Bloggers, Money Now Weapons in Information War

"BAGHDAD -- Retired soldier Bill Roggio was a computer technician living in New Jersey less than two months ago when a Marine officer half a world away made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Frustrated by the coverage they were receiving from the news media, the Marines invited Roggio, 35, who writes a popular Web log about the military called "The Fourth Rail" ( http://www.billroggio.com ), to come cover the war from the front lines.

He raised more than $30,000 from his online readers to pay for airfare, technical equipment and body armor. A few weeks later, he was posting dispatches from a remote outpost in western Anbar province, a hotbed of Iraq's insurgency.

"I was disenchanted with the reporting on the war in Iraq and the greater war on terror and felt there was much to the conflict that was missed," Roggio, who is currently stationed with Marines along the Syrian border, wrote in an e-mail response to written questions. "What is often seen as an attempt at balanced reporting results in underreporting of the military's success and strategy and an overemphasis on the strategically minor success of the jihadists or insurgents.""
WaPo

Hat tip Truth about Iraqis


It's a shame that the DoD now has to pay for "good news", if I remember correctly we were getting all sorts of news for free from the original milbloggers before the Dod shut all the good ones down. Now after the predictable result of this "miss management", something I predicted at the time, we now have to stoop to the level of cheep propagandist and pay for coverage. This administration is it's own worst enemy. My recommendation, lift the stupid blogging restrictions, and let the men and women that are in fact Americas best ambassadors speak freely again. Wont cost us a penny.