Danny, I'm used to personal abuse from you, usually on the basis of your prejudiced view that I'm some kind of mouthpiece for Arafat, or (worse still) a bleeding heart liberal. I hadn't expected unsubstantiated and ignorant condemnation of my work from you, however.
"As for Jackonicko sticking his oar in, he in particular will know the frustration of not getting something he has written published. In fact I would suspect that he has that experience much of the time. At least here on PPRuNe he gets his voice heard to some extent. I wonder how many editors or publishers have knocked back his works? Would he call that censorship? Perhaps it is just quality control?
I would suggest that Ali Barber and Jacko amongst others try and get an article or even just a letter published in a publication that has the same or even greater readership than PPRuNe. Even if it were published I doubt that it wouldn't be edited in some form or another."
1) I don't write anything on spec. Period. In 19 years as a professional writer I have therefore never had any article or book 'knocked back'. Nor does my work normally require much editing, though standards at my end of the business are admittedly low.
2) I don't know the 'readership' of the mil forums of PPRUNE, but I do know that the aviation magazines I write for have circulations running into the high tens of thousands, while I suspect that even the broadsheet newspapers I've written for have circulations which exceed the 'readership of this bulletin board, to say nothing of the tabloids. I'm currently working on a piece for a major US news magazine (yep, that one). I've also written a number of books, one of which sold more than 80,000 copies, most of which sell about 5,000 per title. And people actually have to pay their own hard-earned cash to read most of the bilge I come out with, whereas PPRuNe is free.
You're getting bitter and twisted, Danny. How would you feel if someone made silly, unsupportable accusations that you fly for a third rate airline because you weren't good enough for BA, or the RAF, or the IDF/AF? You'd be irritated, if not angry, and quite rightly so. Any such accusation would be infantile and beneath contempt - and would demonstrate a total lack of appreciation about job satisfaction and all the other factors which influence professional pilots in choosing for whom they work. And yet you choose to make equally silly, even more groundless remarks about my work.