Archive for March, 2011

North Florida Spinnaker ‘Sex Cover’ Controversy: Update on Funding Freeze

Posted in College Media, Free Press Fights, Journalism on March 31, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The Spinnaker at the University of North Florida continues to be ensnarled in controversy.  Amid a brouhaha about a recent “racy” cover image, the student newspaper is also facing a temporary funding freeze approved by a portion of the UNF student senate.

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The sudden action– ostensibly a response to a recent slight publication delay that caused a senate ad to be out of date by the time it appeared in print– is being sold as unconnected to the “sex cover.”  But the timing and extreme nature of the freeze cannot help but raise suspicions related to one main question: Is this an indirect punishment for a cover image deemed too provocative by some on campus?

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In an email to CMM, Spinnaker editor in chief Josh Gore provides some background and an update on the funding freeze:

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Today, the UNF student judiciary ruled against an appeal of Monday’s vote that froze Spinnaker funds for three days. Student Senate President Carlo Fassi had filed the appeal on behalf of the Spinnaker. Fassi has publicly supported the Spinnaker during this freeze.

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The senate’s Budget and Allocations committee had voted 5-1 Monday to freeze the account. According to the UNF Student Government constitution, a three-fourths vote of the committee is all that’s needed to freeze the account of any student government-funded organization.

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The reason given for the freeze was that an ad ran a day late in last week’s Spinnaker. The SG judiciary took out the ad about Crime Awareness Day (which was Wednesday), and it did not run until Thursday. The Spinnaker held the paper an extra day to cover the SG elections. This paper also was the edition that generated comment nationally because of its provocative cover.  Because the ad ran a day late, the Spinnaker never invoiced SG Judiciary, the same group who has a vested interest in the outcome of the ruling because it was their ad.

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There are no checks and balances with the Budget & Allocations committee in this case, nor their ability to freeze an index. This is frightening.  The Spinnaker meets all the requirements in the constitution’s finance code to be in good financial standing. Some senators are currently working on language to fix the amount of latitude the B&A committee has when making such a ruling.

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Today is the last day of the freeze. SG funding makes up about half of the salaries for the Spinnaker staff. The rest of the salaries and printing are paid through advertising.  At this point, I have reached out to university general counsel to see if this process was legal.

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College Media Podcast: North Florida Spinnaker Editor Josh Gore Discusses Racy Cover Controversy

Posted in College Media, Free Press Fights, Journalism, Journalism Ethics, Student Newspaper, Teachable Moment on March 30, 2011 | 2 Comments »

The sexual explicitness of The Spinnaker‘s current cover image is causing controversy at the University of North Florida.

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The provocative depiction of student sexual activity aims to hype a story on the link between oral sex and HPV, which can lead to throat cancer.  Critics, including UNF’s president, say the photo illustration was not needed to tell the story and that it “crossed a decency line.”

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In an exclusive interview, Spinnaker editor in chief Josh Gore outlines the rationale behind running the story and cover, the campus reaction, and a sudden funding freeze for the newspaper that reeks of indirect censorship.

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COLLEGE MEDIA MATTERS PODCAST: JOSH GORE

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NextGen Journal: Student News, Voices Outside the College Bubble

Posted in College Media, International Student Media, Journalism, New Media on March 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »

NextGen Journal began with 800 words and $20 trillion.

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In early 2009, Connor Toohill, a 17-year-old high school senior in San Diego, came across a slew of politicians and pundits debating the impact of the growing national debt.  Many of them were repeatedly imploring lawmakers and the public to think of “the next generation” when deciding what economic recovery tactics to take.

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Toohill noticed one important set of voices missing from the debate.  “I was kind of frustrated about the fact that everyone was talking about the next generation and what we should do for the next generation,” he said, “but there were no voices of the next generation, my generation, in the conversation.”

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So Toohill spoke up.  In an 800-word community essay published in The San Diego Union-Tribune, he discussed the need for federal government “fiscal responsibility” to help stave off “a crushing and unsustainable national debt.”

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“At this moment, our nation is in a deep financial hole,” he wrote.  ”We must stop digging, making the decision to leave some aspects of energy, education and health care reform to future administrations or to the private sector. . . . As a member of the generation that will be tasked with solving these issues and paying for these proposals, I know one thing for certain: I would much rather inherit difficult policy problems than a $20 trillion national debt.”

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For weeks after the essay’s premiere, Toohill dealt with a separate indebtedness.  He felt he owed it to himself and his peers to do more.  “Basically, I wanted the conversation to continue,” he said.  “My dream was to have many voices of our generation in the conversation– different voices, with different perspectives, on all sorts of different topics.”

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The difference between Toohill and many others with similar dreams: He made his come true.

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With the help of friends, he launched NextGen Journal, a student-run news and commentary site, writ large.  Contributors are currently enrolled at colleges and universities across the country and into Canada.

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NextGen’s standout niche is its international scope.  It covers matters of interest and importance to students outside the bubble of their own colleges– “from dorm life to Darfur, and from climate change to Kid Cudi.”  Current topics under investigation and discussion on the homepage range from Libya, net neutrality, and health care reform to college graduation rates, the deficit, and Rebecca Black.

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“Up until now, campus media, especially in the opinion sense, has just been localized,” said Toohill, now 19, a freshman at the University of Notre Dame.  “There’s nothing from our generation that is influential in the national sphere.  We wanted to do something that can have influence nationally, that can bring our generation into the conversation.  Not intending that to rhyme, but it did.  Oh well.”

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Illegal Immigration Column Causes Controversy at Florida’s Rollins College

Posted in College Media, Free Press Fights, Journalism, Student Newspaper on March 26, 2011 | 24 Comments »

A student newspaper op-ed arguing citizenship status should not be granted to children of illegal immigrants “has spurred an outcry from some students and faculty” at Florida’s Rollins College.

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At the start of the piece, published late last week in The Sandspur, freshman student writer Jamie Pizzi compares illegal aliens to home intruders.  An accompanying image sticks with the metaphor, showing a green alien creature wearing someone else’s clothes, relaxing and channel-surfing in someone else’s home.

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In Pizzi’s words, “‘[A]nchor babies,’ as they are commonly referred, gain full citizenship from simply being born on American soil, and they are entitled to all the same benefits as you and I, including: free public school educations, financial aid for college and even Medicaid. . . . When our own citizens are struggling to afford adequate health care and public schools become more and more crowded, we should not even consider keeping birthright citizenship. . . . America has a crucial decision to make: continue to attract those who want a free ride, or return to a time where America attracted only the best and the brightest to its golden shores.”

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Angry emails, online story comments, and letters to the editor abounded immediately after publication.  A campus-wide email sent by a professor in the piece’s wake declared ”this kind of media contributes to a climate of hate and intolerance in our community.”  The Sandspur staffer who oversaw the section in which the piece was printed separately said critics were charging her with “being a Nazi and supporting genocide.”

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Others declared the article and image misinformed, misguided, xenophobic, and “hateful rhetoric.”  As one student wrote, “[I]t is important to remember that ‘anchor babies’ and ‘aliens’ are, in fact, people– human beings just like you and I, with families. Let us not define them based solely by their immigration status.”

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Additionally, according to the Orlando Sentinel, “The strong reaction from faculty, students and others prompted a big gathering [late last week].  An estimated 200 to 300 people turned out– a significant crowd for the small private college [roughly 2,700 students] . . . Everyone took turns expressing themselves and sharing their views on free press and the role of a school newspaper.”

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In a letter to readers responding to the controversy, Pizzi noted, “My opinion on the 14th Amendment concerns only the law and the effect of undocumented and untaxed individuals on our country’s finances. I have no hatred for people of any race or ethnic group, or for immigrants in general; I actually find other cultures fascinating!  I never intended to hurt people or come across in a hateful manner.”

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The student artist responsible for the alien image: “By my understanding, the image concept that the Sandspur had given me was meant to be a satire on the double meaning of the word alien within our language, and nothing more.  I did not take into account that paired together the article and image could come off as xenophobic or demonizing to any individual, and if I had, or I’m sure if the staff had, I’m positive it wouldn’t have been published.”

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The student who oversaw the opinion section: “It is preposterous that there are people at Rollins who requested that [Pizzi] be banned from writing again. . . . You cannot take away a person’s right to write or state what they wish. You may disagree, but by banning a school newspaper’s right to publish student opinions, you are starting a chain reaction you can never stop.”

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Student Newspaper Calls Out College for ‘Stonewalling’ About Arizona Shooter, Other Issues

Posted in College Media, Free Press Fights, Journalism, Student Newspaper on March 24, 2011 | 4 Comments »

A student newspaper at an Arizona community college is criticizing administrators for keeping “a tight noose around release of information,” including remaining silent about the school’s connection to infamous shooter Jared Lee Loughner.

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In a recent editorial, The Aztec Press described a “misguided and counterproductive” culture of secrecy at Tucson’s Pima Community College.  In the newspaper’s view, PCC’s free press and free speech violations run long.

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As the piece charges, “When a media outlet, including the Aztec Press, requests an interview or even a comment from any college employee, PCC’s marketing department insists on first granting ‘permission.’ Further, the marketing department consistently requests a list of advance questions.  More often than not, a marketing department spokesperson answers the questions via e-mail instead of allowing a reply from the appropriate source. . . . In the rare case when a face-to-face interview is approved, a public relations person sits in.  That can intimidate both the reporter and the interviewee.

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Apparently, the noose has been pulled so tight by officials that PCC faculty and staff decline to speak about even non-sensitive topics.  According to the Press, “They’ve been cowed by pressure from the top.”

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Additionally, while maintaining an in-house PR team, the school has been outsourcing some of its “marketing and advertising services” to a firm “which has gained notoriety for refusing interview requests.”

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The editorial follows public charges of stonewalling by other news media, specifically PCC’s recent refusal to discuss Loughner’s allegedly noticeable mental health issues and campus security run-ins while a student at the school.

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As reporters for local television news outlet KGUN9 shared, “9 On Your Side has been trying to ask questions about how the college responded to Jared Lee Loughner’s documented outbursts and frightening behavior on campus, and about what programs, if any, the college has in place for handling students with mental health issues.  The college refused KGUN9′s interview requests, declined to answer a written list of questions, and ejected a KGUN9 News crew from the public building housing the college’s administrative offices.”

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As the Press reports, “Loughner was enrolled at PCC until he was suspended in September 2010.  He had multiple run-ins with campus police and faculty during 2010, and PCC police officers requested backup when they delivered a formal suspension letter to Loughner’s residence on Sept. 29.  The letter informed Loughner that he would not be allowed back on campus without a cleared mental-health examination. . . . College officials suspended Loughner after they discovered he had posted a bizarre YouTube video claiming he was at war with the college and that students were being tortured.”

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In an interview with KGUN9, the Press news editor said the stonewalling was in place long before the Loughner saga started.  ”We’ve been having problems in the past getting statements from the chancellor and getting statements from the PR firm,” she said, “but we decided for this issue to run an editorial, just letting the students and faculty members know that we are going to cover this regardless of what’s going on.”

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The university’s response to the editorial: No comment.  Amusingly, when contacted by KGUN9, the university’s response to its no comment was also no comment.

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Student Newspaper Apologizes for ‘Racist’ Article About American Indian Event

Posted in College Media, Journalism, Student Newspaper, tagged , , , , on March 22, 2011 | 56 Comments »

A student newspaper at California State University, Long Beach, is apologizing for running a negative commentary on an American Indian campus event that was “construed by many as an assault” on Native American culture.

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In the article, headlined “Pow Wow Wow Yippee Yo Yippy Yay,” the campus editor of The Union Weekly espoused an “unflattering view” toward a recent campus Pow Wow.  He equated the annual cultural event staged by the school’s American Indian Studies program and American Indian Student Council with a “large, Native American themed flea market.”

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The student writer specifically mocked the food– at one point comparing frybread to “a Mexican pizza from Taco Bell, but sh*ttier”– and a traditional dance that involved some spectators throwing money to the performers.  As he noted about the latter, “The entire scene felt disingenuous and cheap.  Donations are great, and necessary, tossing them unceremoniously on the ground is crass and borderline obscene.  Even the homeless have hats and cups.”

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Critics, including the CSULB president, deemed the article insensitive, “derogatory, racist, and ignorant.”  According to The Daily 49er, a separate CSULB student newspaper, concerns have been expressed that the piece makes the entire university “look bad to the American Indian community.”  The writer has even received death threats.

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In a letter to readers published in the current issue (see pages 2-3), he explained, “What originally was meant as an unflattering view of the event itself has been construed by many as an assault on an entire culture.  That was never my intention and I meant no malice towards Native Americans.  What occurred was nothing less than a lapse in fact-finding, cultural awareness, and sensitivity on my part.”

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In a separate letter, top editors noted, “It is clear that the article in question contains language that triggers strong emotional response with those familiar with Native American culture.  It was a lack of knowledge of these triggers that produced an article that many found fault with.”

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Student Government Orders Audit of Campus Newspaper

Posted in College Media, Journalism on March 20, 2011 | 2 Comments »

The student government of Canada’s Queen’s University has ordered a review of all content published over the past year in The Queen’s Journal, the QU campus newspaper.  According to editors, the audit is “a direct threat to the editorial autonomy” of the paper.

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In a motion approved by an overwhelming majority earlier this month, the university’s student-run Alma Mater Society (AMS) specifically “directs the Media Services Director to conduct an analysis of the content of the Queen’s Journal during the current academic year and to subsequently report on the percentage of content that directly addresses student activities and events.”

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Translation: Student government members do not think the Journal is reporting enough on student life, and they want to prove it.  The motion offers no information on what actions AMS might consider once the results are compiled.

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In reply, newspaper staffers declare the motion mean-spirited and misguided on multiple counts.  Most disturbingly, according to a Journal editorial, the review subverts AMS’s own bylaws, which state the paper should remain “free from the influence of student government and outside institutions with regards to its editorial integrity.”

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In addition, Journal staffers argue, the findings will not offer any meaningful new insights.  Editors are well aware the paper does not cover even close to everything going down at QU.  It’s not laziness.  It’s news judgment, and the reality of working with a small staff balancing schoolwork and social lives along with sources and scoops.

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As the editorial notes, “Ideally, the Journal would possess sufficient resources and staff to provide comprehensive coverage— reporting on every event of any relevance to the Queen’s community.  This is not the case.  For this reason, the editorial staff must decide what material appears in the Journal— and consequently, what material is not covered or published. This decision is directly based on the editors’ perception of how accessible the story is to the Queen’s community as a whole— in other words, its relevance.”

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The words relevance and relevant appear a combined 11 times in the editorial.  The strong hint the newspaper seems to be sending to the AMS through their repeated appearances: A student newspaper’s value to its campus goes far beyond “directly address[ing] student activities and events.”

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As the editorial explains, “The community of this university is composed of a diverse group of individuals with an equally diverse range of interests. In order to reach as much of the student body as possible, the Journal strives to cater to a variety of interests by offering news, athletic, creative and artistic content, in-depth coverage and human interest material. . . . [I]t’s crucial to recognize the distinction between relevance and comprehensiveness.  The Journal may never be entirely comprehensive, but it is always relevant.”

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Student Newspaper Sex Issue Disappears Across Campus

Posted in College Media, Free Press Fights, Journalism, Student Newspaper Theft, tagged , , , , on March 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Hundreds of copies of a student newspaper’s sex issue quickly went missing last month from newsstands across campus.  Editors suspect their disappearance was due to an organized theft carried out in response to the racier-than-usual material.

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As the Student Press Law Center reports, The Ottawa Campus is the biweekly student paper at Ottawa University in Kansas, a conservative private school boasting a “Christ-centered community of grace which integrates faith, learning and life.” The sex issue was a Campus first, and included a cover image that apparently struck some at the school as overly sexualized.

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According to the SPLC: “The cover art of the sex issue portrayed naked Barbie and Ken dolls posed in a provocative position in front of a well-known university building. [The newspaper's editor] said the cover was intended to show students that the issue was directed towards them, and was generally well received by the students, but several administrators and faculty members seemed angered by the photo and content of the issue.”

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After its Friday afternoon distribution, staffers quickly came across empty stands in numerous high-traffic spots, including the library, student union, and field house. The newspaper’s editor in chief confirmed that the campus is so small a single person or group of people could have stolen the copies “within a matter of minutes.” She estimates roughly half of the 1,200-copy print run was taken.

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The school is conducting an “internal investigation” into the alleged theft but seems more concerned about the sexual content that sparked it.  OU’s vice president and provost: “I think that we’re looking to prevent what we might consider to be material printed in the newspaper that’s inappropriate. We are looking to ensure that we’ve established a policy that is adopted by our board of trustees.”

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In an editorial addressing the incident, The Washburn Review, the student newspaper at Washburn University, noted:

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“The newspaper had received complaints from faculty, but having the papers lifted from the stands crosses a line.  Had the information been offensive and not factual, there might be a fair argument. However, despite raising eyebrows, the information could be of service to the students of the university. . . . Private universities seem to have a different set of rules regarding freedom of the press. . . . A school with a religious affiliation has a set of standards it’s often held to, but students should also be free to speak about subjects that may be considered offensive in order to help inform and educate students. The fact that stories also discussed the practice of not having sexual intercourse may lean the argument in the favor of the Campus staff.”

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Young Journalist: ‘If I Was at a College Newspaper Today, I’d Quit’

Posted in College Media, Journalism, New Media, Student Newspaper, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 16, 2011 | 4 Comments »

Antiquated.  Curmudgeonly.  Doomed. Lauren Rabaino uses a number of words to describe student journalism circa 2011– innovative, awesome, and digitally aware are not among them.

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In a recent blog post/rant, the standout young journalist and designer extraordinaire waxes pessimistic about the current state of college media.  Her ire originated in Hollywood.  While attending and speaking at the recent ACP National College Journalism Convention, Rabaino ran into the general manager of her former student newspaper, The Mustang Daily at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.  Rabaino ended her stint as the paper’s web editor in December 2009.

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The eye-opening news the GM broke to her: Now 15 months after her departure, the Daily is still searching for a replacement.  As the GM told her, “We just can’t find anyone who wants to be a web editor in journalism!”

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The position-filling #epicfail underscored a theme Rabaino could not escape throughout her convention travails: Too many j-students today are not itching to innovate or even learn the basics of Journalism 2.0.

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In Rabaino’s words: “Why don’t students WANT to learn this stuff? College media confuses me.  At least five different people at the conference (usually the lone web champion or the point-of-desperation advisor) told me that they just can’t get students motivated about the web.  They just can’t get them to care about posting stories online or engaging with the audience through social media or excited about learning video.  What the hell?”

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The exchanges and whole experience reminded her “how doomed college media is.” As she concluded her post, “If I was . . . at a college newspaper today, I’d quit. I’d start my own competitor news site on campus and leave the antiquated, curmudgeonly, long-established college media in the dust.”

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UCLA Student’s ‘Anti-Asian Rant’ After Tsunami Goes Viral

Posted in New Media, Student Newspaper, Teachable Moment, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 15, 2011 | 4 Comments »

A student’s impassioned “anti-Asian rant” filmed and uploaded onto YouTube in the wake of the Japan earthquake and tsunami has gone viral and caused huge headaches for the University of California, Los Angeles.

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In the video, UCLA student Alexandra Wallace complains about the “hordes of Asian people that UCLA accepts into our school every single year.”  She says these students need to “use American manners” while attending the university and specifically “described her annoyance at Asian students talking noisily in the library . . . [imitating] one student with the phrase, ‘Ohhhh. Ching chong ling long ting tong.’”

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UCLA student anti-Asian rant YouTube–

Citing the recent tragedy in Japan, Wallace wrapped up the vlog by noting, “I swear they’re going through their whole families [talking on the phone with each one, in the library] just checking on everybody from the tsunami thing.  I mean, I know, OK, that sounds horrible, like, I feel bad about all the people affected by the tsunami.  But if you’re going to check your address book [calling everyone in your mobile phone's address book] . . . you seriously should go outside.”

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The self-declared rant has not gone over well with UCLA students and administrators or the larger Internet populace, provoking charges of racism, death threats, and a school investigation into potential code of conduct violations.

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In a statement of apology sent specifically to The Daily Bruin, Wallace wrote, “Clearly the original video posted by me was inappropriate.  I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would. I’d like to offer my apology to the entire UCLA campus. For those who cannot find it within them to accept my apology, I understand.”

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UCLA Daily Bruin reports on reaction to student's anti-Asian YouTube rant.

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In New York: CMA-CBI Spring College Media Convention

Posted in College Media, Journalism on March 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

This weekend’s CMA-CBI Spring College Media Convention has a six-word command for its participants: “Don’t Just Sit There. Do Something.”  I am in Manhattan at this moment, set to join more than 1,200 student journalists, advisers, and educators, for a spirited round of sessions that will feature everything from chicken salad to “real, live Muppets.”

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Fresh off my trip last weekend to Hollywood (close encounters with Robert Redford, Conan O’Brien, Emily Blunt, Joan Cusack, and Lauren Rabaino) for the ACP convention, I’ll be presenting at two sessions and popping into a bunch more.  If you’re in Times Squares, come by, sit in, say hi.

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Special shout-out to CMA in NYC ’11 organizers: director Michael Koretzky and assistant director Michele Boyet (who has put together the savviest social media marketing campaign since Facebook dropped ‘The’).

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Student Newspaper Editor Resigns Over ‘Sexual Hoax’

Posted in College Media, International Student Media, Journalism, Journalism Ethics, Student Newspaper on March 11, 2011 | 1 Comment »

The editor in chief of a top campus newspaper in Britain has resigned after attempting to plant a story within a rival student publication involving sexual favors and dirty grading practices.

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Beginning in mid-January, Philip Brook, the top editor of The Cambridge Student, a weekly paper at Cambridge University, sent anonymous e-mails to The Tab, an online news outlet run by Cambridge undergraduates.  The messages, purported to be from a female Cambridge student, claimed a senior tutor had requested oral sex in exchange for bettering the student’s academic standing.

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Brook’s aim appears to have been tricking the Tab into running a sensational “false news story,” possibly as payback for a similar effort initiated by the Tab the previous semester.  Last fall, the Tab scammed the Student into publishing a hoax story [see screenshot below] on the hot new phenomenon “bog snorkeling.”  The foolery is apparently part of a larger “healthy rivalry” between the two outlets, in place since the Tab‘s founding in 2009.

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The sexual nature of Brook’s retaliatory hoax obviously intrigued Tab editors. According to a Daily Mail report, the outlet is “best known for posting photos of scantily-clad female undergraduates and exposing the seedy underbelly of university life.”

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A portion of one of the messages Brook sent, while posing as the student accusing the tutor of sexual impropriety: “I was supervised by him for the term and to be honest I’m not the best at his topic. So I asked him what I needed to do to improve my grades and he suggested that he could think of an excellent way to improve my grades. . . . He said he’d give me a ‘blow by blow account’ back in his rooms the next evening. . . . Obviously I was shocked and appalled at the time.”

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Brook then sent over a scan of a letter [see screenshot below] supposedly written by another tutor confirming the sexual allegations were being investigated.  Yet, after launching an investigation of their own, Tab editors discovered the academic named in the letter did not create or send anything like it and was not even in the country when it was allegedly penned.

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Further inquiries traced the e-mails to Brook.  An awkward phone call between the Tab and Brook followed, with Brook claiming to have no knowledge of the hoax and then declining comment.  A day later, he resigned as Student editor in chief.

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A portion of his statement sent to the Tab at that time: “I recognize that my actions were a serious lapse of judgement and apologise unreservedly to all parties concerned.  I would like to make it explicitly clear that I acted in an entirely personal capacity. . . . All members of the [TCS] editorial team and board of directors were unaware of my actions.”

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Brook must pay the legal fees accrued by Cambridge while looking into the matter and may face further punishment affecting his standing at the school.

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Student Government Steals Campus Newspapers, Accuses Editor of Libel at SUNY Brockport

Posted in College Media, Free Press Fights, Journalism, Student Newspaper, Student Newspaper Theft on March 10, 2011 | 5 Comments »

A full-blown free press war is being waged at the State University of New York in Brockport between the school’s campus newspaper and student government.

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Early last month, the treasurer of the Brockport Student Government (BSG) took stacks of The Stylus that had yet to be distributed on campus in an attempt “to demonstrate that the paper was printing more copies than students were picking up.”  According to Stylus editor in chief William Matthias, “In the process, he committed theft and violated the First Amendment.”

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Both the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) confirm that the student had no right to remove the copies, even if he claimed to only be “borrowing” them to prove a point.  Stylus faculty adviser Marsha Ducey recommended pursuing formal charges, but the editorial board declined.

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SPLC attorney advocate Adam Goldstein: “The nicest thing you could say about the student government moving these papers into another area is that they went out of their way to offend the First Amendment, deprive advertisers of the value of their ad revenue and deprive the student body of the newspaper it paid for.”

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FIRE’s Peter Bonilla has the best line, offering a question to think about the next time the BSG wants to show papers not being picked up: “[E]ver heard of a camera?”

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The BSG did return the newspapers at editors’ request, but then offered an atrocious argument when accused of theft.  In a letter to Matthias drafted by outside legal counsel, the organization states, “[A]ny and all assets owned by the Stylus are in fact owned by BSG.  To the extent that an officer of BSG acquires or uses those assets for a purpose that is common to both the organization and BSG, it is simply using its own assets.”

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Translation: BSG grants the Stylus official status as a student organization and provides it with some funding, so it can take whatever it wants from the newspaper at any time without punishment.  Bonilla calls it “one of the most breathtakingly bad justifications” for student newspaper theft he has seen since starting at FIRE.

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The BSG next began an attempted assault on the newspaper’s budget for 2011-2012.  It has also temporarily frozen the newspaper’s current budget due to the staff’s late submission of a purchase order for pizza.

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Separately, the BSG is accusing Matthias of libel for a column he wrote discussing the newspaper theft.  As a Stylus story notes, “The document [containing the libel charge] . . . demands that Matthias resign, print a retraction, take the article offline and take other action to ‘diminish the harm he has caused.’”

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According to the SPLC’s Goldstein, one of the many problems with the libel charge is that it undercuts BSG’s claim of ownership over the Stylus.  Thus, in effect, they are accusing themselves of libeling . . . themselves.

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Goldstein says it better: “If the Stylus is the student government [as the BSG claims in its newspaper theft defense], the argument is that the student government thought less of itself because it said something bad about itself. . . . What magnitude of schizophrenia is the student government suffering from?“

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Matthias stands by the column.  He has no plans to resign.  And as he told the SPLC, “[I]f BSG does not acknowledge the fact that they do not own those newspapers and cannot remove them as they wish, then I will continue to pursue this issue in a legal capacity.”

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James Franco, Yale Daily News Fight: Final Thoughts

Posted in College Media, Journalism, New Media, Student Newspaper on March 8, 2011 | 1 Comment »

James Franco recently cussed out The Yale Daily News online in response to a student columnist’s tongue-in-cheek critique of his tweets.  In almost three years of maintaining this blog, the previous sentence may be the strangest one I have ever written.

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As most of the Western world is now aware, Franco phoned in his Oscar hosting duties at the end of last month, earning Spiderman-musical-sized criticism from netizens and the press.

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Yet, in the immediate aftermath of the Academy Awards debacle, the actor/writer/soap star/grad student did not publicly acknowledge any of the scathing reviews. Instead, he felt compelled to respond to a random 300-word post penned by a Yale student in a 3 a.m. blogging session focused on “the lame-ness of James Franco’s Twitter.”

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The nut graf of the post that he (and his fans) found offensive, by student Cokey Cohen (now the most well-known Yalie of 2011): “James Franco, your Twitter sort of sucks.”

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As Cohen notes in a subsequent portion, “Look, I get it. Twitter’s hard. . . . And I would usually never berate someone for tweeting inadequately . . . but James Franco is not just some rando on Twitter. He’s a Celebrity Tweeter, which deserves all caps and necessitates a higher quality of meaningless, incessant electronic communication.  So far, he’s been tweeting a lot of random links to pictures and replies to other celebrities. The pictures are okay in that a few are of him: candids are a Celebrity Tweeter staple. On the other hand, a lot of them . . . look like a fourteen-year-old girl with emo bangs and a Tumblr account attacked them with a few of her favorite Photoshop filters.”

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Franco’s odd Photoshopped reply: placing sloppy red letters spelling out “F*ck The Yale Daily News” over a photo of himself in a car, seatbelt buckled, sporting a Terminator-as-a-teenager look.  It is so general that not even Cohen is entirely sure he is responding to her.  But the consensus from YDN and the media at-large is that the pic is Franco’s fight to restore his Twitter honor.

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In a separate follow-up post about Franco’s FU photo, Cohen sarcastically called the incident “the pinnacle of my career as a writer, at least based on the fact that [the original] blog post officially has the most comments of anything I’ve ever written, even if they are all defending James Franco against my typos and general meanness.”

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Ironically, in berating this perceived meanness, the commenters on her post come across as much, much meaner. Their overall sentiment seems to be: Mess with Franco at your own risk.

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A sampling: “This is so sad.  What’s double the sad is that Cokey Cohen was able to get recognition based on a half-assed poorly written article. Can’t wait to get to college and write some half-assed papers about someone I shouldn’t care about.”; and ”While you’re there writing this and hoping, praying you’ll get some attention, James is probably making more money than you’ll ever will and enjoying a sweet life.”

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My Take: The power of the student press is once again on display.  A single student writer has provoked a dialogue of sorts with a Hollywood almost-A-lister.

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A few reactions from my students when shown Franco’s “visual/performance/Twitter art response”: “I think this is his way of indirectly responding to all his Oscar hosting haters”; “This whole thing might be a secret PR agreement between him and the newspaper– maybe they had to agree to publish his upcoming short story in exchange”; and “Franco’s so weird, this might somehow be a compliment.”

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Or it might simply be beyond our comprehension.  In Cohen’s words, “I’m becoming convinced that James Franco’s whole life is a form of postmodern performance art.”

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Student Writer, Editor Fired from Campus Newspaper for Column on Sex, ‘Sick Society’

Posted in College Media, Journalism, Student Newspaper, Teachable Moment on March 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Early last week, The Daily Collegian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst apologized for publishing a controversial column “that implied some rape victims bear responsibility for being assaulted.”  The newspaper has also fired the student columnist and the editor “with final say over night editorial content.”

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The column in general denounces what the female writer sees as a “sick society,” one that is allegedly pressuring young women to engage in sex before they are ready and without concerns about the consequences.  As one portion argues: “Sex has become a service, like any other, but without fiscal exchange or shame.  It is no longer associated with love, marriage or a committed relationship. . . . [Women] strive to keep up with being ‘modern’ and ‘liberated.’  The contemporary American female is advised to collect five or ten lovers, risk sexually transmitted disease . . . or, in the worst scenario, get an abortion. . . . Women, instead of acclaiming ‘sexual liberation’ have received, at the least, a bad reputation.”

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The most controversial segment extends this perspective to the point of finding women at fault in instances of non-consensual sexual activity.  In the writer’s words, “If a young woman wears a promiscuous outfit to a party, then proceeds to drink and flirt excessively, she should not blame men for her downfall. She made a decision to dress a certain way, to consume alcohol and should be prepared to deal with the consequences. Far from being a victim of rape, she is a victim of her own choices.”

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A day after its publication, Collegian editors released a letter to readers, stating, in part: “It is evident that the column is both offensive and inaccurate, and the Collegian is deeply sorry to members of the community who were negatively affected.  The author’s suggestion that rape victims should be held accountable for what has happened to them is reprehensible and in no way represents the opinions of our staff.”

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In an e-mail exchange with The Boston Globe, the student writer said that editing mistakes “allowed for numerous misunderstandings” about the positions stated within the column.  Additionally, “[s]he said she did not mean to suggest that rape victims are to blame for their assaults.”

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