Playboy magazine’s trip to Starkville to audition female students for the “Girls of the SEC” pictorial has come and passed, but it was the publicity and attention before its photographers arrived that created a stir among some students, who started a petition against the publication’s use of Mississippi State’s name.It started when a major advertising company sent an ad to The Reflector to announce the magazine’s trip to Starkville, which the editor in chief approved only after the company sent a revised, less “racy” version of the ad.
Some students spoke out against the advertisement running, but what they may not know is that this isn’t the first time Playboy has advertised with the paper or come to Starkville. In fact, they’ve come several times in the past two decades, and each year they cycle through different collegiate conferences across the United States.
Also of note is that the revised ad did not violate any of The Reflector’s requirements to run. The advertising staff makes it a point to hold every advertiser to the same standards.
One argument the petitioners brought forth was that Playboy using MSU’s name would hurt the university’s image and potentially discourage prospective students from attending. However, if that actually was the case, wouldn’t every major university in the country suffer from the same problem? It’s important to note that Playboy is auditioning in all 12 SEC college towns, which include our neighbors at Ole Miss and Alabama.
The Reflector also got attention for its front-page coverage of the shoot in our issue published just before Spring Break. The coverage apparently got local media attention, but instead of inquiring to the paper, several calls were apparently received by the president’s office.
Following such attention, university president Robert “Doc” Foglesong posted an official statement on the main MSU Web site via university relations regarding freedom of the press. He states: “We support the constitutional right to freedom of the press; therefore, we do not exert editorial control over this independent newspaper. Nor should we.”
Foglesong continues by saying that he spent 33 years defending the right to “speak freely in a free society,” and that he “would be disappointed if this great university did not stand on those principles.”
We commend him for making these statements, and we’re pleased to know that he stands so firmly by such an important aspect of our society.
The last part of his statement reads: “We believe student editors always have the responsibility to use good judgment that serves the student body and the institution. We also would hope that they continually exercise maturity and their best judgment consistent with their editorial and news responsibilities.”
We do not know whether the president was saying he agreed or disagreed with our coverage by this statement, which is OK either way, but we do feel he makes a valid point, which opens up a chance for us to elaborate on the subject.
We covered the Playboy shoot because we felt it was a relevant issue to students, faculty, alumni and all parties involved with the university and the Starkville community. In the story, we explicitly noted that the Playboy event was confined to the city and that the university as an institution was not involved. Though the university as an institution was not involved, it still affected the university community. In that sense, it is our responsibility as journalists to report the story.
Our coverage included several key angles: viewpoints from students, faculty, the administration, the Starkville religious community and Playboy representatives. In doing so, we feel the story was reported in a mature, objective and responsible manner.
These are the principles The Reflector always strives to follow regarding its news content. By standing by these principles, we have earned the honor of being officially named the No. 1 college newspaper in the South by the Southeast Journalism Conference. We stand by our story because we feel we presented it in an honest and fair manner, which is ideal in being a credible news source.
What still leaves us scratching our heads, though, is that the media purportedly sent inquiries to the president’s office but not to The Reflector. Other student media did contact The Reflector, though. It should be common knowledge, at least to the professional media, that editorial content in student newspapers is dictated solely by student editors at public universities. If they did have this knowledge, they should strive to get all sides of the story.