How can a media pundit offer informed opinions about US foreign policy without access to Top Secret documents?

Question

How can a media pundit offer informed opinions about US foreign policy without access to Top Secret documents?

Answer 1

Probably the same way that most people offer opinions on subjects they know nothing, or very little about all the time.

Answer 2

Well, in some cases, the person discreetly talks to people who have seen such documents. That helps. And a little experience and background concerning a particular situation doesn't hurt either. So reporters do the best they can.

Besides, as one reporter once said, "I don't have to die to write an obituary."