Military Checking Journos’ ‘Slant’ Before Granting Access

Posted on Jul 6, 2006

From drooker.com

Newsweek’s former Baghdad bureau chief says that U.S. military personnel in Iraq have started reviewing journalists’ previous work and their “slant,” or point of view, before granting the reporters the right to embed with units. He said some reporters have been “blacklisted” for writing pieces unfriendly to the military.

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Foreign Policy:

... Rod Nordland, Newsweek’s former Baghdad bureau chief, says journalists in Iraq are subject to a review of their previous work and their “slant” prior to their participation in the U.S. military’s embedded media program.

The military has started censoring many [embedded reporting] arrangements. Before a journalist is allowed to go on an embed now, [the military] check[s] the work you have done previously. They want to know your slant on a story — they use the word slant — what you intend to write, and what you have written from embed trips before. If they don’t like what you have done before, they refuse to take you….

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