Gee, I wonder if I need to spiff the place up any?

Blog-Tracking May Gain Ground Among U.S. Intelligence Officials

By Doug Tsuruoka

People in black trench coats might soon be chasing blogs.

Blogs, short for Web logs, are personal online journals. Individuals post them on Web sites to report or comment on news especially, but also on their personal lives or most any subject.

Some blogs are whimsical and deal with "soft" subjects. Others, though, are cutting edge in delivering information and opinion. [...]

So THAT'S what a blog is! I keep hearing about them, but never really knew what sort of thing they were. I thought people were saying "blob" or "Bob" and couldn't figure out why anyone would care.

The article goes on with much fervid pixel-chewing about nothing in particular, and then ends up with this little gem of wisdom--

[...] Some point to other dangers in using blogs for intelligence or news. Blogs can be used to spread lies or disinformation.

It's hard to fact check a blog account of an event in a remote area like Mongolia. Plus, many bloggers don't use their real names. Confirming identities can be hard. [...]

Determining blog accuracy is the crucial first step to taking it further, warned Tim Witcher, who spoke at the conference. He's the former Seoul, Korea, bureau chief for Agence France-Presse, a news service. "A blog only becomes news when we can be 100% sure that it's true," he said.

Apparently with a straight face and without a trace of a irony--a prodigious task, considering his former employer was Agence France-Presse.

Anyway, for any of you in the spookish field looking for intelligence on Possumblog, best of luck to you. And all you newspaper folks can rest assured that 100% of everything you see on Possumblog is true. Some things are just more true than others.
posted by Terry at 3:35:00 PM