Wired has a story that the Military is (secretly) hiring bloggers:

A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested “clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers.” Since the start of the Iraq war, there’s been a raucous debate in military circles over how to handle blogs — and the servicemembers who want to keep them.

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.

Why not? This is stock-and-trade for the DNC, Moveon.org, the Huffington Post, the Daily Kos, ThinkProgress, and pretty much the entirety of the nutroots.

Why not fight back?

In her 2006 paper, Denning warns that blogs can and will be used by America’s enemies. These sites, she argues, can also be used to serve U.S. government interests.

It’s already being used by America’s enemies. See the list above.

Memo to whoever is in charge of hiring these bloggers — HIRE ME. I’m already doing almost exactly what it is you need done. I’m a veteran, and I’m a blogger. I already have a current and active secret security clearance.

Seriously. Click the Contact button at the top of this page and get in touch. I’m interested. Very interested.

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(Unfortunately, I don’t think this story holds much water in terms of the military actually implementing it.)

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 | Trackback |