You May Be A Yellow Journalist If...

Below is a simple list of information to see if you qualify as a "Yellow Journalist." While you read and think about this list, try to guess which non-mainstream news media they came from.

1)For any reason, at any time, and depending on my mood, your comment may be deleted or edited with or without an explanation or warning. Comment on this blog at your own risk. If you insist on an explanation, read this. If you still don’t like it, tell your story walking. The KING of this domain has spoken.

The rules below are still in effect, but number one gets to the bottom line in a hurry, don’t you think?

2) Do not call me names! Please don’t offend or insult the blog host. If I get into specifics, this post would never end. Just use common sense. Don’t call myself or other commenters names, either. Attack the argument, not the person.

3) I am king of www.ontheborderline.net because this is my weblog. I pay for the hosting and I make the rules.

You have no First Amendment rights on this blog. My right to free speech is protected on this site, not yours.

Mini-civics lesson: The First Amendment restricts government, not private citizens, from infringing on your right to free speech. On this blog, your speech is a privilege. On your blog, your speech is a right. Learn the distinction.

4) No profanity or quasi-profanity. I hate it.

5) Stay on-topic. While I won’t delete off-topic comments, I prefer they be relevant to the post. If you have an off-topic question or issue, e-mail me.

6) I reserve the right to edit or delete any comment for any reason. If I edit your comment, most of the time I’ll add a notation, such as “Edited by the Admin” or “Nice try, troll!”

7) You get one warning before you are banned, although there are exceptions (If I really like you, you’ll get three warnings.). Being banned from my domain means your ISP is blocked from accessing the entire site.

8) Trackbacks leading to offensive posts where I’m the subject will be deleted.
---

These are the guidelines of to be a participant on the www.ontheborderline.net blog. It's very interesting to note that the OTBL admin lays out such restrictive and intimidating guidelines for someone who touts free speech so loudly. He wants it both ways -- his way on the blog and his way in the media.

The slant on his blog is obviously severely slanted to the subjectivity of the OTBL opinion. In the local newspapers, the slant is to a more an objective approach. Certainly the local newspapers play a role in community boostering. TO some degree, their livelihood. A blog like OTBL is a small, focused group of status quo malcontents who prefer to dismantled the community, if it means being able to keep one additional penny from the government.

OTBL is an internet soapbox that does not rely on the community for it's support. It's brand of "journalism" is the "ready, fire, aim" variety with a very twitchy, trigger finger. Local papers trend to practice the "read, aim, fire" approach with a slow trigger finger. Don't confuse the roles of these two information outlets.