Obama’s FBI to hire firm to rate ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ stories about the agency
Obama’s FBI to hire firm to rate ‘positive’ and
‘negative’ stories about the agency
Officials mum on need for and use of such info
By Jim McElhatton - The Washington Times - Sunday, August
3, 2014
The FBI is hiring a contractor to grade news stories
about the agency as “positive” “neutral” or “negative,” but the agency won’t
say why officials need the information or what they plan to do with it.
FBI officials wouldn’t even reveal how they will go about
assigning the grades, which were laid out in a recent contract solicitation.
The contract tells potential bidders to “use their judgment” in scoring news
coverage as part of a new “daily news briefing” service the agency is seeking
as part of a contract that could last up to five years.
The move is reminiscent of a similar effort the Obama
administration made to grade media coverage of its response to the BP oil
spill. A separate defense contract rating reporters’ work was scrapped in 2009.
In a statement of work, the agency says its public
affairs office needs a contractor to help monitor “breaking news, editorials,
long-form journalism projects and the larger public conversation about law
enforcement.”
But the lack of clear public methods and goals raises
“troubling questions,” said Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northwestern
University.
“You would certainly worry this could affect access,” he
said. “It might affect the way they’re going to approach your questions,
whether they’re going to be extra careful not to make news if you’re on the
‘bad list.’”
Mr. Kennedy also pointed out that journalism can be
nuanced and complicated, raising questions about what sort of guidance the
agency provides to contractors to fit stories into positive, neutral or
negative boxes.
“If you’re rigorously fair about it and you’re getting
the FBI’s point of view out there, they would probably write that as a negative
story, but it strikes me as neutral,” he said.
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