Open (military) government.

There is an ongoing dispute about whether DoD is screening reporters who are allowed to embed in Afghanistan.  The allegation is that there is or will be a preference for those who give favorable reports about the military.  Here is the latest (as usual the DoD is at stage one – complete denial, stand-by for correction blaming a miscommunication or low-level employee).

Files prove Pentagon is profiling reporters

Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, August 27, 2009

WASHINGTON — Contrary to the insistence of Pentagon officials this week that they are not rating the work of reporters covering U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Stars and Stripes has obtained documents that prove that reporters’ coverage is being graded as “positive,” “neutral” or “negative.”

Moreover, the documents — recent confidential profiles of the work of individual reporters prepared by a Pentagon contractor — indicate that the ratings are intended to help Pentagon image-makers manipulate the types of stories that reporters produce while they are embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

/tip Military Repoters & Editors.