The Acts of Children

By now, the four, immature words uttered by the The Rocky Mountain Collegian's editorial board have be spewed across newspapers, bloggers and airwaves - much to their plan. And now the aftermath of these students' decision are hitting the fan, including the lost of $30,000 in advertising, the calls for the resignation of the paper's editor in chief and a boycott of the college paper.
Make no mistake, these students wanted to be "martyers" for some lame, "stick-it-to-the-man" cause. And in doing so, they took the ship down with them.
It is so unfortunate that this group of students choose to use the verbal fighting techniques of a 3rd grader.
When I was opinion editor of the Collegian, I worked on striking the balance of expressive of free speech and the responsibility I had to readers and the validation of the 116-year-old daily newspaper. I am not speaking against the actions of the editorial board because its used vulgar language (ambit in 56-size font) nor am I criticizing them for speaking out against President Bush. No. There are times and places for the use of language they decided to use. But to simply state their opinion in four letters is equivalent to putting your opinions on a bumper sticker. Instead of taking advantage of their public forum on the opinion page of the newspaper and striking an intelligent and healthy debate, they went for the low-brow route.
The editorial board argues that they did this to start a community-wide conversation about free speech. In fact they did that but at what expense? They have again tarnished the reputation of this newspaper, which is the oldest student daily newspaper west of the Mississippi River, the reputation of students working there.
Do I think the editor in chief should be fired? Yes. Not for publishing a curse word or for being a left-wing nut, but because he did not take into any consideration of who this was going to affect. Newspapers should be representative of their communities, especially college newspapers. And it is so clear that is not the case here.