Washington: The Pentagon has hired a private firm to investigate reporters seeking to embed with US troops in Afghanistan in order to find out how best to influence their coverage, a report said.
Stars and Stripes, a military newspaper partly funded by the Pentagon but editorially independent, yesterday said private contractors had been brought in by the US Defence Department to evaluate journalists.
The Rendon Group rates reporters` previous work as "positive," "negative" or "neutral," and offers advice on how their coverage might be influenced, the report said.
One file on a journalist seen by Stars and Stripes describes his coverage as "neutral to positive," but adds that negative stories "could possibly be neutralised" if he were given quotes from military officials.
Another file describes a television reporter as taking a "subjective angle”, but advises that steering him towards "the positive work of a successful operation" could "result in favourable coverage."
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman insisted that the Defence Department does not rate journalists based on the favourability of their coverage.
The report comes as Washington worries about the increasing unpopularity of the war in Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban is inflicting rising casualties on US and coalition troops.
Bureau Report
