Posted by: McQ on Thursday, October 25, 2007 As usual, Think Progress gets the story about half right. Here's their spin: In February, the Pentagon began holding Bloggers Roundtables to “provide source material for stories in the blogosphere concerning the DoD and the Global War on Terrorism.” But at these roundtables, the Pentagon has reserved space almost exclusively for conservatives and military bloggers. Some examples of the bloggers on the roundtables just this month:I've been a participant in this program for 3 to 4 months now. To say Think Progress doesn't know what it is speaking about would be to understate the point. It also wouldn't be unusual. First, there is no "reserved space" for anyone. You get a notice by email that a particular person is available for a half-hour during a time (usually morning if the person is in Iraq) and date and you send an email back saying you'll be on-line or not. It could be 15 or 2 and I've been on calls with both size blogger contingents. You never know until you call in. Let me digress for a moment. This complaint isn't new. In fact, the way I got on the Roundtable is DoD's New Media Outreach consciously made an effort to broaden the audience. Invitations to all sorts of blogs were sent out, to include liberal blogs. But you had to respond and ask to be put on the list so you could be notified when the conference calls were going to be held. If you didn't write back and make the request to be on that list, then you obviously aren't going to be invited to the call. How do I know liberal blogs were invited. Because I've been on a call with at least one - Nicholas Beaudrot with EzraKlein.com was on a call with Jason Hyland, the Ninawa PRT leader on August 30th. To my knowledge, that is the only call he was on, and, I've not been on a call with any other liberal blogger, even though I know they've gotten invitations (as proven by the fact that Beaudrot was on). So what's the problem? Well if I had to guess, it's that the liberal blogs simply don't answer the invitations to participate. That isn't DoD's problem or fault. And I loved this: Many of these conservative bloggers regularly appear on the calls, receiving unfettered access to military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.Yes, some bloggers regularly appear on the calls. I certainly do. Because I'm interested in hearing what's going on from the horse's mouth and I'm interested in asking questions about things concerning Iraq and Afghanistan which are of interest to me. I've been provided that opportunity. And I've taken advantage of it. Call me silly but I think that has given me an insight that is far superior to most of those bloviating about the war with little or no knowledge of what is going on other than that fed them by the media. So here's a challenge to Think Progress and all liberal blogs that are complaining about this - my email address is up on the upper left side of the blog. Email me and I'll put you in touch with Jack Holt who administers this program. I think you'll find he has absolutely no problem putting you on the list. From there it is up to you whether or not you make the calls. Like I said, in the 3 to 4 months I've been on, only one liberal blogger has been on and not he or anyone else from that site has ever bothered to come back. Tell me again how that's DoD's problem, will ya? |
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