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Loading ...“Defense” is a lot of things, very little of which is war. Winning “hearts and minds” is a major component of DoD strategy, hearts and minds both domestic and abroad. Part of this campaign includes positive messaging. Call it propaganda if you like, but it is just good old fashioned PR: media relations, community relations, and now, blogger relations.
“Recent postings to Harpers.com (here and here) by Ken Silverstein suggest that the Pentagon is engaged in a propaganda campaign, managed by junior political appointees, to seed its message among conservative bloggers.” Via D-Ring
My dad was a Marine in the late 50s and I grew up in Hawaii, so maybe I am less reactionary when it comes to getting pitched by the Pentagon. I applaud the Defense Department for doing something so completely incendiary and potentially explosive as bloggers have a tendency to be loose cannons — we’re generally hard to predict. Kudos for even trying.
“Granted, the Pentagon’s outreach is not perfect. Silverstein’s point about the transparency of the program is valid. While most bloggers do disclose that they are getting information directly from Pentagon sources, not all do, so the Pentagon should specifically request that they disclose that fact on every conference call.” Via D-Ring
If you’re messaging civilians, you have to take the onus on yourself to promote the campaign, don’t “assume” the blogger has his or her freedom to disclose or not, or any of that stuff. Edelman tried it and it doesn’t work. You have to be actively, intentionally, vocally, and explicitly disclosing — if you rely on implicitness or on, “if you ask if I am a nark, I will tell you I am a nark” strategy of openness.
To Edelman, I recommended that they start a “Carnival” blog on behalf of Microsoft that would explicitly list and link every blogger to whom an ACER Ferrari laptop bundled with lots of RAM and vista was sent. That way, the onus of disclosure need not be on the blogger (we like stealth and dagger, and we’re willing to blog on the DL for democracy) if you make a point of beating the disclosure “foul” cry to the punch…
It is like the financial disclosure that public officials must make for the record — it makes all the dealing and hustling appear more innocent and transparent than they may be; however, they’re there for the sake of the watch dogs, for freedom, and as a proactive brand reputation protection.
Call it an inoculation against this kind of coverage.
Filed under: Blogger Engagement, Blogger Relations, Defense Department, Hearts and Minds, Milblogging, Miltel Blogging, Online Engagement
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