Yesterday the Army issued a “clarification” to its new rules governing soldier-bloggers, stressing that “in no way will every blog post/update a soldier makes on his or her blog need to be monitored or first approved by an immediate supervisor.”

The folks at Entropic Memes call that “bumpf.”

Disingenious bumpf, at that, which is directly contradicted in no less than four places by the actual text of Army Regulations 530-1. It’s a PR stunt, and I think everyone so far recognizes it as such, because even the most gung-ho milblogs to print the text of the “fact sheet” so far have neglected to include the final bullet point, found on page two – “Commands have the authority to enact local regulations in addition to what AR 530-1 stipulates on this topic” (emphasis mine.)

AR 530-1 isn’t a guideline to be followed where convenient, or a set of “best practices” that the Army is expected to try to implement. It’s a set of regulations, set out in (PR bumpf notwithstanding) completely unambiguous black-and-white terms.

Jack Holt, blogger liaison at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, acknowledges the confusion: “I’m still waiting on the Army to clarify the clarification.”

But he adds that the new regs simply codify what has been policy since 2005, and that the spirit of that policy is quite simple: “It requires soldiers to represent the Army well and to make sure they don’t get anyone killed.”