Phil Taylor, Patch Staff

<b>Email</b>

phil.taylor&#64;patch.com<b><br> Phone<br> </b>770-241-0607

<b>Hometown<br> </b>Huntsville, Ala.

<b>Birthday</b><br> April 4

<b>Bio </b>

My two decades of journalism and content development traverses the entire writing spectrum - newspapers, magazines, Web sites, corporate communications, public relations and public speaking.  

After earning my bachelor&#39;s of journalism degree from the University of Missouri, I returned to Huntsville, Ala., to work at my hometown newspaper for eight years. In 1997, I became one of the first online journalists in the nation as senior writer of the Freedom Forum&#39;s First Amendment Center.

Since then, I have worked at several newspapers in the Southeast, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and, finally, CNN Worldwide, where I wrote press releases, corporate communications and executive speeches.

With Patch, I&#39;ve come almost full circle, returning to the intensely local coverage of schools and suburbs that I did at my hometown paper in Alabama.

Outside of work, I can be a mix of contradictions in that I&#39;m an Alabama native who plays ice hockey and a Southerner who cannot get enough of punk, ska and rockabilly.

<br> <b>Beliefs</b>

Patch subscribes to the notion that while journalists might adhere to principles of objectivity, they cannot completely remove all of their biases. By giving our readers a sense of our individual beliefs, they might better understand our efforts to report in the most fair, balanced way.

Personally, I come to Patch with a strong sense of First Amendment principles, not only the right of free press and speech but of the free exercise of religion, the right to petition and to assemble. Although I am not religious, I strongly believe in the right to worship. And I don&#39;t think the brilliance of the Founding Fathers, James Madison specifically, ended with the First Amendment, so I believe strongly in the Second Amendment and Third and so on throughout the Bill of Rights.

Patch plays well into that with its mission of being an online community gathering place, where everyone has an opportunity to comment and post.

As for politics, I joined the Libertarian Party when I was in the sixth grade but have remained steadfastly independent and have never joined a political party again. During the last election, I voted for almost as many Democrats and Republicans as I did Libertarians.