Okay, so there's no evidence that the military actually implemented or even seriously considered a plan to "recruit or hire bloggers," but it sure makes you go, hmmm, especially given which military folks liked the idea:
One faction sees blogs as security risks, and a collective waste of troops' time. The other (which includes top officers, like Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. William Caldwell) considers blogs to be a valuable source of information, and a way for ordinary troops to shape opinions, both at home and abroad.
This 2006 report for the Joint Special Operations University, "Blogs and Military Information Strategy," offers a third approach -- co-opting bloggers, or even putting them on the payroll. "Hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering," write the report's co-authors, James Kinniburgh and Dororthy Denning.
Hmmm...a "block of bloggers verbally attacking...or promoting a specific message..."? Like say, I dunno, a frothing riot over an advertisement? In a newspaper? And wouldn't it be yummy if "US government interests" coalesced with a general's presidential ambitions?
It's bad enough that some in the military think they decide what's the "interest" of the "US government" is, never mind the danger that using media this way might - just might -- actually be serving personal ambition over national interest.
Whoo-wheew, these are the kind of things you think about if you lived under the Bush administration. Plus I know from first-hand experience bloggers are pretty much easily bought.
