New Files Prove Pentagon Is Profiling Reporters
New Files Prove Pentagon Is Profiling Reporters
This week, Stars and Stripes revealed that the Pentagon had hired a controversial contractor to screen journalists seeking to embed with U.S. forces. The Rendon Group determines whether reporters’ coverage “was ‘positive,’ ‘negative’ or ‘neutral’ compared to mission objectives.” The Pentagon’s decision was especially shocking in light of Rendon’s sordid past: The group personally set up the Iraqi National Congress and helped install Ahmad Chalabi as leader, whose main goal — “pressure the United States to attack Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein” — Rendon helped facilitate.
Military officials immediately went about furiously refuting the reports. “We have not denied access to anyone because of what may or may not come out of their biography,” said public affairs officer Air Force Capt. Elizabeth Mathias. “It’s so we know with whom we’re working.” Other officials for the Pentagon and Rendon went even further:
“They are not doing that [rating reporters], that’s not been a practice for some time — actually since the creation of U.S. Forces–Afghanistan” in October 2008, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters Monday. “I can tell you that the way in which the Department of Defense evaluates an article is its accuracy. It’s a good article if it’s accurate. It’s a bad article if it’s inaccurate. That’s the only measurement that we use here at the Defense Department.” [...]
The Rendon Group declared in a statement that “the information and analysis we generate is developed … not by ranking of reporters.”
But new files prove otherwise. Stars and Stripes obtained profiles produced by Rendon. They clearly calculate the percentage of “positive” stories written by a reporter and offer ideas not about how to get the reporter to produce more accurate stories, but how to get more “favorable coverage” for the military. Fox News also obtained a slide from a Rendon PowerPoint presentation, where headlines from major newspapers are rated with “a plus sign, a negative sign or a capital ‘N,’ presumably for neutral.” Images from the profiles and PowerPoint:
Stars and Stripes also notes that one of the profiles looked at a reporter’s work as recently as May, indicating that the ranking did not stop in October 2008, as Whitman claimed.
What remains unclear is how extensively this ranking affects whether the military allows certain reporters to embed with troops. At least one reporter, Heath Druzin with Stars and Stripes, was barred for refusing to highlight more good news from the military. Fox News also obtained a Rendon memo that “showed that past coverage is at least taken into account during the process.”
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You can’t blame them for wanting to get a favorable report for the military. It’s just a matter of how far they are willing to go to get it.
I don’t think the current administration will train tanks on buildings that they know houses hostile reporters and firing on the building as the bush admin did.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:41 pmThere is just no bottom to the Bush White House years…no bottom…
August 27th, 2009 at 4:47 pmNew Files Prove Pentagon Is Profiling Reporters
– - The Rendon Group must be thoroughly bamboozled by Stephen Colbert.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:49 pmAmerican Republican propaganda. Never again can they legitimately criticize other countries for pushing propaganda. The Bush legacy continues to demean the U.S. gtlobally & make it in the same boat as its “enemies”. Torture, murder, propaganda, attacks on its own citizens– the U.S. under Bush/Cheney just did it all.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:54 pmI would not be at all surprised to discover that every America is being profiled by the corporate C-street Republican crime syndicate.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:29 pmLevi, speaking of C street, have you read “The Family” by Jeff Sharlat. Scary, very scary indeed.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:39 pmBut aren’t they concerned that the Health care bill will deny our Republican Military health care?
Wow, this propaganda stuff it easy.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:40 pmYou can’t handle the truth!
Or maybe the Pentagon can’t handle the truth.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:41 pmTawdry,
No, I have not read the family but I really don’t need to read it to realize that the Republican Party is part of an organized crime family of some type. I am not sure what to call it exactly, it may not even have a formal name, but I know what I see.
August 27th, 2009 at 5:45 pm6. Tawdry. I’ve started reading it. At this point, the claims are so huge that I’m trying to find independent corroboration that the book is true as opposed to be the reporter’s invention.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:35 pmThe Pentagon Lied. People Died. Not only do they undercount deaths of US Servicemen. They ignore civilians serving as “privatized” military functions which used to would have been filled by soldier. They ignore Iraqi civilian casualties.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:38 pmThis is nothing really new.
Rumsfeld’s Pentagon was doing this sort of profiling quite extensively prior to the Iraq catastrophe.
August 27th, 2009 at 9:59 pmbush-cheney must be stopped, but the DOJ must be strong enough to do it. How do we help the DOJ be strog?
August 27th, 2009 at 10:40 pmI guess traditionally, it’s the police or FBI that issue warrants to high ranking political officials and former high ranking officials of government?? Or is it the DOJ??
August 27th, 2009 at 10:51 pmOK, and which branch now investigates the pentagon??
Congratulations Amanda, the Mission City Lantern, the principal blog covering Silicon Valley politics has just awarded our Diogenes Award, named after the philosopher who sought to find the honest people in every town.
http://missioncitylantern.blogspot.com/2009/08/amanda-terkel-receives-lantern-diogenes.html\
We admire your work.
August 27th, 2009 at 11:37 pmThis sucks beyond belief. How will the American people know if the military is blowing smoke up our arses regarding success or failure? Why do we have a democracy?
August 28th, 2009 at 7:36 amvery thanks for article!
August 31st, 2009 at 11:04 am