The Daily Mississippian, the University of Mississippi’s student newspaper, has recently been embroiled in a controversy of epic proportions. An article by sex columnist Sumer Rose in the April 8 edition has drawn a firestorm of criticism for the suggestive nature of its content.
Ralph Braseth, The DM’s faculty advisor publicly commented in the Clarion-Ledger that printing the column was “a mistake,” and that it “jeopardizes the credibility of the newspaper.” While Braseth is certainly entitled to his opinion, he should not have publicly taken his students to task. Such comments can have a chilling effect on the relationship between Braseth and his students both as an adviser and as an educator.
An e-mail campaign, spearheaded by the Tupelo-based American Family Association, has targeted university leaders, state College Board members, and even Gov. Musgrove. Many critics have called for Chancellor Robert Khayat to dismiss Rose.
The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly affirmed the First Amendment rights of student publications. In 1969, the Court stated, “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional right to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The DM and Sumer Rose had every legal right to run the column.
The same First Amendment that protects Rose and The Daily Mississippian is the same First Amendment that protects the American Family Association and its publications.
While the AFA and others have a right to respond to what they read, administration or government intervention can set a dangerous precedent. If the administration were to intervene in this case, nothing would stop them from intervening on an article that took the opposite viewpoint as Sumer Rose. Nothing would prevent them from intervening with an article on a different but equally controversial topic, or an article that was critical of the administration.
According to The Clarion-Ledger, Khayat said in a statement that “not everything that can be printed should be printed,” but he has refused to discipline Rose or the paper’s staff. Khayat should be thanked for his commitment to a free student press.
Rev. Donald Wildmon, the head of the AFA posed the query, “is this the kind of education you want your tax dollars providing our young men and women?” First of all, the primary support for college newspapers comes from advertising, not tax dollars. Second, the campus newspaper is not an educational text. The purpose of the campus newspaper is to report on current events and to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas that are of relevance to the intended audience.
In this case, the intended audience is primarily college students. These students are by and large old enough to vote, old enough to fight and die for their country and old enough to make up their own minds about what they read in the newspaper. By and large, Mississippi students have been doing just that without any help from anyone else.
The editor of a college newspaper has the ultimate responsibility for what does or does not go into their paper. Julie Finley, the Daily Mississippian’s editor, stated that “I personally don’t agree with it. But that’s not my job as editor … to put my moral stance on the the newspaper.”
While we do not agree with Finley’s decision to run the article, we recognize that it was her decision to make and that she had every right to do so. After all, we may run something just as controversial one day.
A free press is the cornerstone of a free society. Censorship is the tool of absolutism. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t like something you read, you have the right to disagree and speak your mind. But censorship hurts everyone. Because the next voice that’s silenced may be yours.