News Mission Blog Editorial Guidelines

Thank you for stopping by this page. As we grow, it becomes necessary to state what few guidelines we follow. The blog itself is successful because, 1) it is consistent in presentation, writer to writer and 2) it's well written. We have a high standard of standardness, but that's our goal!

How we choose writers. As the editor, I'm looking for well-written, thoughtful essays reflecting local issues, passion and a willingness for civic action. Suggestions are welcome. Our list of bloggers are people with something to say, an ability to say it often and they're active in the community. They may have frequent letters to the editor published. That's the kind of person we look for, across the spectrum of political viewpoints.

Content considerations. I have a "hands off" policy about blogger content. The understanding we have is that each writer is responsible for his or her post content. When writing about public figures, you must know what constitutes libelous material: harmful intent (malice) must be present, in addition to knowing what you state is not the truth.

To put it another way, "truth is the best defense" when making a statement of fact. Meaning becomes more elastic when it's an opinion or written as a satire. I'm no lawyer, but you've just read a number of "keywords" which you could Google and read some of the results for more in-depth analysis of this topic. Also see the movie: Absence of Malice and the whole scoop about Larry Flynt's favorable Supreme Court ruling.

Style considerations. How you say what's on your mind is important because it can add dimension to your writing.

Online, STATEMENTS IN ALL CAPS are seen as "shouting;" we can get our point across without it. However, you can use phrases in italics or bold, as above, to serve as subheadlines or just to give emphasis.

If one wants to refer readers to another web page for details, link to it. Simply quote a phrase from the other source page to illustrate the point you want to make, or fresh observation you offer.

The main body of our posts are presented in good, standard, black, Georgia font of "normal" size. Nothing larger. The title headline is in red to grab our reader's attention. Include one or more keywords in it!

Spam free techniques. I'm using the best anti-spam tricks I know. Writers may want their direct email address displayed for feedback (or not!). In all cases, I use source code "HTML equivalents" to display email addresses in this blog. It stops the emailbots which constantly look for any email address they can find.

Comments from the readers. We begin with anyone being able to post an anonymous comment. If the language in comments stays within the bounds of decorum, we can leave it that way. Writers can be notified of any new comment posting, if they wish.

More guidelines may be added from time to time, but I like to think "less is more." Thank you! Sphere: Related Content