Should military members be "banned" from reading certain news reports?

The reality is that those "bannings" are really just a reiteration of standing regulations regarding the unauthorized possession of classified materials. In other words, it's the same as warning somebody that if they find a machine gun laying around and decide to pick it up and take it to the police, they are actually committing a felony they can be charged with, just like the elementary-school kid who picked up a gun to turn it in to his teacher got suspended for violating a zero-tolerance no-weapons policy.

None of which means that I agree with a notion that soldiers *should* be banned from acquiring any publicly available knowledge, just that I recognize the inflexibility and limitations of the law.

I could see warning the troops, but not banning them.

The regulations on what you can reveal or read at what ever clearance level your at are for a reason. But what somebody doesn't know won't hurt them. So if you discover something you should not know or have keep your mouth shut and play dumb.