Althouse: "As part of its 'media monitoring,' the DHS seeks to track more than 290,000 global news sources as well as social media in over 100 languages..."

June 5, 2018

"As part of its 'media monitoring,' the DHS seeks to track more than 290,000 global news sources as well as social media in over 100 languages..."

"... including Arabic, Chinese and Russian, for instant translation into English. The successful contracting company will have '24/7 access to a password protected, media influencer database, including journalists, editors, correspondents, social media influencers, bloggers etc.' in order to 'identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event.' 'Any and all media coverage,' as you might imagine, is quite broad and includes 'online, print, broadcast, cable, radio, trade and industry publications, local sources, national/international outlets, traditional news sources, and social media.' The database will be browsable by 'location, beat and type of influencer,' and for each influencer, the chosen contractor should 'present contact details and any other information that could be relevant, including publications this influencer writes for, and an overview of the previous coverage published by the media influencer.' One aspect of the media coverage to be gathered is its 'sentiment.' Anyone else just pull their blanket up over them a little more tightly? Just me?"

From "Department Of Homeland Security Compiling Database Of Journalists And 'Media Influencers'" (Forbes).

I see the word "bloggers" in there, so I guess I'll be insulted if I'm not included. Is the government going to determine my "sentiment"? I can't believe they could get it right. I'm not even sure you who read me all the time are getting it right, but I'd be interested to see just how the government would get it wrong.

29 comments:

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: We are told on a near constant basis that Fox news isn't credible. I hope they start there with the censoring and the jailing. We need 100% pro-democrat Andrea Mitchell news.; 6/5/18, 8:14 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: The database will be browsable by 'location, beat and type of influencer,' and for each influencer, the chosen contractor should 'present contact details and any other information that could be relevant,

Chosen Contractor. AHA! We are being spied on. Especially the chief influencer (that would be you Althouse) I think you should have a badge made and wear it while blogging in your jammies. Chief Influencer!

This probably explains some of "those" commentators ..who shall remain unspoken. /wink

Be careful out there, or in here kids. We are being watched.

OK. Paranoia over. More coffee!; 6/5/18, 8:14 AM
rehajm said...: ...but I'd be interested to see just how the government would get it wrong

I suspect it will depend on the party in power. The deep staters will want to fuck with you a bit more so you vote for future President Schultz.

...in that vein: this week the CPA/MST spouse has been dealing with a client issue requiring the attention of the IRS. Normally an hour or two on the phone this time of year it's now the bureaucratic runaround, over and over for days. Here's a quote from an agent that actually returned a call: 'Yes he's the one you need to talk to and yes, he doesn't really speak English but it gets better the longer you talk to him...'

I suspect Homeland Security has been trained in a similar vein.; 6/5/18, 8:23 AM
MadisonMan said...: A Bureaucracy can only grow. This was an idea spun up by someone in DHS to create growth, and jobs, for cronies.; 6/5/18, 8:25 AM
Ray - SoCal said...: My take on your “sentiment”, curious on where I am wrong...

- Blogging for personal enjoyment, not because she needs the money.
- Trolls her readers a bit by being provocative
- Writes often as a person that argues both sides of an argument.
- Deliberately hides her political leanings at a Presidential level
- Bit of a free spirit, child of the 60’s
- Feminist
- Cultured - very deep into the English language. Reads the New Yorker.
- Gay rights supporter
- Does not suffer fools
- Biting and incisive
- married a really cool guy that assists her blogging; 6/5/18, 8:26 AM
rhhardin said...: They could mine it for good ideas.; 6/5/18, 8:26 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: The US Intelligence Community is disgracing itself.

This particular waste of resources is a good example.

The US Intelligence Community should not be worrying itself about foreigners influencing our politics.; 6/5/18, 8:38 AM
virgil xenophon said...: rehajim and spouse nail it square in the nuts..; 6/5/18, 8:39 AM
Lucien said...: Ah, but the NSA knows that Professor Althouse has for years been posting stylized versions of her own critique of her posts (her doubts) under the name “Shouting Thomas”.; 6/5/18, 9:04 AM
tim in vermont said...: Don’t worry, AI could suss out your vote for Hillary.; 6/5/18, 9:17 AM
tim in vermont said...: Is Shouting Thomas an influencer? I think so!; 6/5/18, 9:18 AM
tim in vermont said...: “The problem with the internet is that there are no gatekeepers!” - HRC

It will be like the Stasi, employing up to half of all Americans in some capacity. Chuck probably already has his resume in. I have a great name for it: The Matrix.; 6/5/18, 9:22 AM
tim in vermont said...: That line makes it sound as if the creation of this database could be a direct response to the rampant allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election — although President Donald Trump, who has normalized the term “fake news," can't seem to decide whether that's even an issue or not.

Yeah. The last thing we want is for Russia to provide the American people true information that the American media and cultural and political elites had already decided that we should not know! They are falling for the whole Global Warming Advocacy Fallacy: “Nobody could see the holes in our arguments if nobody told them!” This is one more subversion of American freedom in the name of Hillary’s pain at losing the election. Send her another pallet of gin, if her pain bothers you this much.

Wait until blog commenters start getting knocks at the door. That’s why I don’t have a blog, even a micro blog like Lazlo.; 6/5/18, 9:36 AM
tim in vermont said...: How far behind are “social credits”?

In the novel Infinite Jest, which, even though it is brilliant in places, I don’t recommend anybody read since it’s over a thousand pages and you have to read it twice to get it, but anyway, in that novel, it was the French Canadian separatists who used social media to cripple the United States. This gave it a kind of Boris and Natasha humor element.; 6/5/18, 9:40 AM
Jupiter said...: "Is the government going to determine my "sentiment"? I can't believe they could get it right. I'm not even sure you who read me all the time are getting it right, but I'd be interested to see just how the government would get it wrong."

I doubt the government will get it wrong in any interesting way. Remember, "the government" is largely composed of people who were lucky to find employment. They'll put you down as a Bernie supporter, or a Russian troll. Whatever the Boss is looking for this week.; 6/5/18, 10:22 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: ...I'd be interested to see just how the government would get it wrong.

I'm sure that will be presented at your trial...; 6/5/18, 11:09 AM
Rabel said...: The rest of the story.

Didn't Althouse do something similar when she was reading fashion magazines for an employer. I may have the facts wrong on that.; 6/5/18, 12:57 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Word is Althouse is also LWL, outlet for all her Natalie Portman fantasies, and mine.; 6/5/18, 2:03 PM
Roy Lofquist said...: "Big Brother is watching you." ~ "1984" by George Orwell.

"As literary political fiction and dystopian science-fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic novel in content, plot, and style. Many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, telescreen, 2 + 2 = 5, and memory hole, have entered into common usage since its publication in 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four popularised the adjective Orwellian, which describes official deception, secret surveillance, brazenly misleading terminology, and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four; 6/5/18, 2:28 PM
Chuck said...: Althouse if you are lucky the President will review your blog personally. After doing so, I expect that he will offer you the job of attorney general. You will decline, of course, after which he will offer you the Ambassadorship in Liechtenstein.; 6/5/18, 2:40 PM
BAS said...: Do you think that they don't monitor news and blogs? They would be careless if they didn't.
There are plenty of companies responding to that request who have been pitching this exact ability for many years.
The difference is that DHS is putting out the request in public.; 6/5/18, 2:53 PM
Rockport Conservative said...: I am surprised to read this as I had assumed this to be the case for many years. I would be surprised if this had NOT happened earlier and is ongoing. I am beginning to be one who believes in conspiracies.; 6/5/18, 3:04 PM
PM said...: I think you're clear. I often read it as Alehouse.; 6/5/18, 3:15 PM
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SLEEPING BEAUTY AMPUH DI RIAU; 6/5/18, 3:23 PM
Spaceman said...: Much of "spy" work involves reading the local newspapers and listening to TV shows. And all sorts of people love to brag on social media. As good of a way as any and maybe better than most to keep on eye on what's coming down the turnpike; 6/5/18, 4:15 PM
Spaceman said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/5/18, 4:16 PM
wildswan said...: Well, if you could gain access to the evaluation, (which I think you could by FOIA) then you could challenge it; because whatever the evaluation said, some commenter here could be shown to believe the direct opposite about you.

Probably it will all be by some word-counting algorithmn and we could all help the government by using the same simple words and thoughts all the time (some do already); or we could Trump the AL Gore ithm by thrusting in words in place of periods, for instance schlimazel

Clinton is great, I support her for 2020 schlimazel It is a lie that she wears a back-brace, that hump is a picnic-knapsack with her Chardonnay schlimazel Joe Biden is a schlimazel schlimazel; 6/5/18, 7:00 PM
tim in vermont said...: This is about as scary a story as it gets. The only good thing about it is that they are going to accept. some smoke and mirrors AI bid and it’s not going to work.; 6/5/18, 7:03 PM
mikee said...: Every time I successfully get through the TSA hellhole that is the lobby of Denver International Airport, I raise both hands over my head and extend my middle fingers in a salute to the security service keeping our airways safe. Every time, the last TSA agent, sitting at a desk just before the escalators, smiles or laughs out loud.

Let it be recorded that similar responses to the DHS will be offered, gratis.; 6/5/18, 9:28 PM