For those that care about media issues, here is an article I wrote about the work of The Rendon Group in Afghanistan.

Consultants say they focused on skills, not influencing media

Rendon Group, a public relations firm known for helping the U.S. government make its case for the war in Iraq, denied any direct influence over Afghanistan’s news media at a June 8 event in Washington, D.C. Linda Flohr, a consultant at Rendon, said the group’s work in Afghanistan was only with training that government’s press officers. "We only worked on skills," she told IJNet.

The work of Rendon Group and other public relations contractors hired by the Pentagon was once nearly unknown to the public. But they have faced higher public scrutiny since 2005, when news outlets reported that another firm, The Lincoln Group, paid Iraqi journalists and newspapers to publish stories favorable of the U.S. military’s work in Iraq. Flohr said that any articles connecting Rendon Group with those efforts have since been retracted.

Read more: [IJNet]