“I report what I see and hear… and sometimes on I comment on it.” — Me, David T. Young

Apparently the time is long past overdue for me to explain a few things about this on-line rag, how it works and its mission.

When I retired as a newspaper reporter and bottom-feeder substitute teacher about six years ago, I set about the task of establishing an on-line, Internet-only news service. Community journalism, my profession and passion for more than 40 years, has been terminally ill and replaced by manufactured public relations and marketing and advertising. Even worse, it appears to be absent when serious business is being conducted in small communities and too many people are caught unaware when something important happens.

The most critical news components of Townbroadcast are as follows:

• Developing news — This can include prominent people dying or stepping down, perhaps a business closure, a fire or police incident or anything that occurs that has impact on local communities.

• Meeting news — This is coverage of the proceedings of the conduct of the public’s business. No one reporting on it is 100% “fair and balanced” because the writer must choose what is important, leave out the routine and mundane, and then tell the story. However, it is very important to be as factually accurate as possible as to what was said and decided.

• Sports reporting — I confess there almost always is a some commentary in this arena because the writer is given some license to say that a team looked awful or was “crushed” by an opponent when it’s difficult to suggest otherwise.

• Feature stories — These, as well as sports reports, are allowed to have a small amount of bias because they so often are sympathetic to the subject matter.

• Columns — These seem to be the most misunderstood in this publication. Townbroadcast has six columnists — conservatives Ranger Rick and Army Bob, liberals One Small Voice and Basura, a movie critic and me. Mine, which I call “Yes It Is, It’s True,” is my attempt to reach readers with my thoughts as though we were meeting once a week over a cup of coffee.

Please understand Army Bob is written by Robert Traxler, One Small Voice by Lynn Mandaville, The Subterranean by Walter G. Tarrow, Ranger Rick and Basura by carefully negotiated anonymous writers and then me. Columns are not “fair and balanced” objective news.

• Editorials — These are very direct attempts by the editor to take a stand and persuade readers to do something, particularly about a local, state or national issue. They are not at all objective.

There seems to be some confusion about the difference between news and editorial comment, but I have tried to clearly label non-news reportage so readers are fairly warned. What Ranger Rick and Army Bob so often write does not reflect my opinion, but I’m a true believer in the First Amendment and want to hear and read what people with whom I disagree are saying. I’m such a devotee of freedom of speech that I support Colin Kaepernick’s right to take a knee during the national anthem.

Maybe that makes me “fair and balanced,” unlike that TV network that claims to be. I’d like to think I don’t just talk the talk of a free exchange of ideas. I walk the walk.