Homeland Security Begins to Compile a Database of Journalists, Bloggers and Social Media Influencers

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Mod: Back when anybody actually cared about what was being said there, the following remarks were left on the so-called Arcadia's Best website by some humorless little knob who uses the anonymous handle "Edmund L." At the time I thought it was just about the funniest thing I had ever read there.

"As an Arcadian resident I’m curious and puzzled by how some of our residents will take so seriously what the infamous Sierra Madre Tattler writes about what’s going on in our town and in the Arcadia election. First of all, we seriously question the legitimacy of this blog. We never see any authorship to any of those articles. All the comments following the articles are anonymous as well. Can people believe in those articles and comments? Yet, some campaign helpers of this election are using these articles to send to different communities and even posted those on the Nextdoor application, only to be taken down as illegal posting by Next Door administration ... He always calls us Arcadians Peacockians and calls Arcadia Peacocktown with a rather disrespectful tone. His articles are even more out of touch of reality, they are full of misleading information, personal attacks, and sometime pure lies ... I would like to urge our own city news paper to be very cautious and prudent when they decided to publish articles with that seemingly illegal blog. This will ruin Arcadia Weekly’s reputation and credibility, soon to lose subscriptions and commercials when they found out the connections."

I'm not sure how many subscriptions a free distribution newspaper can lose, but you know how some people will say anything to make their point. And trust me, I've been kicked off far better websites than Next Door. Obviously City Council meeting gadfly Edmund L. did not make his points that well since his candidate, Aloha Bob Harbicht, just lost his second City Council race in two years. But where I might have underestimated Edmund L. is with his comment that The Tattler could be an "illegal blog." You know, like many blogs are in China, or in any other similar third world dictatorship. According to the Huffington Post he may have been on to something.

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Homeland Security To Compile A Database Of Journalists, Bloggers And Influencers (Huffington Postlink): The Department of Homeland Security sparked concerns among media circles after news spread that the agency was creating an online database to monitor journalists, bloggers, social media influencers and others. Word got out after Bloomberg Government surfaced a job posting from DHS seeking a contractor for a “media monitoring services” project. The job entails creating a searchable database that has the ability to track about 290,000 news sources, both foreign and domestic, according to the DHS’s statement of work.

The contractor will help DHS monitor “traditional news sources as well as social media, identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event,” the job description reads.

“Services shall provide media comparison tools, design and rebranding tools, communication tools, and the ability to identify top media influencers.”

The online platform should also be able to instantly translate media from 100 languages, including Chinese and Russian, into English. It should also be able to analyze the coverage’s “sentiment” and “momentum.”

With President Donald Trump’s aggressive rhetoric against the mainstream news ― he once labeled journalists as the “enemy of the people” ― many in the media industry saw the database as yet another attack on the free press.

Department Of Homeland Security Compiling Database Of Journalists And 'Media Influencers'(Forbeslink): In today’s installment of "I’m Not Terrified, You Are,"Bloomberg Government reports on a FedBizOpps.gov posting by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with the relatively benign-sounding subject “Media Monitoring Services.”

The details of the attached Statement of Work, however, outline a plan to gather and monitor the public activities of media professionals and influencers and are enough to cause nightmares of constitutional proportions, particularly as the freedom of the press is under attack worldwide. And "attack" is not hyperbolic.

Every day, journalists face serious consequences including physical violence, imprisonment and death. A few days ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists launched its annual Free The Press campaign to raise awareness about imprisoned journalists throughout the world.

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On May 3, UNESCO will once again mark World Press Freedom Day"to inform citizens of violations of press freedom — a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered." Meanwhile, the United States government, traditionally one of the bastions of press freedom, is about to compile a list of professional journalists and "top media influencers," which would seem to include bloggers and podcasters, and monitor what they're putting out to the public.

What could possibly go wrong? A lot.

Mod: So who knows, maybe Edmund L's desires could come true. No more pestiferous blogger to disrupt the campaign message of whatever development industry funded meat puppet he will be genuflecting to during the next election. America could soon become more like the country Edmund L left behind than he ever dreamed possible.

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