The Board of Student Communications at Colorado State has scheduled a formal hearing for Thursday, during which the editor in chief of the school’s paper, The Rocky Mountain Collegian, will consider whether the newspaper violated its own code of ethics when publishing an editorial using a four letter expletive when referencing President Bush.
While the issues of freedom of the press and the First Amendment have been raised and debated, the hearing should be clearly understood as an internal matter within the newspaper and its Board of Student Communications, composed of six students and three faculty members, since the newspaper may have violated its own code of ethics.
The code of ethics contains a provision stating that “profane and vulgar words are not acceptable for opinion writing.”
The piece was written in response to police officers using a Taser on a student from the University of Florida for disobeying police orders during a forum featuring Sen. John Kerry.
When justifying his actions, the editor in chief of the school paper was quoted in The New York Times, saying, “We feel this statement, albeit unpopular, was necessary in communicating our opinion that it’s time for college students to challenge the current political climate and speak out.”
But the right to speak out should not jeopardize the ethical standards that the paper has set for itself.
Even though the immature and tasteless editorial should be protected from government censorship under the First Amendment, the editorial board should not have published the piece in violation of the paper’s own ethical standards.
A newspaper staff must strictly adhere to ethical standards or it runs the risk of being inconsistent and hypocritical.
The board has already held a public forum to discuss concerns and it subsequently decided that the community’s complaints had enough merit to call for the hearings.
David McSwane, the editor in chief, vowed he would not resign.
While public opinion should not influence whether or not the board holds hearings on violations of the newspaper’s code of ethics, the board is correct to exercise its right to investigate the matter and has the right to punish those in violation of rules.
McSwane should be held accountable for the violation, as he is the leader of the newspaper and is ultimately responsible for the content of the paper. He should have realized that the nine-member editorial board should not have violated the paper’s own rules.
The fact that Bush had no reasonable connection to the Taser incident further obscures the meaning behind the editorial.
Journalists have the responsibility to inform the public in a clear and concise way, not publish murky criticisms which require elaborate discussion after offending readers.
The First Amendment is an invaluable part of the United States Constitution and provides a right that journalists should exercise freely and often.
However, the way in which The Collegian exercised this right does not effectively reinforce the value of freedom of the press in this country, and has seemingly cheapened it in the eyes of many offended readers who have expressed dissatisfaction.