Yesterday morning I started with Dan Gillmor's Citizen's Media panel (good summary at Scared Monkey via Glenn Reynolds), and I heard grim stories about litigation against bloggers.

That kind of stuff that makes my blood boil, and I wanted to hear more but then my cell phone rang, and I had to run out in the hall. The problem was, the military blogging panel was upstairs and there was no way I could attend both. I might have split personality tendencies, but they don't extend to the physical realm, and I am yet unable to be in two places at once.

With this in mind, after I finished my urgent phone call (it was dog health care related), I figured that rather than reinterrupt, I'd wander upstairs to Robin Burk's panel on military blogging already in progress.

I was fortunate enough to enter just in time to hear Donald Sensing discuss not only military blogging, but why he blogs, and how he started. He said that he can't think about something until he writes about it: "My way of understanding the world." (That really struck a note with me, as it's exactly what I do, too.)

Donald Sensing started blogging with primitive Adobe software and hand wrote all his first links himself. Sergeant Stryker forwarded a link to one of his posts to Glenn Reynolds, which gave him an Instalanche, and one thing led to another.

Hearing military bloggers reminded me of the dangers and difficulties in writing about stuff you don't really know about. I don't like doing that, and much as I support the war, I haven't written much about miltary matters. As it is, it's tough enough for me to write about things I do know about, but being a civilian blogging about military stuff is not for me.

What follows is from mostly unedited notes in my laptop.

Bill Hobbs (who has done a fantastic job all the way) spoke and said that while he's not a milblogger, he helped set up a milblogger (Lance in Iraq) who got 17,000 hits. Thunder6 was another one. The soldiers over there feel they don't get real news, but biased coverage -- coverage at odds with what they see.

Sisyphus said that the media reinforces steroetypes. The military tends to be cloistered from civilian world. Blackfive brings a personal face. Greyhawk puts his personal touch on things. The Mainstream Media aren't there and haven't served. False sense of "objectivity" -- "wrong" to personalize...

Ed Cone mentioned the "Diary of a US soldier." Good reporting, described professionalism under fire. Real war story. Greensboro paper published it as a story.

Next there was a live feed from a soldier stationed at Fort Knox. The soldier (T blog?) spoke about the importance of blogs to get the news they want. Matt Sheffield asked about embeds. Some are very supportive; others are negative.

BlackFive also spoke live:

-- the main issue with milblogging is the lack of understanding in MSM over what members of the military go through. Can get in trouble because of political sensitivity, so confidentiality is necessary.

Mustang23 (running overtime) also spoke:

-- never thought of himself as a writer. Trying to learn about himself and writing style. Needed hobby and there it was. (Something I can also relate to.)

-- he wants to make the military look better. People only see negatives. Blogging is a way to communicate with family and friends.

Robin Burk concluded by telling Mustang23: "We want you to know how much we support you."

It was quite moving to see these guys right there on video. Their story is not being told as it should be. On the flight back from Nashville, the grandmother of a Marine in training told me that one of the reasons her son wants to be a Marine is to help people get their freedom and have a better lives. She had the same old complaint: you only hear bad things about the military. It's interesting and ironic that the guys who go the extra mile and put their lives on the line for stuff like free speech can't take the latter for granted any more than the rest of us. They also have to go the extra mile to practice free speech.

Free speech isn't always as free as we might think -- in more ways than one.

UPDATE: Sisyphus has more information and links.