How offensive can we be?

Student newspapers have a right to be offensive and to be responsible

By CHRISTOPHER J. ORTIZ
The Rocky Moutain Collegian, Colorado State University

I never thought I would last this long - to the last week of classes as the opinion editor of The Rocky Mountain Collegian. Not after my first couple of weeks on the job.
On Sept. 15, an opinion columnist wrote a column titled, "Where is my minority group," portraying his sentiments about minority and religious advocacy student organizations on campus and about affirmative action and himself, being a straight, non-religious Caucasian male, going up against minorities and women in job interviews. I read the column, knowing that it might offend some students, but it went through me and other editors and made the next day's paper.
As expected, it offended people, particularly a female student from Black Student Services. She felt compelled to write a letter to the editor and a personal letter to the columnist.
The following Wednesday, I found myself along with another editor, sitting through an Associated Students of CSU Senate meeting with aggravated students who were upset with the columnist. They were upset with his column but what prompted the discussion was his personal response to the female student who wrote him. I won't go into detail what he wrote, but trust me, he degraded her as a woman and as an African American.
People were understandably upset. I was upset at my columnist's actions and at the fact I was sitting in an ASCSU meeting hearing remarks about how the student government needs to censor columnists and criticizing the Collegian for letting this column run.
The Daily Collegian at the University of Massachusetts found itself in a similar predicament. "Pat Tillman is not a hero: He got what was coming to him" was the headline for Rene Gonzalez's column at the Daily Collegian. Gonzalez wrote that the NFL football player who died in Iraq after joining the Army Rangers, walking away from a $3.6 million football contract, was not a hero. Gonzalez even called him a "pedejo," or idiot.
UMass' Student Government Association was voting on a motion Wednesday night asking that The Daily Collegian no longer receive direct financial contribution from SGA, essentially making the student newspaper financially independent. The motion was made after the Tillman column.
The situation asks what kind of relationship a student government has with a student newspaper that receives student fees directly, or indirectly, from the student government. It also asks how offensive can a student newspaper be without alienating itself from students.
Ferron Salniker, an editor at the Daily Collegian, said there are underlying reasons why the student government is doing this.
She said some senators who agree with the motion see it as a form of punishment for publishing the Tillman column; some senators have an issue of making financial contributions to the newspaper that allowed the column to be published.
Salniker also said that if the motion passes, SGA would be violating a section of its own bylaws that states it cannot punish or control media outlets.
So, what defense do newspapers use when they publish offensive columns or articles?
"It's a matter of providing campus with their voice. We represent all students, and it's our duty to present all sides," Salniker said.
In the case of my columnist (who was excused from the Collegian after the incident for several reasons), I personally didn't agree with his column, but if I started to edit columns subjectively, based on if I agree with the argument or not, the readers wouldn't be able to read columns from Republicans or radical liberals or from people who listen to Creed. But I don't edit columns that way. I knew, and other editors knew, that Jacob's column would offend some people, but we still let it ran. I am sure the editors at The Daily Collegian knew Gonzalez's column would offend people, but the media have that power to run offensive material.
Would the Collegian here ever run into a situation where an offensive column would prompt ASCSU to stop funding it? Most likely not.
ASCSU President-elect Katie Clausen said the student government does not have a direct control over the Collegian's operations. It does oversee a small portion of the Collegian's budget and ensures that we provide the students with a daily newspaper, but in no way does ASCSU or any members oversee the editorial content of the Collegian.
But when offensive columns receive more criticism than predicted, college newspapers can learn.
"We learned a great deal, to look more closely at columns and headlines and the repercussions (or running offensive columns). We can get more attention than expected," Salniker said.
The issues this Collegian and The Daily Collegian encountered are not new and they are sure to occur again. Newspapers do not exist to be offensive, but they also do not exist to be safe.
Chris was the opinion editor for the Collegian. He is leaving the newspaper and heading Student Media's new magazine publishing next year.