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News from our servicemembers in the air, on the front or with the fleet.

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CHINFO Tramples on USAFNS.COM's Rights to Publish Public Domain News

Why should you be concerned about a small website?

Because if this precedent is allowed to stand, CHINFO could order FHTNC to stop sending media organizations their releases - individually, or collectively! He would need absolutely no further justification if one publishes them on the Internet. He could stop the releases if one stepped on his spit-shined shoes at a cocktail party, or because one parts their hair on the wrong side, or any other trivial non-related matter - using "National Security" as his trump card. That could affect most newspapers, radio and TV stations that have websites on the Internet. In a worst case scenario, CHINFO could order all US Navy and US Marine Corps activities to cease sending your organization any news releases at all.

What a can you do?

I implore the media to put the situation outlined in this document in front of the public. The Navy will continue to deny their releases unless there is national media attention and the Navy's action is exposed to public scrutiny. Someone of national prominence is needed to investigate the situation that is threatening the rights of a small website's right to public domain news releases. If Chief of Naval Information (CHINFO) can make an arbitrary decision to stop distributing public domain releases to a small website, who is next? It is a dangerous precedent. Security issues were cited as justification for the action, but that claim does not hold up in the light of analysis. If you are concerned about this situation, please Recommend this page to your friends.


Question: How many FHTNC Releases are there on the Internet?

Answer: AT LEAST 32,000

On 12 June 2003, CHINFO ordered FHTNC to cease sending USAFNS their home town news stories. Security of our troops and their families was cited as the justification. The very same stories are published by newspapers in hardcopy and on the Internet. See "NWSA3191. Fleet Home Town News Center hits 1 million" for a 1997 Navy Wire Service news release on the subject. The sheer number of FHTNC releases on the Internet is a testament to the performance of the FHTNC and its staff.

In view of the fact that large numbers of the FHTNC stories were being posted on the Internet prior to the USAFNS website being launched (28 January 2003). It is extremely hard to accept the supposition that another website posting the same releases would increase that risk. In my opinion, USAFNS has been singled out, and the stories are being capriciously witheld. It is unfair, and if this action is followed to its logical conclusion, FHTNC will cease sending hometown news stories to newspapers, and therefore that part of FHTNC's operation would be closed down.

We wish to start posting FHTNC releases again, and provide our troops with the morale boost that comes in seeing your name in print. The families of our troops get a morale boost also, and that is important, but not nearly as important as our troops morale. Hopefully, our opinion survey will help convince CHINFO that our troops are better served by directing FHTNC to resume sending the releases to USAFNS.

On 1 December 2003, USAFNS performed a study to determine how many of those releases are actually on the Internet. Google search engine was used for the study. Google spiders (re-indexes) over a million websites a day, so the number may vary slightly from day to day.

The table below is set up so that you can click on the links to verify the numbers. Simply click on one of the links, note the number of pages (Results) indicated in the blue bar (upper right). Then surf around through some of the results that Google lists. It would be constructive to count the number of releases on several pages (include USN, USMC and USCG personnel), and then average them. By comparing this average with the estimate of 2.5 releases per page, you will be able to see that the estimate is very conservative. In the study below, every effort has been made to be very, very conservative. It is probable that the actual number exceeds 100,000.

We ask that you do two things:
1 - Study the table below, and make up your own mind.
2 - Recommend this page to your friends

What do you think? Decide for yourself!!
Statistics Collected 1 December 2003.

Pages  Searched For: (Click Link to see results)
1460     Navy Seaman
  381     Navy Airman
    11     Navy Constructionman
  163     Navy Hosptialman
1870     Navy Petty Officer
  347     Navy Chief Petty
    64     Navy Senior Chief
    37     Navy Master Chief
  699     Navy Ensign
1210     Navy Lt
1160     Navy Lieutenant
  231     Navy Cmdr
1870     Navy Commander
  661     Navy Capt
1340     Navy Captain
  560     Navy Rear
    29     Navy Vice Adm
  193     Navy Vice Admiral
  692     Navy Admiral
    83     Marine Corps Private
1010     Marine Corps Pvt
1080     Marine Corps PFC
  897     Marine Corps CPL
    55     Marine Corps Corporal
    85     Marine Corps LCPL
  665     Marine Corps Lance CPL
  716     Marine Corps SGT
  144     Marine Corps Sergeant
    93     Marine Corps Staff SGT
    23     Marine Corps Staff Sergeant
    55     Marine Corps Gunnery SGT
  144     Marine Corps 1st
    32     Marine Corps Second
    59     Marine Corps First
  148     Marine Corps Capt
  109     Marine Corps Captain
  127     Marine Corps Maj
  166     Marine Corps Major
    67     Marine Corps Lt Col
    63     Marine Corps Lieutenant
    54     Marine Corps Col
    84     Marine Corps Colonel
    34     Marine Corps Brigadier
  268     Marine Corps General
    35     Navy Reserve Petty
    11     Navy Reserve LT
    55     Marine Corps Reserve Pvt
    11     Marine Corps Reserve Private
    80     Marine Corps Reserve PFC
    12     Marine Corps Reserve CPL
    10     Marine Corps Reserve Lance CPL
19,453 - Total Pages
 -6,619 - Less Seniors (O-6 and above, E-7 and above).
12,834 - PAGES with FHTNC releases.

12,834 = Pages with FHTNC releases
   X 2.5 Releases per page (Estimated)
32,085 = Est. TOTAL FHTNC releases on Internet
Notes:
Searches with less than 10 pages omitted from list.
Senior ranks are sometimes the subject of FHTNC releases, but generally, they are not.
The number of releases for individual ranks increase and decrease, but the total remains fairly level.



Discussion:
  • Estimated count of FHTNC releases on the web: Some pages have as many as 50 releases, while some pages have only one release. A very, very conservative estimate is that on average, there are about 2.5 releases per page. This indicates that the total releases available on the Internet is in excess of 32,000. If the average is 10, the total releases available on the Internet is over 128,000. And, the average could be higher than 10.


  • Description of Google Search Arguments used: The Google arguments used are comprised of the following elements:

    • Branch and Rank - i.e. "Navy Seaman"


    • Relationship - '(son OR daughter)' in all cases. This is one of the unique characteristics of a FHTNC release. Here is a sample of the first line of a FHTNC release: 'January 28, 2003(FHTNC)--Navy Seaman Recruit John P. Jones, son of...'. Many times, newspapers remove everything before and including the two dashes. This tends to obscure the fact that the information comes from a FHTNC release.


    • IGNORE Instructions:

      '-death' & '-died' instruct Google to ignore pages that have the word death or died in them. This is to eliminate obituaries from the results.
      '-announced' instructs Google to ignore pages that have the word announced in them. This is to eliminate engagement and wedding announcements from the results.
      '-retired' instructs Google to ignore pages that have the word retired in them. This eliminates stories about retirees.
      '-guilty' instructs Google to ignore pages with the word guilty on them. This is to eliminate hard news releases about servicemembers.


  • Sample Google Search Argument:

    (son OR daughter) AND "navy seaman" -death -died -announced -retired -guilty


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