What should we call "intelligence" now?

[Paragon]

This is not an attempt to further muddy the English language -- rather, to accurately represent what we're talking about here.

I like the distinction Richard Clarke made about this in Against All Enemies -- any data they get from their sources are rumors until they are checked and/or verified with additional sources, when they can then be appropriately termed "intelligence".

[FloridaPat]

1. live fiction. It' real but not really.

[redstateblues]

7. Military Intelligence is a contradiction in terms!

[troublemaker]

2. Theory

[Jerseygirltoo]

3. factoids

if it comes from the CIA. Talking points if it comes from the Pentagon

[Make7]

4. Information.

The word "intelligence" implies that a person, or persons, made an effort to verify the information collected in some manner in order to determine its reliability.

The word "information" just means that they have gathered various data together. It may be real, it may be fake - but it is still "information."

-Make7

[Paragon]

5. I dunno...

I think what "Curve Ball" was spreading was disinformation, not information.

[Make7]

6. Disinformation is still information.

The prefix is meant to indicate that the data revealed is known to be misleading.

I offer "information" as a neutral term. It does not indicate if the data is good or bad, right or wrong, truth or lies. Just that it is data that has been collected. Maybe even analyzed. Maybe even corroborated. But not necessarily.

-Make7

[shockingelk]

8. I think English is already adequate

The problems is that they characterized the intelligence as "not assertions" but "facts".

It was how they modified "intelligence", for instance saying "solid intelligence" instead of "uncorroborated intelligence" or "disputed intelligence"