Back with a bang
For those of you wondering why I haven’t updated in what seems like forever – my apologies. I had a family emergency to attend to, which required 13 hours in a car, 6 hours in a plane and 8 more hours in an airport. But alas, I have returned and with juicy news.
The US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported yesterday that potential embedded journalists are screened before they are allowed to deploy with troops to Afghanistan. The reason? “U.S. public affairs officials in Afghanistan acknowledged to Stars and Stripes that any reporter seeking to embed with U.S. forces is subject to a background profile…” which “examines individual reporters’ recent work and determines whether the coverage was “positive,” “negative” or “neutral” compared to mission objectives, according to Rendon officials.”
The Pentagon vehemently denies this with Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman saying, “There is no policy that stipulates in any way that embedding should be based in any way on a person’s work.”
I will be following the updates on this story, as it could greatly affect the information that Americans (and those all over the world) are receiving from embedded journalists in Afghanistan.
Source: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64348
