I think the Realtor who delivered the title line expected me to be mortally wounded by it, and be shamed into realizing the ignorance of my ways. In her view, the press has no reason for existing if it isn’t part of the sales team.

Setting the scene: I visit a $2,000,000 new construction open house in a north shore suburb of Chicago. I introduce myself, present a copy of our New Homes Magazine, outline our ambitious plans to build an audience of north shore home buyers and sellers for our YoChicago site, and request permission to take some interior photos to post on an open house tour.

In order that the Realtor will have no surprises when she visits our Web site, I mention that we’d posted a criticism on our site of the home’s exterior – that we’d suggested it was more appropriate for a downscale suburb than for the north shore.

Her reaction was simple and visceral: blind, cold fury. "You have no right to put a photo of this house on the Internet." Well, actually, ma’am, I do. This country has a little thing called a Constitution and it has a certain amendment that’s applicable to this situation. “You're not helping us to sell our house," was her next gambit. I didn’t realize I’d been hired to do that, ma’am.

"We’ll never advertise with you. Never," she continued. Well, ma’am, I’ve been in business quite a while without your support, and might be able to manage a bit longer without it. She then called the home's developer, outlined her view of the situation, and relayed the developer’s order for me to leave the house. So long, ma’am. It’s been good to know you.

This Realtor is typical of many – completely lacking understanding of the role of the press, of the rights of others and, more importantly, clueless about marketing.

She was being handed an opportunity to showcase the home’s attractive interior on a Web site that had criticized its exterior. She blew it.

She made it clear that she doesn't do her homework by looking at exactly what was said before reacting - any hint of criticism is pure evil, she indicated.

She’s closed her mind to advertising (not that she was ever asked to) on a site that has a lot of credibility and that’s building an audience. She’s likely to give bad advice about that site to a lot of sellers for a long time to come. She’s killed any chance she might have ever had of being recommended by someone who’s in touch with quite a few buyers and sellers.

Worst of all, she unwittingly placed a bet that I wouldn’t lay out her closed-minded approach and stupid aggression for everyone to read about on the Web. Suppose she’d been talking to someone who named names? Who knows how many sellers might Google her and stay away?

Draw your own lessons from this story. Here’s mine: the Web changes almost everything about how you need to approach buyers, sellers and visitors to open houses. Start learning the new rules and applying them as quickly as possible.