Comments on: State Dives Into the Blog Boiling Oil

By: Cenobyte40k

Cenobyte40k — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:53:21 +0000

First… Let your voice be heard. If we don’t go out and talk about this stuff, try and correct the misinformation (sglover, you should try reading some of these blogs, they have crazy ideas about what is going on here), try and give them ideas about how to make their lives better, more free. Even if they reject them, it’s better they know the ideas, thoughts and modivations than blindly speculate or worst believe what they are told by the Fundies.
Second, We get to hear their voices, and hear what they would express directly to us. This is exactly what we should be doing. More of this and less direct intervention.

By: bill

bill — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:04:26 +0000

Did the author have any idea what “zorch” means when he wrote this article?

By: Brian H

Brian H — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:35:07 +0000

SG;
You must have missed the fact that the readers know who’s posting, and say, “We don’t like your policies but we’re sure glad you’re here talking to us about it.”

By: Sunshine Goodness

Sunshine Goodness — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:07:43 +0000

Isn’t some dozy Muslim gonna run across this blog entry, tell his 40 thieves and then they’ll distrust anything positive about your country on anti-American blogs?

By: demophilus

demophilus — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:02:38 +0000

Six years after 9/11, and State’s got 3 people doing digital psyops? Three?
If this isn’t disinformation, it’s incompetence.
But I guess if it’s Uncle Sugar, it could be both at the same time.

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:02:05 +0000

I think this is a great idea. The US government needs to do a better job at perception management around the world if it wants to maintain a force presence in all four corners of the earth. Time will tell how effective this is, but it is just common sense to try and defend US policies against the propaganda floating around the blogsphere. This is a modern version of “Air America” in Europe.
PSYOPS and perception management will have a much more prominent role in wars and foreign policy of the future. This is just a small taste of what’s to come. And if the US wants to use everything at its disposal to win this ideological showdown, it’s high time something like this is tried.

By: Foreign.Boy

Foreign.Boy — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:41:07 +0000

That’s all well and good.. but the question is this is going to time well wasted. I think the big question is the ‘terrorist world’ plugged in enough for the internet to be a decisive tool for the terrorists.
Internet Connectivity stats can be found here:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/list2.htm
I don’t know which countries are producing the blogs or considered a threat… I’d like to draw my own conclusion but I don’t have enough information.

By: sglover

sglover — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:33:47 +0000

It's the same mentality that had Karen Hughes "working" on what amounted to glorified advertising campaign. It'll accomplish just as much -- nothing. We like to believe that the problem is that other peoples "don't understand us", that we just need to explain ourselves better, or maybe wrap the "explanations" in a slicker, more stylish package. But survey after survey indicates that people all over the world understand us quite well. It's what we DO that makes us increasingly disliked. Maybe we ought to take a look at that.

By: Galrahn

Galrahn — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:00:45 +0000

It is a good idea. Bloggers can be replaced if they end up with a reputation that is counter to objective.

By: Tom Maguire

Tom Maguire — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:01:35 +0000

The NY Times had the same story last September, with more details.