Comments on Errata: Donald Rumsfeld: "Pods are there"

I didn't say anything about the relative importanc...

2008-01-28T17:25:00.000-05:00

I didn't say anything about the relative importance of the channels he mentioned. Radio is certainly the most common form of mass communication in big swaths of the world. He should have mentioned cell phones as well, which in many places are more important than email or computers.

It still doesn't follow that email and radio and, er... pods... should be lumped together. By doing so Rumsfeld reveals a misunderstanding of media in general, and specifically the degree to which it can or should be manipulated. He has a heavy-handed, top-down mindset that is antithetical to the way modern communications work. Which was evidenced by the fiasco that was the Office of Strategic Influence. We spent millions of dollars to embarrass ourselves and reduce our strategic influence. It didn't just fail, it set us back, and that failure justifies skepticism at this latest proposal. I don't necessarily disagree with the goal, but Rumsfeld has proven that he's not capable of meeting it.

But mostly I was just making fun of the word "pods." This is Wordie, not Foreign Affairs.

Or else he was actually talking about "multiple ch...

2008-01-28T16:54:00.000-05:00

Or else he was actually talking about "multiple channels for information" like he said he was. There are swaths of places across the globe where radio is an important means of communication. Just because it's not transmitted in bits doesn't mean it's less important.

Perhaps he has in mind the Greek stem for 'foot' (...

2008-01-24T16:04:00.000-05:00

Perhaps he has in mind the Greek stem for 'foot' (as in tripod), i.e. delivering messages on foot. Showing he's equally in touch with both recent and traditional technologies of communication, you see.

Perhaps.