In what is likely the first case of a high-profile embedded journalist losing his embedded status with U.S. troops since Geraldo Rivera was given the boot in Iraq in 2003, E4WBACBN3SJU Michael Hastings, who wrote the Rolling Stone article that resulted in the firing of General Stanley McChrystal. has had his embedded status revoked. "There is no right to embed," Pentagon spokesman David Lapan said on Tuesday. "It is a choice made between units and individual reporters, and a key element of an embed is having trust that the individuals are going to abide by the ground rules." In the past, the Pentagon has indicated that it has no intention of censoring embedded reporters and that its only conditions are that they not give specific details of locations or describe future plans of their unit. Lapan did not indicate which ground rules Hastings had violated.

04/08/2010