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Documents called the bluff of military's reporter profiling

Kudos to the Stars and Stripes for showing through government records that the military has been rating the tenor of reporters' news coverage and denying access based on the journalists' perceived negativity (see Stars and Stripes coverage).

For some time the military denied that its hired PR firm rated reporters as either negative, neutral or positive. But documents leaked to the paper showed otherwise. More so, the firm analyzed how easily manipulated reporters are, and provided suggestions for how to do so. One reporter's coverage was deemed "subjective" and steering him toward covering "the positive work of a successful operation" could "result in favorable coverage."

The military fired the firm, but I doubt this is the end of the practice. The newspaper has put in a formal FOIA request for all the documents, so we'll see what else pops up. I wonder what other agencies are doing the same thing?

Published Wednesday, September 02, 2009 11:33 AM by DavidCuillier

Comments

# re: Documents called the bluff of military's reporter profiling

Wednesday, September 02, 2009 2:39 PM by DonaldMeyers
What makes this story even better is the fact that the paper breaking this story has been Stars and Stripes, the military's own paper. One would think that it would have been the one to buy the Pentagon line, but they are upholding the SPJ ethics code tenet to "Act Independently."
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