PureBlogging » Blog Archive » Blogging As A National Security Risk?

The National Press Club issued a press release yesterday talking about how Journalists are getting “burned out with new technology”. Like blogs.

For example, Elaine Sciolino, the Paris correspondent for the New York Times, said she now is expected to post to the Web by noon, produce video for the Web, write for the Times-owned International Herald-Tribune, and still write a flawless story for the next day’s Times. “You don’t have a choice,” she said. “If you want to be a journalist today, you just have to work harder and more efficiently. You aim for perfection until your deadline, and then you aim for doneness. You just gut it out.”

Sciolino even went so far as to suggest that this is a national security issue.The real danger for journalism, she says, is so many American news organizations are cutting back on foreign correspondents and international coverage. Few American correspondents are showing up, even for big stories. “The decline in American newspapers is a major national security threat,” she said.

I’ve seen and heard a lot of criticism regarding blogs as news sources, but I believe this is the first time I’ve seen national security raised as an issue (unless you count the Twitter Terrorism theory).

What do you think about Sciolino’s remarks.

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8 Comments

Comment by Lindsay
2008-10-29 22:04:55

The national security issue has been talked about a great deal by the military. The military instituted rules to combat Ma href=”http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=40129&archive=true”>security risks with blogging

 
Comment by Nicole Price
2008-10-30 02:00:15

Quite how the “decline in American newspapers is a major national security threat,” she said would have sounded better had she elaborated. The security threat that blogging can cause has so far not elaborated on anything to do with foreign correspondents! Frankly, I fail to understand the point that she is making.

 
Comment by Ajith Edassery
2008-10-30 02:16:03

Very much possible! And worst is the case if they are managing own blogs as well… How many technical things a typical blogger writer has to worry about.

Blogging is grown from simple type-in-whatever-I-feel-like mode to more technical thing that audio/video/images and other media aspects need to be incorporated as well. On top of that you need to also moderate and approve comments and reply to your emails. It can easily take the focus away from your main focus of ‘writing’ to something else.

Cheers,
Ajith

 
Comment by George Subscribed to comments via email
2008-10-30 15:50:23

I think she is trying to say that because journalist aren’t able to cover international news well enough our national security is at risk. In other words, she thinks that jornalists play an important role in international intel. Perhaps, journalist uncover international issues that our government would not know about otherwise That’s quite a stretch if you ask me… I suppose it is possible though. .

 
Comment by BV Subscribed to comments via email
2008-10-30 19:58:32

I would have thought that blogs and web 2.0 technology would make a journalist’s job easier. I don’t really understand why this is a security threat either. I guess I am missing something here.

 
Comment by cat
2008-11-04 06:55:59

I think that this is not right, national security at risk because of blogging – bullshit

 
Comment by creativeherb
2008-11-08 01:29:21

I think she is calling it a security threat just to get attention to her comments. However, I do believe that if we get too used to purchasing 3rd party resources for information, our control over the supply of information will be compromised.

 
Comment by Jason
2008-11-25 13:12:00

Such articles need to be brought into more public notice. Why don’t you post your articles in allvoices (http://www.allvoices.com/incentive/advertising) so that you can raise awareness.

 

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