Hmmmmmm ... what a clever idea:
Military report: secretly ‘recruit or hire bloggers.’
Noah Shachtman at Danger Room finds a 2006 report written for U.S. Special Operations Command that suggests ways the military should deal with the blogosphere. One suggestion is for the military to hire bloggers to “pass the U.S. message“:
Information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of prominence…to pass the U.S. message. … On the other hand, such operations can have a blowback effect, as witnessed by the public reaction following revelations that the U.S. military had paid journalists to publish stories in the Iraqi press under their own names. People do not like to be deceived, and the price of being exposed is lost credibility and trust.
An alternative strategy is to “make” a blog and blogger. The process of boosting the blog to a position of influence could take some time, however, and depending on the person running the blog, may impose a significant educational burden, in terms of cultural and linguistic training before the blog could be put online to any useful effect. Still, there are people in the military today who like to blog.
Um, yeah ... in terms of trying to promote right-wing, pro-military blogs, I really wouldn't underestimate that "significant educational burden" thing. And I think you know what I'm sayin' here.
We're still working on it up here. We'll get back to you.
3 comments:
That's hilarious--the "significant educational burden" thingie. Clearly it's a burden already too heavy to bear for the Usual Suspects--maybe military intervention is required!
Ah, the ethics of the American "marketplace of ideas." Says everything we need to know about that corrupt and unworkable concept.
Let's review "conflict of interest:" If you are an ethical person, you declare your interests in the areas that are substantive. If the American people are OK with the idea of public funds paying for propaganda (and from all indications, they seem to be, or have, at the most, given up trying to change that), the least anyone should expect is for that understanding to be clear.
*snick*...Conflict of interest. What quaint values I have.
People do not like to be deceived, and the price of being exposed is lost credibility and trust.
After 8 years of solid lies what fucking credibility do they think they have left? I wouldn't trust the Bush administration to park my fucking car.
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