In an intersection of well intended laws and unintended consequences, Oregon's Government Ethics Commission has created a debate about what constitutes a real journalist. Once again, we're debating who is a real journalist, and who is not. The result of this determination could have much greater impact than anyone realizes. According to a report in The Oregonian (allegedly a real newspaper),

The Hills Are Alive ...The Twitterverse was alive on Sunday night with the reverberations from the news that the loathsome Piers Morgan will be taking his anti-freedom talents back to England. Morgan was famous for two things: railing against the American concept of constitutional liberty, and tanking ratings. The wonder is not that his show is being canceled, nor that his ratings cratered. The only wonder is that it took so long for this decision to be made.

If you've spent any time at all working in social media, you've heard the aphorism "Content is King".

Not long ago, I was wandering around the FreedomWorks site, searching for inspiration for a new article. I read a few posts from my fine fellow-writers, spent a bit of time poking around FreedomConnector to see how other folks were using that resource, and then a tiny link on my FC dashboard page caught my attention. It said, "University"

The most interesting challenge for any content creator is how to make what you create as easy to share as possible. People, and I include myself in this, are lazy and most social media platforms have fed this. New-style retweets, reblog buttons, and one-click share options abound, which has gotten us used to sharing content with only a click or two.

Citizen journalists are under attack by Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham, and other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The dynamic duo of progressivism has attached an amendment to Senate Bill 987, which would give the Department of Justice power to determine who qualifies for protection as a journalist under the First Amendment.

In “What You Need to Know About Pictures and Blog Posts, Part I”, we reviewed why your blog posts should have good pictures.

Approximately ten bajillion people have written about why you, intrepid blogger, need to include pictures in your blog posts. I know this because a quick Google search on "why should I put pictures in blog posts" will give you more results than the grains of sand on the beach or the number of alien brain parasites that inhabit the skulls of the MSNBC prime time roster.

The world of social media is packed to the gills with places you can hang your shingle. You can probably think of a dozen different platforms right now off the top of your head and another half-dozen with just a couple Google searches. Each of those platforms has its strengths and weaknesses and a small horde of people who want you to use them.

Do you want to be a superstar blogger? Do you want your posts read at the highest levels by the rich and powerful? Do you want to drive fast sports cars and elicit squeals of recognition from legions of fans?