Tweet
Loren Thompson is Pretty Fly - for a White Guy
Thompson Defense industry analyst Loren Thompson wants to show you how hip he is with the Internet. He's so fly, he's just started what the young kids are calling a web log, or blog for short. The Lexington Institute regularly features short articles by him on defense industry issues, and he is regularly quoted by major newspapers and DefenseNews, but he was struck by the need to ... raise the quality of milbloggers.
Loren Thompson, pictured, a defense industry analyst with the conservative Lexington Institute, has launched a new blog, Early Warning. His goal, Thompson wrote in his inaugural post, is to be “long on facts — especially little known, useful facts — and short on opinions.”
Most military-industry blogs, Thompson contends, are “tendentious nonsense. For every interesting, competent effort like DoD Buzz, there are dozens of ill-mannered rants masquerading as insight. To say that blogs have lowered the standards of public discourse on policy matters is an under-statement — there are no standards. Anybody can say anything.”
Needless to say, there are some of us who do believe we are professionals and bloggers who resent this high-handed comment, especially when one considers the source. Rob Farley cries "Hack!"
Ahem. I would hazard to say that lobbing an insult at the community you're hoping to become integrated into isn't the most auspicious way to begin a blogging career. Indeed, given Thompson's career as an industry stooge, I'm kind of surprised that he wants the kind of attention that this is going to produce; wouldn't it be better to continue to act as the mouthpiece of industry without subjecting yourself to any serious scrutiny?
And from cdr salamander:
Someone buy Loren a book on networking. Rule 1: don't insult everyone in the network you want to join
Let the marketplace of ideas speak for itself, but if he thinks his blog is covering anything new, then he isn't reading blogs.
To show you what a defense stooge he is, in this week's DefenseNews, he's decided to slam the Obama administration for not having pushed harder to fill top DoD appointments. There are 19 of 47 DoD posts that remain vacant right now. Obviously, this is because Obama's soft on defense.
"The hidden message in the Pentagon personnel data is that this White House really doesn't care much about defense," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. "The picture I get from all this is that President Obama's main security goal is just to keep defense off the front page. As long as the Pentagon doesn't present him with any political problems, he's content to focus on his domestic agenda and let military matters drift."
Let's ignore the stupidity of his comment that defense issues are 1) not important to this administration and 2) not on the front page of every major newspaper. What strikes me is how Thompson purposefully ignores the fact that it is Congress - and in particular, two Republican **************************** politicians - who are not serious about defense issues and who are holding up appointments. No, this is a defense stooge who's retaliating because Obama and Gates are making tough and smart decisions that affect his clients. But that's not to say he's opinionated.
Interestingly, Thompson doesn't allow comments on his blog (to which I don't intent to link). I guess that's because he's so solid on defense industry facts that there's no need for him to dialogue with his readers. He misses the whole point of blogging, I think. Most of us think we're doing okay - for a bunch of ill-mannered ranters.
Thompson Defense industry analyst Loren Thompson wants to show you how hip he is with the Internet. He's so fly, he's just started what the young kids are calling a web log, or blog for short. The Lexington Institute regularly features short articles by him on defense industry issues, and he is regularly quoted by major newspapers and DefenseNews, but he was struck by the need to ... raise the quality of milbloggers.
Loren Thompson, pictured, a defense industry analyst with the conservative Lexington Institute, has launched a new blog, Early Warning. His goal, Thompson wrote in his inaugural post, is to be “long on facts — especially little known, useful facts — and short on opinions.”
Most military-industry blogs, Thompson contends, are “tendentious nonsense. For every interesting, competent effort like DoD Buzz, there are dozens of ill-mannered rants masquerading as insight. To say that blogs have lowered the standards of public discourse on policy matters is an under-statement — there are no standards. Anybody can say anything.”
Needless to say, there are some of us who do believe we are professionals and bloggers who resent this high-handed comment, especially when one considers the source. Rob Farley cries "Hack!"
Ahem. I would hazard to say that lobbing an insult at the community you're hoping to become integrated into isn't the most auspicious way to begin a blogging career. Indeed, given Thompson's career as an industry stooge, I'm kind of surprised that he wants the kind of attention that this is going to produce; wouldn't it be better to continue to act as the mouthpiece of industry without subjecting yourself to any serious scrutiny?
And from cdr salamander:
Someone buy Loren a book on networking. Rule 1: don't insult everyone in the network you want to join
Let the marketplace of ideas speak for itself, but if he thinks his blog is covering anything new, then he isn't reading blogs.
To show you what a defense stooge he is, in this week's DefenseNews, he's decided to slam the Obama administration for not having pushed harder to fill top DoD appointments. There are 19 of 47 DoD posts that remain vacant right now. Obviously, this is because Obama's soft on defense.
"The hidden message in the Pentagon personnel data is that this White House really doesn't care much about defense," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. "The picture I get from all this is that President Obama's main security goal is just to keep defense off the front page. As long as the Pentagon doesn't present him with any political problems, he's content to focus on his domestic agenda and let military matters drift."
Let's ignore the stupidity of his comment that defense issues are 1) not important to this administration and 2) not on the front page of every major newspaper. What strikes me is how Thompson purposefully ignores the fact that it is Congress - and in particular, two Republican **************************** politicians - who are not serious about defense issues and who are holding up appointments. No, this is a defense stooge who's retaliating because Obama and Gates are making tough and smart decisions that affect his clients. But that's not to say he's opinionated.
Interestingly, Thompson doesn't allow comments on his blog (to which I don't intent to link). I guess that's because he's so solid on defense industry facts that there's no need for him to dialogue with his readers. He misses the whole point of blogging, I think. Most of us think we're doing okay - for a bunch of ill-mannered ranters.
Comment