"The Pentagon may make it official policy to include journalists with U.S. military units headed for battle," the Associated Press's Matt Kelley reports. During a panel discussion on media coverage of the Iraq war [3], outgoing Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke said that Pentagon officials were pleased with the results of embedding journalists with troops. Clarke said she would like to see more reporters accompany U.S. troops in the future, AP reports. "Transparency works," Clarke said. "The good news gets out. The bad news gets dealt with quickly."
Clarke also defended the military's handling of Pfc. Jessica Lynch's capture and rescue, denying military officials were the source of any inaccurate or overblown stories.
"We were downplaying it," Clarke said. "We weren't hyping it. We weren't spinning it. We don't do that."