Enough is enough

An opinion and editorial piece concerning contemporary so called journalism.

As a writer it has been a difficult three months; to say the least.

Never in thirty years as a published writer have I seen so many changes and ridiculous requirements from so called editorial teams and editors. It is literally beyond belief.

Changes in grammar usage are requested by outsourced “so called editors which hardly speak English, much less know correct written grammar. These “editor want to be’s” insist on grammatical changes which are definitely wrong; my late Miami Herald editor Bernie would turn over in his grave if he knew these kinds of things were going on.

Then the straw that broke this camel’s back was the rules for utilizing “Politically Correct” terminology. The list of words and terms which are no longer allowed is astonishing. They are actually requesting their writers to attend their own on-line university to learn what not to say and how to say it, so as not to offend anyone.

As this is an opinion/editorial piece, those of you more literary and grammatically knowledgeable, please forgive the use of first person here but this is very personal.

Let me say that this is not a complaint piece but rather an observation (which is a lot of what we will do here) and expression of literary frustration. I had read of some of these things going on but I had never experienced any of it first hand; I have now.

Many of you are aware of my long history of writing and have followed the past five years of my work published on three well known media sites which will remain nameless in order not to incriminate many good people still connected with these media sites.

These articles and columns on a variety of subjects were then linked to Facebook, Twitter and many other social media outlets. Analytics have shown both search and combined followings of all social media sights of my work averaging around 39,000 monthly; not too shabby, if I do say.

It has taken many hours of hard work over the years to develop such interest.

I want to thank those of you who have taken the time to read my articles; especially those in the legalization of cannabis movement, living with epilepsy, Christian Counseling and Conservative Politics who have been so very vocal in commenting and sharing of my articles.

For those of you not aware of my past professional writing and journalism experience, please visit http://www.outlawobserver.com/#!about/cjg9 to find out more. For those who have forgotten, you might want to review my updated bio; there could be some things about me you didn’t know.

I admit I never attended journalism school and didn’t major in English.

It even took me five years to get my undergraduate degree. Yes folks, the degrees I hold did not come easy but I do hold three earned degrees.

Although I have no journalism or English degrees, I was eventually hired by the Miami Herald as a writer first, then eventually made a Religious Editor where I learned a great deal. You didn’t work for a Knight Newspaper back in those days without doing things correct. There were no computers; only typewriters, copy boards, runners, copy boys and the editor and the chief. You did it right or you were fired; thankfully I was never fired.

I worked for the Herald for two years and only quit to go back to college full time.

I then went to work for one of the first local cable news companies and the local NBC affiliate as a freelance news script writer; Teleprompters were still a few years out at that time so the news was scripted for the reporters and anchors to read off their desk and it had to be good.

My point is, although I’m a long way from perfection, I’m certainly no “chump”.

Many of you have asked me recently about several articles that were linked to social media and then disappeared. After being published and on line for over 36 hours, the editorial team UNPUBLISHED them for the following reason:

"Review Status" from the Editorial Team, This article has been unpublished by staff. Note from the reviewer: It appears as though your article contains information that was backed by an un-credible source and/or contains content that we feel readers may find offensive, objectionable or outright libelous.

After reviewing my articles, I found no UNCREDIBLE sources; In fact, after researching other similar articles, I found the same sources used.

For those who expressed a desire to read these articles, I re-published them on my own personal blog, One Outlaw's Opinion and then posted the subsequent links on Twitter, Facebook and Google plus.

Since then, I have attempted the publishing of three additional articles concerning Christianity and Conservative Politics of which all have been rejected.

Several of these media companies have recently been bought out by more liberal leaning companies with simply unattainable expectations of most freelance writers.

It is obvious that several of these so called news media organizations desire elimination of conservative and Christian opinion writers.

By the time these so called editorial teams review a writer’s work, much of the topic is old news or no longer relevant.

Enough is enough; life is too short to put up with such nonsense if you want to write.

As a result I have started The Outlaw Observer and Opinion.

It will be similar to many things already on the internet but it will also be different.

It will not contain trash, gossip or hearsay but it will be very factually opinionated.

It will be very unapologetically Christian biased while reporting accurately about other religions.

It will be conservative based but unafraid to publish a factual liberal fact or report.

It will be as factual as we are allowed to have the facts; often a difficult task in the state of contemporary journalism.

Finally, it will be people based. Your comments, editorials and opinions are welcome and can be submitted for review and publication. You can even write for us, just let us know and we'll explain how.

The Outlaw Opinion and Observer is an On line Alternative News, Information and Opinion Journal.

We invite you to give us a try and hopefully you’ll like what you find.

© 2015 The Outlaw Observer and Opinion