The Issue of MILBLOGGERS Bias Rolls On

The issue of MILBLOGGERS rages on in the blogsphere. For my readers, you understand the position I take which is that MILBLOGGERS by their very nature provide biased and censored news. They are required to register their blogs with their command and their command is required to review the blogs (i.e., censor). This clearly applies to Blogs originating from Iraq which is really all we care about. A soldier's blog from Kansas adds nothing to the discussion beyond just that person's opinion. This is covered in depth at the Huffington post written by Paul Reickhoff.

There is a group called the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell (link downloads Army memo) which determines what is OK and what is not. Oh, BTW, these are punitive rules meaning that violation is subject to UCMJ. They will hide behind OPSEC but we all know that there are two guys sitting in a room, like on Good Morning Vietnam telling you what you can say happened and what did not happen.

Given these facts, it always amazes me when the MILBLOGGERS hold themselves out as the bastion of independent and "real" news. Dadmanly says,

"If it weren't for MILBLOGGERS, there'd be no positive voices out there at all."

We are not looking for positive or negative bias. A positive bias is just as bad as a negative bias. What we are looking for is the truth. Given that Dadmanly is censored and reviewed for content, I will trust an independent news journalist, bias and all, any day over the US equivalent of PRAVDA.

Seeing the Forest reports on this somewhat bizarre requirement that the MILBLOGGERS and Right Wingers have to "chose sides". The "you are with us or against us" mentality has brought us closer to fascism than we have ever been in this Country. Well, I am AGAINST this war and this President. What does that make me from the right wing? Am I a "Terrorist"? Call me whatever you want but I will not succumb to the right wing nut pressure to stop talking and to stop protesting just because we are "at war".

This is right along with my last post about "Why do Conservatives Hate America so Much"? This is another instance where conservatives (and oddly enough, a lot of the military) seem to hate everything America stands for. In their quest to defend America they want to install a Democracy in Iraq and kill democracy in the U.S. An odd policy for the right wing.

UPDATE: Fred Schoeneman reports on the MILBLOGGER's censorship. He makes the point that the advantage MILBLOGGERS have is that they can report on the people "because they know them" versus the statistics and numbers. I wonder also if that is the best place they can report since what they report can never be proved or disproved. "I know an Iraqi who said, 'God Bless America' so all Iraqis must be for America".