Today on the media- bistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, co-hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven discussed the day’s biggest media headlines, including the U.S. government’s decision to perform background checks on any journalist planning to embed with the military. After discussing whether or not the background checks are fair or necessary — and what their consequences may be — Jason and Matt talked about the neutrality of war correspondents.

“American journalists are a little biased, they’re the American solider’s side,” Jason said. “That’s kind of an inherent thing that you can’t get around.”

“Another question is should they be? Where does neutrality end? At America’s borders?” Matt asked. “At that point do we assume that there is a pro-American bent with certain aspects of what a reporter covers?”

Also discussed: books without jackets and the consequences for book publishing and readers, and Wikipedia’s decision to update rules about pages for living people.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.