Back in the Golden Age, when typewriters were king and computers were things of mad men's dreams, there were no such things as blogs.

The columnists signed their pieces, the editorials were known to be the stance of the newspaper and not some deranged lunatic demanding editorial space or he would blow something up. Write a letter to the editor and you had better sign your name or else it was destined for the nearest garbage bin.

Back then there were things called bulldog editions, late editions and extras.

Then something crazy happened, the World Wide Web came on like a swarm of wasps defending their nest, some papers closed doors, some cut employees and blogs and Twitter became the norm.

I suppose rrspin.com is part of this revolution, however, I tend to appreciate the roots rather than Tweets, photography rather than video, while realizing Twitter and Facebook are important tools now that the Golden Age lies in ruin like Rosemary Mill.

A friend once called rrspin citizen journalism. Call me a snob, I resented that term and still do.

This column, however, isn't about our place in the news revolution; it's about the place of other blogs in this citizen journalist world. It’s about their responsibility to uphold ethics and some general sense of decorum.

So, yes, I'm pointing fingers and just saying here that freedom of speech doesn't give you licenses to make unfounded and untrue allegations against someone, especially when the blogger doesn't have the courage to come from behind a shroud and let himself be known.

I've learned plenty in my journalism career and some have been hard lessons, especially when it comes to taking cheap shots in the name of satire.

So what is the citizen journalist’s responsibility in this age of Twitter and blogs? It’s simply to be responsible.

This column was going to be something else until I decided it was a little too bawdy for the general readership. Right now the column I did write, a response to an entry, is resting comfortably in cyberspace and I doubt it will see the light of day on a local blog maintained by an anonymous administrator on WordPress.

It was simply a column that aimed right at the heart of what I am talking about, that being satire is to use the facts you have or knowledge of the person you are lampooning in your effort to educate and inform.

Satire is not a license to make stuff up, especially at an innocent party’s expense like was done in this blog.

If you’re going to be a citizen journalist or blogger then do it responsibly and preferably with your name attached to it.

One of my favorite TV shows is Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. In his office is a poster and the type on it reads: “Funny? Jokes that injure others, waste time, hurt records are never funny. Let’s think twice.”

Since the Golden Age has turned to dust, I would say these words are good ones to live by in the blogger, citizen journalist and Twitter age — Lance Martin.