The Pentagon has been compiling secret background profiles of journalists seeking to embed with the military, the newspaper Stars & Stripes reported last month.

Stars & Stripes, a Washington, D.C.-based paper published for U.S. service members, has been investigating the Pentagon’s embedded journalist program. Late last month, after initially denying the paper's accusations that it was using a public relations firm to profile the journalists, a Pentagon official acknowledged the Media Analyst program and terminated the contract it had with the PR firm, The Rendon Group.

Kevin Baron: This Rendon profile example is, I don't think, the complete picture. I think it's one part of the story I'm hoping to keep pursuing here, which is that there are press officers who are making these decisions based on previous journalists' work. They're looking at people they know, they're looking at journalists they don't know very well, and they're asking, "Is this guy going to give us some good news or bad news? And if I don't think it's going to be good news, well, I'll send 'em somewhere else, or I'll not grant 'em the embed."

So we're going to try to find out is how much control over this chain of command of public affairs officers does the leadership have. Are these young guys making their own decisions out there, or are they really following the policy that was set up to help bring the war back home to the American public, so that journalists can do their jobs the best they can.