noteworthy wrote:
] "We'll need to develop considerably more sophisticated ways
] of using these new means of communication that are now
] available to reach the many and diverse audiences."
]
] General Memetics, anyone?

The political parties are absolutely connected with the A-list bloggers that they want pushing out their perspective. Furthermore, the a-list publishes blogrolls. If you want to figure out where to inject a meme is all here... but I'd hardly call the audience there "diverse."

Who is speaking to the islamic world? Certainly not us. The language barriers are definately a problem. There is little real cross cultural dialog. But if you want something to hold a riot about in Afghanistan, its easy to find...

The use of the press as a microphone is a bit out-dated. Your message always gets distorted when it goes through that filter. You should communicate directly. Why isn't Rumsfeld blogging? Why isn't his blog translated into various languages? Why am I reading an article about Rumsfeld's statement instead of simply reading his statement? Why does he speak before the "World Affairs Council" when he could simply be speaking to the world? This isn't 1842 and you don't have to get all the fuddy duddies together in a room to have a conversation.

The pentagon has obviously been investigating the newsweek story. If there was a place where we heard directly from them how they were handling controversial issues it would be a powerful tool to cool fires. Want to understand what went down at Abu Gharib? Here is the Pentagon's website where they explain the situation and what they are doing about it. How can you be angry at an organization that takes responsibility for problems and addresses them in a visible way?

The way to combat bad information is with good information. Today there is no single clearing house that you can point to that explains what the hell we're doing in Iraq. The vacuum is filled with punditry, sensationalism, speculation, and foggy recollections.

I used to worry about government publications being propagandist, but frankly if everyone is free to criticise and the material is intelligent its not the same thing. The only dangerous environment is one in which you can't ask questions, or you don't bother to.

RE: Rumsfeld Laments Global Reach of War News