Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Is a blog post truly a blog post if it is ghost written and the supposed author knows nothing about the post?
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
At the Fred's Place/Military.com discussion boards, someone posting as kvoorhees wrote about the Coast Guard Journal post titled The Seas Were Angry. The Coast Guard Journal post was attributed to "Aviation Survival Technician First Class Karen Voorhees" and claimed, "this is my story."
Hey, though I never write on this thing, (unlike some there, Dogshow) I would just like to say thanks for the support, but I did not write that "blog". I'm a wee bit mortified (and other emotions not to be mentioned) that this PR event was posted under my name, without my permission. Needless to say, it was a great case and Lake and I had lots o' fun. Karen.I'm trying to find out what the story is here, but, as of yet, I haven't learned a thing.
If, indeed, Petty Officer Voorhees did not write the blog entry on the Coast Guard Journal, it is clear that not only do the flag officers not understand the New Media, but neither do the professional public affairs personnel.
Of course, it could be that the post on Military.com was written by an impostor, in which case it's another example of the frailty of the consumer-produced web content.
If anyone can shed some light on this, I'd love to hear it.
And, please know, that when I learn the answer to this puzzle, I will surely post it here.
Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Labels: by Peter Stinson
2 comments:
- At Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:49:00 PM EDT Thomas Jackson said...
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Have you hear from our rescue swimmer yet?
- At Thursday, March 20, 2008 1:53:00 PM EDT John Willis said...
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David Axe reports that he spoke to PO Voorhees and she was asked to write an account of the rescue. What was published was not her account.
He then spoke to Jim McPherson, a Coast Guard "spokesman" who told him that "public affairs is new to these first-person blog posts" and that they rewrote it to make it clearer.
Apparently the headquarters Public Affairs people need a refresher course in quoting, since they are putting words in Voorhees' mouth and telling the world she said it.
This is truly a sad commentary on the state of the Coast Guard. I have to wonder now about everything that comes out of HQ.
The post is at:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/coast-guard-sti.html
