Stars and Stripes reports that the U.S. military is terminating a $1.5 million contract with The Rendon Group, a private firm that produced background profiles of reporters who requested military embed access in Afghanistan.
The firm graded journalists' past work as "positive," "negative" or "neutral." Military officials were presumed to be granting access to those whose profiles indicated they'd yield a future "positive" spin on reports from the battleground. Snip:
The Bagram Regional Contracting Center intends to execute a termination of the Media Analyst contract," belonging to The Rendon Group, said Col. Wayne Shanks, chief of public affairs for International Security Assistance Forces-Afghanistan.
The announcement follows a week of revelations by Stars and Stripes in which military public affairs officers who served in Afghanistan said that as recently as 2008 they had used reporter profiles compiled by The Rendon Group, a private public relations firm in Washington, D.C., to decide whether to grant permission to embed with troops on the battlefield.
Military terminates Rendon contract (Stars and Stripes, via Poynter/Romenesko)
Also: Read what the Rendon Group has to say about the matter: TRG Comment on Recent Reporting About Our Work in Afghanistan.
