Political Article Minefields

Here in the United States, we have two primary opposing political parties (Republicans and Democrats). The level of incoming political articles has been quite high (elections next year), but so have the rejections. I wanted to take a quick time out to clarify why we are rejecting many political articles.

The EzineArticles Editorial Guidelines section 1.e. states “Must Not Contain Negative Content Towards any Product, Company, Individual, or Group.”

Anyone running for a public office knows that there will be critical comments made about them including the mud slingfest that both parties engage in for most elections via campaign ads (way to go political leaders! …NOT) …but in our site and especially considering that we’re not a freedom of speech website nor are we into citizen journalism, that if you’re going to write & submit political articles — to find a way to do it without making it a pure “hate speech” type of article.

For the record, EzineArticles does not advocate for EITHER party.

Examples of political articles we would accept: Content that advocates for a particular candidate and WHY they are a good candidate; content that discusses the political system, comparisons of various laws and geopolitical issues and the talking points of a/the party(ies). If your article and arguments are well thought out and presented with respect for the opposing parties even if you disagree with them; there is a good chance that we’ll accept your article.

Examples of political articles we would probably reject: Content that is insulting/profanity, advocates and/or mud slings against an individual, attacks the gender or race of the candidates or against groups of people, creates libel or slander, or anything that is degrading in tone.

We reserve the right to reclassify political articles into the “pure opinion“ category if they are too controversial, assuming our editor was able to make a case for why it should be accepted.

Posted by on June 27, 2007 at 3:54 pm | 6,187 views

3 Comments »


1
Shan Ferguson writes:

Well being as I am not a Politically oriented person to begin with you will see no political articles coming from my direction,I do not really advocate either party as I am a registered Independent.
I vote in elections based on who I think would be the better person for said office at the time of the election,though at the moment it seems that all we have to base anything on are bozo and his cousins and of course billary.I didnt think you could be president twice but such is life.

Comment provided June 27, 2007 at 4:29 PM

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2
Lance Winslow writes:

Do you have a suggestion on where we should post politically charged articles that attack let’s say the Democrat Party for turning America into a Socialist Beehive of humanity for instance? Which competitor site do you recommend, who wishes to make money on their AdSense ads?

Comment provided June 27, 2007 at 8:10 PM

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3
Dan Snyder writes:

Chris,

I don’t know where you get your editors from, but you couldn’t pay me enough. (Well, you could but you wouldn’t.) Deciding when how much distaste for a political foe runs into hate or just bad taste or inappropriate – what a job!

So, what’s wrong if someone’s article gets put under “Pure Opinion” instead of “News”? You told me a few months ago that the search engines really do not pay any attention to your categories. And if I did a search from your site, I’d be using your Google search either inside or outside of EzineArticles.

So if I write like Larry King, I can make it into whatever category.

And if I’m like Bill O’Reilly or Chris Matthews, you’ll publish me under Pure Opinion.

And if I cannot even have dinner with someone with an opposing viewpoint without raising my voice, I just need to set up my own blog and not waste so much of your editors’ time (especially since 2008 in almost here).

Comment provided June 27, 2007 at 9:41 PM

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