TONIGHT, WE DINE IN THE COPY ROOM!!!!
Posted on 09/25/2007 7:04:40 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner
FORT COLLINS — The student newspaper that stirred up a hornet's nest when it dropped the F-bomb last week drew more fire Monday.
(snip)
College Republicans at Colorado State University collected more than 300 signatures calling on CSU's Board of Student Communications to fire Editor in Chief David McSwane.
(snip)
Asked by CNN if the editorial could be characterized as vulgar or sophomoric, McSwane said he "wouldn't entirely disagree."
"We wanted people to understand that free speech is something we should talk about," he told CNN. "We felt that this campus, for one reason or another, has been really apathetic. Too quiet. We felt that the best way to spark that dialogue was to exercise it ourselves."
McSwane will get a chance to defend himself again Wednesday evening before CSU's Board of Student Communications.
His staff wasn't entirely supportive Monday. Thomas Andrews, a senior music performance major, said he was laid off from The Collegian on Monday because the newspaper had lost about $30,000 of advertising revenues from businesses that didn't like the editorial.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycamera.com ...
We felt that this campus, for one reason or another, has been really apathetic. Too quiet. We felt that the best way to spark that dialogue was to exercise it ourselves.”
One of the reasons I went to CSU is because they typically DON’T feel the need to express every sophomoric thought that floats into their mind. Good grief, what ever happened to just going to school? If you want to be all politically active, just go to CU like everyone else.
TONIGHT, WE DINE IN THE COPY ROOM!!!!
Mr Mcswane created a a great object lesson for the CSU students of what is happening out in the real world.
1 Make mindless left wing insults against Bush.
2 Readers and Advertisers respond negatively.
3 Revenues and circulation shrink.
4 Liberals left to whine about free speech to a declining audience while they have to make do with less.
Pretty much the NYT model, isn’t it?
I would have been more impressed with his demonstration of free speech if he had used a racial slur or said something against the politically correct college culture, but then that would have violated the campus’s policies against harassment and hate speech.
Free speech is great except for unapproved speech.
Hmmmm. Sounds like they *&%^@# themselves instread of Bush.
They forget that with rights come responsibility. You have the freedom of speech but others have the freedom to react. Did they learn nothing from the Dixie Chicks?
But look at it this way. There was no chance he could have gotten a major media job coming out of that school. Now he will probably have multiple offers from major media outlets.
First, a disruptive person is tased at a John Kerry gathering.
Second, these idiots direct an obscenity at Bush as if he was responsible for it.
ADD at work? BDS maybe?
Exactly, I loved my time at CSU because of the lack of political idiocy. Some Kerry relative came to speak there at one point during the 04 campaign, a few hundred showed up to listen, a few dozen to protest. That was about the most exciting political event I remember in my time there. Other than the professors in my department being really dejected the day after the election. There were only two of us grad students in the whole department who were conservative and we had a really hard time not making fun of the others where they could hear.
The best way to spark debate would be to challenge the facile acceptance of any style of speech whatsoever with an irreverent essay denying that free speech is a good idea.
They could even start with this quotation from Kirkegaard: "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
It is amazing but I have never come across that quote before. Thanks.
Good to bump into you on the internet highway again.
There will be free speech for him. But no free speech for those who favor Bush. That’s the way it works!
Remember the kid who was tasered.
Likewise!
Hate speech!
What is it about President Bush that brings out the worst from people’s tongue and pen ?
Neither the State of Colorado nor the United States of America has jailed, threatened to jail, sent armed (or unarmed) personal to harass, intimidate or threaten McSwane. He is still free to walk up and down any place of public access and tell his fellow citizens, audibly visually and/or with interpretive dance to F*** Bush – he doesn't’t even need to us asterisks. His right to free speech is intact.
What has happened is that the forum (a college student newspaper editorial) that he originally used, which was not his – that forum was given to him by others – may be taken away, because those others believe he misused that forum. Certain advertisers have pulled $30,000.00 worth of ads because they believe he misused the forum of editorship – this is their right to spend their money as they see fit. Other students have said (used their free speech) to say he should be removed. The collage is looking at the question of his misusing their forum.
This is a very real life lesson in the use of words. If you or I or anyone want to get a messages out, whatever said messages is, the only way to truly control that messages is to control the forum used to spread the message. Most people do NOT control their forums, so they have to take into account, when spreading their message, what the forum owners want the message to be. That is reality as opposed to fantasy. The sooner people understand the difference the sooner we as a country can get back to civil discourse between opposing points of view.
The other real life lesson is that if one wishes to put out an unpopular or controversial message – own you own forum. What you own can’t be taken away from you. However, if you are using other people’s forums you must take their views into account when spreading your message.
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