Another import from China?

Georgia10 cites a DOD report (full text here) that CENTCOM has formed a team which

contacts bloggers to inform the writers about any given topic that may have been posted on their site. This outreach effort enables the team to offer complete information to bloggers by inviting them to visit CENTCOM's Web site for news releases, data or imagery.
The team engages bloggers who are posting inaccurate or untrue information, as well as bloggers who are posting incomplete information. They extend a friendly invitation to all bloggers to visit the command's Web site.

This is, so far, a kinder, gentler practice than China uses to control what appears on or is available from the Internet. But:

• Why should we believe the military's view of this stuff? Remember the Lincoln group!
• How long until the "friendly invitation" proves less than friendly and more coercive than inviting? Remember that, "The team's motto is 'Engage'": as in engage the enemy?
• As somebody responding to Georgia10's post said, it "represents military funding that could have gone to something useful, say, like body armor."

Georgia10 also cites a bit more of the report that says, "the news stories the military generates are 'very factual.'" Not just rather factual, which is a great relief. And after all, we know that "The public wants to hear these good stories." And the very factual facts are oh so good.

One respondent to the piece offered a list of factual questions for CENTCOM, such as:

• The number of Iraqi civilian deaths since the start of the war is: ___.
• The number of Iraqi civilian injuries since the start of the war is:___.
• The number of Weapons of Mass Destruction found in Iraq since the start of the conflict is:_____.
• The number of Iraqis currently active in unauthorized militias or death squads is _____.
• The number of power plants repaired or rebuilt since the start of the war is ______.
• The number of power plants repaired or rebuilt more than once since the start of the war is _____.
• The increase in homes served by electricity over the pre-war number is _______.
• The total amount that the United States Government has paid Halliburton is ______.

We'll see if he gets very factual answers!

(So, did Walldon get to NZ just in time, or what?)