Imagine being an aspiring blogger/independent journalist. One can only dream of such a possibility as to join the press corp of Pentagon. Of course many will agree to all restrictions and rules for the opportunity.
You choose to keep at it because you think military stuff is pretty neat; you get paid by the view; getting briefings from the pentagon makes you seem important to yourself and others; and you like being a celebrity (albeit a very minor one)
So many communists ended up imprisoned by other communists because they weren't pure enough or because scape goat was needed.
Which is better than just being a normal person who goes to gulag with no wealth.
You saw it on a smaller scale before. Supporters of the current regime would get paid a lot for a while, then promptly forgotten about. Remember Steven Crowder complaining that 50 million dollars was too little - but where is he now? He's irrelevant. That was before they had gulags.
To be clear, his career imploded when he got caught on camera abusing his wife. It's not like he ended up on the wrong side of a power struggle.
And it's worth noting that as of last month he's now the #1 right wing influencer on Youtube. (The reason why he's now in that spot is left as an exercise for the reader.)
These YouTube kids...