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Live from the Milblogger Conference
By John
Pane 2 by the time I could get my laptop set up. The wives and moms are killing.....
Like AWTM: Blogging, it's cheaper than therapy.
hee.
I snuck up to bloggers' row uninvited, up here with a real all-star cast. Kevin Whalen from Pundit Review, Streiff from Red State, Bruce McQ from Qando, Mary Katharine Ham, Jim Hoft from Gateway Pundit, and Lorie Byrd from Wizbang.
Lots of media hanging around, mostly out back. Which is probably a good thing, since there's an awful lot of media bashing going on inside.
Big story of the morning was President Bush's video statement to the milbloggers, very cool stuff. Jim Hoft has the video, good on him for being so quick with the camera while the rest of us were mesmerized by the twin video screens.
Panel 1 was great, of course. Ardolino, Sg.t Hook, and Doc in the Box....two embeds and two soldiers. Sgt. Hook had the goosebumps moment of the conference with his "I'll come home when we win" liner.
Will update as things progress.
Update 1: Panel 3 is up, Lightning Slab is representing this fine blog on the panel.....I helped craft this panel with John Donovan, so I've been looking forward to this one.
Intros all around, Eagle, Murdoc, Shachtman, Lex, and Captain Anthony Deiss join Slab. Lex is trash talking the F-14, surprise surprise. Deiss is talking CENTCOM, and how they've spearheaded new media engagement program that are slowly becoming more popular DoD wide. Deiss on the effort: "Centcom really looks at blogs as being credibile media. Alot of folks in the media don't really agree with that and don't consider blogs to be credentialed media."
Noah talks mainstream media, would "appreciate not getting pelted with garbage and rocks." heh. Noah writes for Danger Room, Popular Mechanics, Wired....so he's career MSM.
"News stories have a bias towards the dramatic, a bias towards violence. It's not a bias against good news, it's not a bias about the war effort. I'd also like to knock the bias that reporters just sit in the green zone and do their reporting inside the wire. Iraq is the most dangerous war for reporters since this stuff started being reported."
Slab hits unit blogging again and again and again. I'm glad he is......he pointed out that a marine with a laptop and a camcorder can do the job of an MSM reporter.
Jack Holt, chief of the pentagon's new media engagement program spoke. Feels we need a change in the PAO apparatus. Hello? Unit bloggers.
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Comments
I'm glad somebody got the POTUS too while the rest of us were sitting there slack jawed. Great meeting you!
Nice to have met both of you guys. I've linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2007/05/milblogger-conference-wrap-up.html
With regard to the MSM reporting in Iraq.
What we are seeing is a clash between old established technology and new internet technology.
Old meaning via eyewitness to reporter to editor to print then to dissemination for public consuption.
New meaning via eyewitness straight to public consuption.
MSM is just protecting their territory and jobs. Because it's kinda hard to make money on the news if you're no longer part of the news distribution chain.
I'm not defending the "establishment" media, I'm just making a point about emerging technology affecting news dissemination.
Did anyone get Jack Holt's email that he gave out? Even though I was sitting right near the microphone when he gave it out, I got dyslexic and scrambled the last part of it. Pls email me if anyone has it (rather than post it publicly here.)
My apologies for having brain sparkplugs which misfire constantly. My email is my name at yahoo.com
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How many times did I see you between Friday night and now????? I forgot to call you SugarBear.