Advice from an FSO blogger

A fellow FSO and web logger emailed me over the New Year's holiday and asked:

"I’m a new FS blogger, and you’re sort of the legend in the field, so was wondering if you had any advice or tips for a new blogger. I notice that out of all the Foreign Service blogs I’ve read, yours is the only one that touches on foreign policy, and you use a fictitious name. Is there some rule (other than the required disclaimer) that prevents FSOs from blogging? Has blogging every caused you problems with the Foreign Service? Anything else I haven’t thought of that you wish you’d known when you started out?"

My response included:

"Advice? Hmm, how about don't? Sure, I use a fictitious name (taken from Herman Waulk's The Winds of War) and fictitious post & country (taken from Frederick Forsyth's The Deceiver). My political views, such as they are, don't have anything to do with how I perform my job; after all, we're all professional diplomats here. So I don't want to cloud the rating issues at EER time, but at the same time I have the same Constitutional rights to my own opinions, for instance, as did "X" when he wrote for Foreign Affairs back in the early Cold War days.

I haven't had any professional issues crop up related to the web log. I was more than a little startled the first time Liam Schwarz quoted/linked me on his Consular Corner. I keep waiting for a polite call from the Seventh Floor to tell me to knock it off; perhaps with the new administration.....

Anyhow, my only advice would be this:

As with anything we (FSOs) do, never do/say anything you're not prepared to explain before a congressional committee;

Don't engage in gossip-mongering, especially about your colleagues and/or superiors;

Don't violate the privacy of your colleagues, the fellow countrymen/women for whom you may provide American Citizen Services, or the foreign nationals you may provide (or not) visa services;

Encourage and applaud the things you feel the Department or the Service is doing right; be judicious in your public criticism (after all, Damning-with-faint-praise is something of an FS tradition);

Take advantage of the many opportunities to explain/defend your profession, the Service, the Department, when commenting at other web logs or when unfair/unbalanced media coverage slams us. As a Department, our PD effort is on the weak side, with lots of room for improvement, and as "new media" proliferates and increases in importance, it's incumbent upon individual FSOs to help "carry the water." It's not about being a mindless cheerleader, it's about combatting outdated and pernicious stereotypes that interfere with accomplishing our core missions. An informed citizenry is a bulwark of democracy."

I also noted:

"The notion that I am any sort of "legend" is one I find truly appalling."