Sleep, at the moment, is out of the question, so I figured I might take an initial stab at why blogging, and military blogging in particular, is in keeping with the highest traditions of Gonzo journalism, in which I believe so much that I've had the damn symbol tattooed on my arm.

Wikipedia's definitions of Gonzo and Gonzo Journalism are both unforgiveably short of the mark of describing Gonzo Journalism for what it is, as are many of the eulogies written to Hunter S. Thompson after his February 20 death this year.

Briefly, here's the idea. Journalism usually attempts to be objective, a term derived from Latin grammar, the "object" of a sentence. An object is observed by the subject, and its properties have nothing to do with the disposition of the subject of the sentence.

Philosophically, this means that "objective" refers to a point of view that describes the "object" -- whatever it is that's being described -- as something that does not depend on whoever it is who's describing it.

Oppositely, "subjective" is used to describe a method of description that is told through the perceptions of the subject: the writer.

Thompson's theory was that pure "objective" journalism could not be achieved, since there was no way for any single writer to completely detach himself from  his own experience of a specific situation. Therefore, he could be more accurate by simply admitting to his own subjective experience of whatever was happening, and to write about it in his own voice, with the audience understanding that fact from the outset.

If subjective writing is not as accurate as supposed "objective" reporting, which is what Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and every other media outlet pretend to do, it's certainly more honest.

How does this relate to blogs -- and specifically, military blogs?

That's easy. Blogs are the impressions of people who read and digest the news based on their own stated bias. Military blogs are particularly subjective, especially in the case of deployed military bloggers, because their most important material gives their audiences a chance to read about events from an honest, first-hand, and very subjective point of view, and no pretensions are made to the contrary.

This is valuable, because the first-hand account of soldier-bloggers so often contradict the supposedly "objective" reports disseminated by major news outlets.

It's the Gonzo journalist instinct that leads these soldier-bloggers to relate their unedited, first-hand stories, and it's for this reason that they're valuable.

It's late, and there's a paper to put out tomorrow. Let me know if I've left something out.

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BlackFive has a roundup of milbloggers here.