FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
by Steve Alexander on Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 9:04am.
Yesterday evening, very late, I posted an article entitled "Bernie Sanders, Ed Schultz, MSNBC, Income Disparity and the Rich Getting Richer." By 8am I had received an email from the publisher, Examiner.com attempting to censor the article less than 8 hours after publication AND before business hours at their west coast offices. I find them to afford editorial freedom, and in fact praised them yesterday for that. However it IS very much imperfect. I've found that they use the 'local pertinence' argument whenever it is convenient to censor the most controversial articles. It's worth noting that this article praises the only member of the U.S. Senate who is an avowed socialist and a member of neither major political party (except my own lame duck Senator soon to say bye-bye and good riddance to his dubious public service, Joe Lieberman) Bernie Sanders. Often they refuse to label newsworthy articles as newsworthy (which would result in more hits for the articles) and my very first submission on food and veganism was deleted altogether--the only time that ever happened. I find that the more economic justice that is involved in the article the more the censorship is likely to emerge. For some reason the article has not been deleted as of this hour (8:53am 6/22/11) and I posted right on the article about their email to me announcing their censorship and my own terse email responses. I'm also publishing this note at my blogspot immediately. First Amendment Matters! And the link to this article is:http://www.examiner.com/government-in-hartford/bernie-sanders-ed-schultz-msnbc-income-disparity-and-rich-getting-richer.
And here is the note I attatched to that article including the email exchange between myself and Examiner.com:
EXAMINER.COM HAS SENT ME THE FOLLOWING EMAIL IN AN EFFORT TO CENSOR THIS ARTICLE:
Dear Steven Alexander,
Thank you for publishing your recent article headlined Bernie Sanders, Ed Schultz, MSNBC, Income Disparity and Rich Getting Richer! Unfortunately, our review team has decided that it does not meet our criteria for local coverage. Although you cannot resubmit this story, here are a few easy ways to localize your future stories: Local Info: Add local information or links to local resources that relate to the topic. Local Perspective: Provide a local perspective on the story that is unique to your town or city. Local Angle: Focus the story on a local resident, business or place illustrative of the subject. To help readers relate to your local story, establish the relevance to your location in the lead paragraph or first 100 words.... Find more helpful tips on local coverage in Examiner University.This does not mean that your article has been removed from the site, only that it does not count as a qualified article for the local incentive. Only articles published in the 2.0 pub tool are eligible. Please contact your Category Manager if you have further questions.
Thank you, Examiner.com Review Team.
" I'm not certain why the Censors at Examiner.com have not yet removed this article, I HAVE replied to their emails as follows:
'CENSORSHIP STINKS. I will report on this censorship. Thank you. Steve
And, btw, no thanks on the 'helpful tips on local coverage in Examiner University.' Again, thanks for other matters besides repeated efforts at censorship,
Hartford Government Examiner Steve Alexander.' "
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