Responsible, Professional, Fact-Based, Emotion-Free Blogging
Advocated by Navy big who, like me, appreciates Small Wars Journal, where you’ll find him holding forth on blogspecs and the correct attitude and approach to blogification. A career spent in nuclear propulsion and personnel may have left Vice Adm. John C. Harvey underequipped to fully appreciate the ethereal technicolor beauty of the collective societal hurl that is the blogosphere, however:
… We just need to remain steady in our approach and steadfast in our resolve and I think we’ll come through the next few years of ongoing conflict and economic crisis in fine fashion. There’s lots of opportunities in every crisis and we’re poised to take advantage of them.
With respect to your comment concerning participation in the blogosphere and the upcoming milbloggers conference, let me speak pretty plainly - most of the blogs I’ve dropped in on and read on a regular basis leave me pretty cold. Too many seem to be interested in scoring cheap, and anonymous, hits vice engaging in meaningful and professional exchanges. There is also a general lack of reverence for facts and an excess of emotion that, for me, really reduces the value of the blog. Incorrect/inaccurate data and lots of hype may be entertaining for some, but just doesn’t work for me.
My best example of a truly worthwhile blog, worthy of our time and intellectual engagement, is the Small Wars Journal. The tone is always professional, the subject matter is compelling and the benefit from participating is significant.
All that said, here I am - I recognize the reality of the blogosphere and the potential that exists for worthwhile exchanges that enhance our professional knowledge and overall awareness. My intent is to continue to participate when I can and where I see I can make a contribution to a professional exchange, but my view today is that the bloggers generally see their activity as far more meaningful than I do right now. I do, however, remain hopeful…
Actually the lack of professionalism and the high degree of emotion in the blogosphere has served some useful purposes. By their cheap, anonymous hits and lack of reverence for facts shall ye know them. By their poor logic and pottymouth, as well.
UPDATE, incoming from USNI: We Have Seen the Enemy And He Is Us. OK, as you were …
I’d like to suggest there is a balance between the high degree of professionalism expected by the man charged with keeping the Navy’s nuts tight, and the exuberance, hype, anonymous hits and lack of reverence for facts one sometimes encounters out in the blogosphere. Even Reynolds sometimes fails to lack fire, and SWJ is not above an excess of emotion. Some of the best milblogs snark, fume and have a good rant every now and then. Man cannot live on cold squid-like professionalism alone.* He must have childish mockery. And … all things in moderation, of course … totty. And what mean creatures would we be if not lofted by inspirational irreverence.
* Then there’s Neptunus Lex, as long as we’re talking about blogs, swabs and irreverence. Check his comments, where one guy makes irreverent remarks about flag officers and another guy quotes what appears to be a post from a quaint early 20th century analog proto-squidblog.
Topics: blogs
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:20 am on Monday, January 26, 2009
6 Responses to “Responsible, Professional, Fact-Based, Emotion-Free Blogging”
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January 26th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
VADM Harvey does have one salient, albeit indirect point. When the individual blogger chooses to use sarcasm (such as Mike Adams) to make a point, the tone of the blog may be misconstrued. However, long time readers easily recognize when the author strays into the absurd. Perhaps VADM Harvey is not used to reading intellectually stimulating content written by junior officers or, perish the thought, enlisted men and women.
Perhaps, VADM Harvey misses the point to blogging entirely.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
For responsible, professional, fact-based, emotion-free bogging, go to the On Second Opinion Blog: http://onsecondopinion.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
January 26th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
[...] Harvey’s not entirely on board for that whole “milblog” program: With respect to your comment concerning participation [...]
January 26th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
SeniorD, I’ve noticed that most flag officers tend to lose their sense of humor after their first star. Sometimes the second. Those who don’t are a rare gem indeed.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Facts are tricky things, Jules — or at least they would appear to be, based on the number of right-wing bloggers like yourself who are convinced they are in possession of the facts, when they don’t really understand what a fact is.
Take your reference to “Bush’s counterinsurgency success,” for example (in your linked post titled “Quagmire”). That has been widely touted as an undeniable fact, but it’s no such thing. It’s an argument that has some support, but while it is undeniable that the level of violence is way down in Iraq from what it was two years ago (*that*, Jules, is a fact), it is *not* a fact that the surge is the cause of that reduction in violence. Indeed, the far likelier reason for the reduction in violence is the reality of the sectarian civil war — ethnic cleansing. By the time the surge was in force, ethnic cleansing, especially in Baghdad, had been going on for so long that there was essentially no one left to kill. That, too, is an argument, not an indisputable fact, but it is an argument that has at least as much support for it as your crediting the surge for the reduction in violence, and I would argue it has a lot more going for it than your theory does.
Your post above is filled with other such statements that you call “facts” but which (in fact) are either not facts at all, or don’t take account of other facts that lead to differing conclusions.
I don’t think that either the left or the right has a monopoly on facts, truth, or good arguments. But it surely doesn’t help to set up false dichotomies like suggesting that “fact-based” and “emotion” are mutually exclusive, or that “responsible” and “professional” are incompatible with “emotion,” or that “fact-based” is compatible with only one specific point of view.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Jules, I’m looking forward to reading some of that “inspirational irreverence” you speak of above. Hope I see some soon!
Also, for any one who cares, please be advised I do indeed have a sense of humor. In fact, I believe I had a pretty good one before I was a Flag officer and I hope I still have one when I retire. But that remains to be seen. All the best, JCHjr