officials in Democratic administrations.

It is not the first time that the CNAS' relationship with journalists was scrutinized. More than a decade ago, when the U.S. was heavily involved in two foreign wars, an article titled "Coalition of the Shilling," published in March 2011 by The Nation, highlighted the CNAS' role in pushing pro-war propaganda in the media and thus prolonging the conflicts.

The CNAS was founded in 2007 by former Clinton administration officials Michele Flournoy and Kurt Campbell and positioned as centrist. Like most think tanks, it claims to be independent and bipartisan, which appeals to journalists at major U.S. media outlets, The Nation's article noted, while asking: "Nonpartisan think tanks are supporting journalism – but who's supporting the think tanks?"

As shown by its list of supporters, the CNAS is also heavily funded by weapons manufacturers, Pentagon contractors as well as private security firms.

Other supporters of CNAS include oil companies, big banks and right-wing governments – "basically the most destructive forces on the planet," as Cohen put it.