Follow-up: Brain Shavings Does (Much of) CENTCOM’s Badly Needed Visibility Enhancement

Frustration with CENTCOM’s and the military’s ability and willingness to get its message out abounded late last year.

Although I’ll allow that many things get past me, I have noticed bare improvements at best out of CENTCOM since then.

Fortunately, heroic (that IS the right word) onsite milbloggers and others on the ground in Iraq have picked up much of the slack. I would attempt to enumerate them here, but I’m sure I’ll miss many who don’t deserve to be overlooked. Collectively, I believe that they have conferred a degree of balance in the war-related news in two ways.

First, much of what they are reporting would otherwise never have seen the light of day. Second, their presence, along with Old Media’s proven Middle Eastern embarrassments (just a few — fauxtography, the stage-managing Green Helmet Guy, the non-existent Burning Six, the congenitally lying Jamil “Captain Tuttle” Hussein or whoever he really is, the Ramadi airstrikes that weren’t) appear to have served notice to Old Media that the accuracy of their reporters’ and stringers’ dispatches is being monitored, and that attempts at distortion and sensationalism are at least somewhat likely to be exposed.

But a dozen or so milbloggers (if that many) and occasional visitors scraping by on reader donations is not a permanent or complete answer. Getting more visibility for the military’s take on events and developments is.

That is why I’m thrilled to report that Puddle Pirate at Brain Shavings has done something about CENTCOM’s perceived (and probably actual) inattention to this matter himself:

Enough dilly-dallying. I dug around CENTCOM’s site, found 5 feeds, and did their public affairs work for them … and it took me all of 45 minutes.

Those five feeds are now hooked into several search engines and feed-publicizing web services, so whenever CENTCOM posts a new item, everyone will know. Google Blog Search, My Yahoo, Technorati, Bloglines, Apple’s iTunes, Syndic8, FeedBlitz … it’s all covered. You can even subscribe to any feed by e-mail, if you want.

Here are the five feeds:

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Please spread the word far and wide. I’m only one voice.

Make that two — and consider that “spread the word” thing partially done. Hopefully, readers will continue the dissemination.

Still out of reach, if I understand things correctly and read between the lines (not automatic in this circumstance): Google News and Yahoo! News.

Nevertheless — A hearty “Well done, sir” to Puddle Pirate.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

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UPDATE: Puddle Pirate just explained the Google New/Yahoo! News situation in an e-mail –

I didn’t even bother contacting Google and Yahoo ….. they’re biased towards the left and therefore hostile to our aims. I thought it better to take action and accomplish 80% of what needs to be done, rather than wait to accomplish 100% and end up losing the contest. The propaganda war’s near another tipping point and we’d be idiots to let the jihadis and the Left go unchallenged.

Hear, Hear.

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Previous Posts:
- Dec. 14, 2006 — Google and Centcom.mil — An Irritating Update
- Dec. 9 — Weekend Question 2: What’s Up with Google News and Centcom.mil’s Access to It?
- Dec. 5 — Google News-Centcom.mil Listing: Open Follow-up Letter
- Dec. 4 — Re Google News and Centcom Inclusion: This Post Is Unintentionally Unresolved
- Nov. 28 — Centcom.mil and Google News: Open Letter to Google News Official and Google Public Relations
- Nov. 28 — Centcom.mil, Google News, and Yahoo! News: Brain Shavings Explains It All (and I Almost Understand It)
- Nov. 27 — Why Is Almost All of Centcom.mil Not Being Picked Up by Google News? (Further Help Needed)