This So-Called Content Analysis

It’s not just the “critics of political correctness” who object to this obnoxious dismissal; everyone should. The university used diversity as a pathetic excuse for getting rid of a faculty adviser who wouldn’t control the student newspaper.

The so-called “content analysis” is absurd. Real content analysis is what journalists did when they gave the Collegian awards for excellence; merely counting bylines and stories is the antithesis of analysis, and no journalist or scholar would give it any credibility.

Kansas State may have prevailed in court, but it is still wrong and continues to deserve condemnation.

John K. Wilson, coordinator, Campus Journalism Project at Illinois State University, at 8:57 am EDT on June 14, 2005

Kow tow

Boy, talk about Catch-22: The judge ruled that Johnson had no standing to bring a First Amendment claim against Kansas State because he does not control the content of the student newspaper.

Ok, well, that means we can fire you for what the paper publishes, but you can’t defend yourself on the basis of content or, for that matter, in any way related to publication of the newspaper, because you have no standing. It’s not your job, but we can fire you for not doing it. Got that?

Then a lawyer for Kansas State said the court’s ruling vindicates the university, adding that it did not censor the content of the Collegian or seek to control anyone’s freedom of expression.Vindication? It does nothing of the sort, but we Amercians have come to expect of our advocates that they tell the Big Lie. The court’s ruling was technical, turning on the difference between the concepts of content and analysis and whether the plaintiff had standing. Vindication? Malarkey.

The university has, in fact, seized the Collegian from the grasp of its student editors and made its continued publication contingent upon its pleasing the powers that be. It has removed the paper’s best advocate from the scene to serve as a warning to all who would follow: You’re on the street if the paper doesn’t have the right stuff in it.

What a splendid exercise of press freedom in the academic environment of free inquiry guaranteed by our democratic republic. What an affirmation of the high constitutional principles of our favored land. What an opportunity for our students to learn democratic values that have made America a beacon in a world darkened by bigotry and totalitarianism.

Just when you thought the current spate of public hypocrisy and arrogance could get no worse, it does.

Ron George, Texas A&M University, at 9:04 pm EDT on June 14, 2005

An Absurd Court Decision

If anything, the school deserves much more criticism for this case.

For those folks who think the ruling makes sense because the school is simply acting as a publisher, consider this: the university is not the publisher. The publications board is the official publisher, and the members of that board opposed Johnson’s reassignment.

As far as the judge’s ruling, it simply spits in the face of students’ free-speech rights. The content analysis clearly focused on the newspaper’s content, including the number of stories about minority groups and the number that focused on campus issues, yet the school and the judge expect us to believe that Johnson’s reassignment was not based on the newspaper’s content. They argue that his removal had to do with the “quality” of the paper, but was it the quality of the ink? the distribution? the ad sales? No. It was the quality of the editorial content. How can this be anything but a First Amendment violation?

If you still buy the “quality” argument, consider how this would transfer to the news media off campus. Under the school’s logic, government would be allowed to take punitive action against someone connected to your city newspaper if the government officials thought the “quality” of the newspaper coverage was not up to par.

Yes, most, if not all, of the Collegian’s recent awards were for design and photography, but that does nothing to make the school’s actions and the judge’s ruling more logical.

Neil Ralston, assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern State University, at 4:27 am EDT on June 16, 2005