Part of the duties of editor-in-chief of a newspaper is using good judement when it comes to the content of the paper. The editor-in-chief of Colorado State University’s paper, J. David McSwane, is under fire for allowing an editorial to run with the headline “Tase this: F— Bush,” but with the entire “F word” spelled out.
Campus groups and members of the Fort Collins community, where CSU is located, have asked CSU’s publications board to fire McSwane because they found the message and the expletive offensive. McSwane issued a statement saying he would not resign despite the backlash.
We at the O’Collegian fully support McSwane and his decision to disregard calls for his resignation. We do not, however, support his decision to run the expletive in a headline. Its use made no sense and discredits his newspaper as a serious publication. Though we can agree that there is a time and place for harsh statements, we do not think it was merited in this case.
However, we do not believe that CSU’s pub board should fire him; and we do not feel it has the right to, either.
If their pub board is anything like ours, it cannot control content. Firing McSwane would be a breach of its rights and a direct hit to students’ First Amendment rights.
We highly doubt that McSwane will pull a stunt like this again. The community and the university have set the standards through their reactions that will hopefully be heeded in the future. It would be foolish of him to try something like this again. Let this lesson be punishment enough for him.
We’ll leave you with a quote from the wise Voltaire, who sums up our opinion nicely: “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
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But it’s OK for a newspaper editor to be abusive & profane? Start thinking for yourself …
S Kirby, I could not have said it better myself!
Readers also have a right to hold journalists accountable for their actions. If the majority of the readers want him gone, he should be fired! Free speech is one thing, trying to make controversy with an expletive is just silly. Fire the young journalist; that will teach him a lesson for sure.
Freedoms of speech and press were exercised by children sitting on the editorial board at the CSU campus news paper. Nothing new. So now were talking about consequence. There is no freedom from consequence. The paper is already feeling it in lost advertisements. The problem is that the whole board ok’ed the hit job. Did they not sit through the story-telling classes that past for journalism like everyone else? It was not right or decent in any sort of manner, nor did it prove any point other than their lack of self control. This, in there minds, passes as journalism… what a joke. My biggest concern is that he and his crew will someday be the editor of a “real” publication. Probably getting calls as we speak.
If Colorado State’s student newspaper is like that of the university I attended, it is probably funded by compulsory dues taken from students. If that is the case, its use of the language in question is not simply a matter of free speech but of a possible misuse of student money. To what extent is a non-governmental body entitled to use dues for whatever purpose it likes?
I would love to see Americans learn how to debate like the English Parliament whose Prime Minister must endure and respond to the shouted criticisms, arguments, challenges, boos, catcalls, and whistles of the MPs. Our lawmakers are sheilded from the free speech of the People and there is great intolerance for harsh criticism. The tasing of Andrew Meyer, the public censure of Mr. McSwane, and the pruning of crowds at our leaders’ public appearances to remove critics demonstrate serious erosion of our shared commitment to the First Amendment. It is this kind of curtailing of serious critical speech that feeds the impulse to engage in outbursts like that published in CSU’s paper.
These are strange times. Worthy of unusual headlines. Glad to see McSwane’s still at the helm.
I think McSwanes arrogant and total lack of class speaks for it self. He neither deserves to be an editor at any paper or keep his positon at the O. This shows whats wrong with this country by self centered and disrespectful individuals put in a position of responsible journalism.
id say well its a college he should not lose his job but but i cant figure out how anyone thinks its first ammement how does that work i can just go on tv single a person out because you dont agree with him and say insults about them . he run a paper and thats all he can come up with i think he could work for move on its about the same thing
It’s kind of a tabloid-ish headline, but, for those who object, would you prefer a committee of government censors to monitor our newspapers for offending material before publication?
If the light of freedom is too bright for you, you’ve been a slvae in a dungeon too long.
Not everyone will be eloquent and polite when crticizing a treasonous dictator engaged in illegal warfare and raping our constitutional freedoms. For that, I am glad.
To this 68 year old, the F word is not part of my vocabulary, but, to my dismay, is now a common part of conversation. That said, I think McSwane showed poor judgment but find myself wondering - if he had used the F word in some other context, other than a headline critical of Bush, would there have been such a strong reaction and a move to fire him? I don’t know what part of the First Amendment Bush supporters’ don’t understand - maybe all of it.
Shawn Parker’s posting is spot on. When serious debate and even the act of asking a civil question are discouraged and thwarted by an imperial president and his toadies, the First Amendment right to freely express speech is all the more a crucial and necessary component of any dialog or monologue. Rather than pillory Mr. McSwane, we should applaud his action.
F*** Hite: Fly a kite!!
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly - that is the first law of nature.
Voltaire
To read or not to read, to watch or not to watch, to participate or to leave, those are the questions. Whether it is nobler in the mind to condemn or to ignore. Vanity is the force that drives one to condemn another. Excluding acts of violence in all forms, all that remains are personnel choices. Each has a right to their own individual existence, as they see fit. You don’t like it, find others who are as ignorant as yourself and get a law passed. Find another who is more powerful than yourself and remove the one who disagrees with you.
Obscenities and porn always have been controversial. Also, you do not have any rights in the military other than that of being killed and exterminated.
People should be intelligent enough to know that they have to watch their tongue and their pen.
Whether one spells the word out or does not, the word appears in people’s minds, we are not stupid. Your version elicits but one word from my head, ergo, your version differs insufficiently from his to merit complaint.
You say you will print my name, but tell me you will not print my e-mail? Where is my freedom?
Harold A. Maio
Advisory Board
American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Board Member
Partners in Crisis
Former Consulting Editor
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal
Boston University
Language Consultant
UPENN Collaborative on Community Integration
of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities
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