Whose by-line is it, anyway?

Now we know why those right-wing blogs all sound like they are written by the Bush Administration.
It turns out that they pretty much are.
Their ability to parrot whatever is handed to them without critical thought makes them admirably suited for future work at Fox News.

From The Minnesota Monitor

Defense Department blog coordinator hired for RNC

Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 1:10:02 PM

Andy Birkey

The 2008 Republican National Convention has hired James Davis as communications coordinator, a move that bodes well for bloggers, particularly those on the right.
Before the current move to the RNC, Davis' job was strategic communications in the Public Affairs Office of the Secretary of Defense where, according to Ken Silverstein of Harper's Magazine, he helped pass Iraq war and War on Terrorism talking points from the Department of Defense to hand-picked bloggers.
During almost daily conference calls, bloggers and online journalists, including prominent Minnesota bloggers Scott Johnson and John Hinderaker of Power Line and Ed Morrissey Captain's Quarters, are connected with military personnel during the Blogger's Roundtable.
"The list of bloggers who regularly participate in the conference calls is overwhelmingly conservative and friendly to the goals of the Bush Administration," wrote Silverstein. "The government is picking certain people as 'surrogates' to the exclusion of many others and feeding them news."
According to the Department of Defense, the program, once called the "Surrogates Operation," has as its mission providing "source material for stories in the blogosphere concerning the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Global War on Terrorism by bloggers and online journalists."
"A few moderates are invited to take part, but the list of participants skews far, far to the right. The Pentagon essentially feeds participants the talking points, bullet points, and stories it wants told," wrote Silverstein.
While it's not surprising that the RNC hired someone with such a close history working with pro-Iraq bloggers, it will certainly ensure access between convention officials and bloggers such as Powerline and Captain's Quarters.