[antimedia] antimedia: If you wonder why the US....

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You might be interested in reading Michael Yon's take on a similar issue and 
CENTCOM's media friendliness(?) : http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/rubs-3.htm


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Email subscription to blog articles" <antimedia at lists.powerblogs.com>
To: <antimedia at lists.powerblogs.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 12:04 AM
Subject: [antimedia] antimedia: If you wonder why the US....


Posted by antimedia:
If you wonder why the US....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1175745868.shtml


   ....is so far behind on the information war, this might be one
   indication. I received an email from a PAO at Centcom on 3/22/2007. I
   responded just six hours later (and felt badly about the lengthy
   delay!) A week later I sent a followup email. I still have not gotten
   a response.
   I thought long and hard about how to handle this. I don't think
   another followup email is going to do much good, but I don't want to
   give up on the idea entirely.
   Generally, I think publishing private email without permission of the
   author is incredibly bad form. I don't know how I'd get permission
   from the author, however, because my emails are being ignored. Maybe
   publishing this will get a response. After all, the PAO did seem
   familiar with my blog.
   Here's the email. I have removed any identifying information. Please
   forgive the grammatical errors. People often don't spell or grammar
   check emails.

     I am contacting you with the hopes that you might be interested in
     being part of an interview.
     I work for Central Command Public Affairs Department on an media
     engagement team. Our purpose is to engage websites like yourself
     and see if you would be willing to participate in an interview.
     It can be in one of several forms. I can have you be interviewed by
     another milblog website or we can set up an interview with a media
     your area. Our purpose is to get the right story out to the
     sometimes slanted civilian media.
     I know from the purpose of you website that you want to get the
     right story out to the media. Well...we in the military public
     affairs field are constantly fighting this issue and we fight daily
     to get the right story out and that is the story of the Soldiers
     and the good that they are doing.
     More and more people are going to the internet, blogs in particular
     to get their information on the War on Terrorism. I am sure you are
     aware of this.
     If you would be interested in participating let me know and I will
     set it all up.
     Thank you for your time

   I'm still available for that interview, but I have no idea if Centcom
   will ever followup. (And, in case you're wondering, no, I won't do
   interviews with any other professional media organization. I do those
   routinely in my "real" job, and I have no interest in being misquoted
   about my blog.)
   In a digital world where news goes worldwide in minutes and jihadis
   post propaganda videos routinely, Centcom is going to have to get into
   the 20^th century soon or they'll never catch up. (And yes, I meant
   20^th.)