April 11, 2006

Journalism That Dare Not Speak Its Name

North Central University removed a husband and wife from their editorial posts at a student newspaper after they refused to allow administrators to vet the paper before publication.

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Hope and Chuck Bahr, students at North Central, a Pentecostal institution in Minneapolis, were dismissed as editors Thursday after the seven-member senior editorial staff of The Northern Light voted unanimously to stop working on the newspaper — rather than give administrators pre-publication editorial power.

Hope Bahr was the editor-in-chief of the paper, which generally publishes every other week, and Chuck Bahr was the news editor.

Susan Detlefsen, a North Central spokeswoman, said that the decision to require pre-publication review was the result of “an accumulation of events.”

Gordon Anderson, president of the university, cited two main problems with The Light’s coverage. The first, he said, arose when Chuck Bahr chose to write a news article about the Soulforce Equality Ride, a 30-member tour of 19 Christian and military campuses that have anti-gay policies.

The riders, all between the ages of 18-26 and identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, plan to stop at North Central on April 17. One of the riders says he was expelled from North Central because he is gay. The North Central administration, which views the campus visits as publicity stunts, told the riders that they would not be allowed to conduct their activities on campus grounds. North Central says it takes a Biblical view of homosexuality, but, according to a university statement, “does not summarily expel students who reveal that they have same sex attraction. Also, we do not tolerate ‘gay-bashing.’”

The ride has been a point of hot debate at many of the institutions it has visited, and Bahr felt it worthy of an article. Because of privacy considerations, university officials could not comment specifically on the student who says he was expelled, but Anderson said that Chuck Bahr and the student, David Coleman, are friends. Anderson added that, because Chuck Bahr is married to the editor-in-chief, there was little chance there would be editorial oversight of the article. “It’s an obvious conflict of interest,” Anderson said.

When Bahr wrote about Equality Ride in January, university officials literally stopped the presses. “The administration said they weren’t ready to make a statement,” Hope Bahr said, “so we didn’t think it was fair that we should hold our story because they weren’t ready.” University officials called the printing press and halted publication.

After that, Chuck Bahr “gave in,” he said, and allowed Detlefsen to read his article about the Equality Ride for the February 28 issue before it went to press. Detlefsen said that the intent of “proofreading” is to ensure “a balanced perspective.” Bahr, who said that Coleman is a friend, said he purposely did not use Coleman as a source. Detlefsen reviewed Bahr’s article, deemed it fair, and did not make any changes to the piece, in which both she and a main Equality Ride organizer are quoted extensively.

In the same issue, the editorial board, made up of the Bahrs and three other editors, wrote an editorial admonishing the administration for not showing “Christ-like love” by letting the riders on campus to converse with students.

To cap off the trio of articles that Anderson said has left his desk full of unhappy letters from donors and “the highest officials in our movement,” the Light ran a student opinion article that questioned the Pentecostal doctrine of “speaking in tongues.”

Anderson called the article a “pot shot” and “a setback in [North Central’s] public image” could devastate fund raising.

Anderson pointed out that, because the university owns the newspaper and both are private entitites is privately owned, there is no First Amendment question in this case. The Bahrs admit that the university is on firm legal ground, but Hope Bahr said that, “we believe under Biblical principles we are allowed to question their decisions.” Student reaction, she added, has largely been apathetic. Most students “believe that the administration are our spiritual leaders and we should listen to them.”

When asked whether a solution short of removal was attempted to alleviate conflict of interest concerns, Anderson said that “they never volunteered that.”

Rather than a legal issue, the question, to Anderson and the Bahrs is what role the student newspaper should play. North Central policy says that “the opinion section is a venue where students should be free to express their opinions on matters that concern them. This includes columns or commentaries that advocate change in university policy or practice.”

Anderson said that, as members of a private institutional community, the paper has an obligation to act in the interest of the community. He said that mainstream newspapers would not publish articles criticizing the company that owns them. Anderson said that the role of the paper came down to a philosophical debate with students, and “in a philosophical debate with students,” he said, “you can get a lot of attitude.” He added that to be a true open forum, the paper should run opposing opinion articles in the same issue, like USA Today, rather than printing one, and allowing a response three weeks down the line.

Bahr’s coverage can still be found online, at a site that is not an official domain of North Central University. Bahr said he plans to cover the Equality Ride visit for the site.

Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said that, even without grounds for a legal complaint, the administration’s behavior is “reprehensible for an institution of higher education. If school officials are looking to prepare journalists for life in China, this is a great way to run a student newspaper.”

— David Epstein

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Comments

Above the law

I’m about fed up with religious institutions citing legal protection as justification for atrocious acts of anti-intellectual, anti-democratic, or downright fascist decisions on their part. It’s convenient that the law doesn’t matter when they make pronouncements denouncing homosexuality, abortion, contraception, sex education, etc.—those are strictly moral questions, of course. But when it comes to their “right” to shut people up within their own communities, suddenly the law is their friend. Either fight your battles openly, through moral persuasion and “Christian sharing,” or shut the hell up and abide by the rules and values that the rest of our society lives by—those include “freedom of thought,” “freedom of speech,” and “freedom of the press.” Authoritarian coercion isn’t “Christian” in any sense of the word, and it certainly isn’t American.

And since when are school administrators “spiritual leaders"?! This confusion of roles is precisely the problem here. Schools are there to educate, not indoctrinate—their tools are knowledge and dialogue, not censorship and legal obfuscation. Some of these administrators have clearly missed their true calling: that of a close-minded ministry or an arrogant politics.

huntly, at 10:45 am EDT on April 11, 2006

Missional Ambiguity

Universities need to be unambiguous in the intent and mission of their “student” newspapers. Either it is a publication that reflects the views of the institution, or it reflects the views of the student. The former demands intimate, day-to-day involvement and ultimate editorial responsibility given to a paid member of the college staff. The latter demands total student control with the institution in the background — far in the background. You can’t have it both ways or you will be faced with the above crisis on your hands.

I’ll leave issues of Scriptural interpretation and the discussion thereof for another time.

Tom McCool, at 10:55 am EDT on April 11, 2006

Typical United States

In a typical move by United States’ university, while touting “freedom” and “respect,” the administration shuts down and gets rid of the people who actually want debate to broaden others’ horizons.

Big issue in New York Times and other publications on how Yahoo! is censored in China, and how internet has 30,000 Chinese employees trolling for “illegal” acts...people’s freedom. President of United States says Iraq and Afghanistan wars are for “democracy” and yet the present administration in United States is least transparent of all administrations in entire U.S. history.

U.S. think “intelligent Design” is science! Now “Biblical” ruled universities shut down discussion on human rights and want to “pre-read” articles before publishing...what is difference with U.S. and China? Oh, yes, difference is that China admits openly to being biased and censoring its people while U.S. say one thing and do another...United States, welcome back to the dark ages, you were missed for a while.

Gregoriy Morgunov, China, We Got Next, at 11:00 am EDT on April 11, 2006

Follow your leader

In America today, we’re free to express our views, as long as they’re consistent with those of our “spiritual leaders,” who are no longer confined to the pulpit, but have suddenly become the administrators of universities and the heads of state. Students are entitled to a “free press” insofar as it’s freely consistent with the (spiritual) mission of the university. Americans are entitled to information, so long as it is vetted (and leaked) by our all-knowing leaders. And we can express dissent, so long as it doesn’t “give comfort to the enemy"—which is to say, as long as it’s in-line with official White House policy. We must trust that “someone up there” always knows what’s best for us, and we needn’t burden ourselves with too much thinking (or speaking) on unnecessary and disloyal topics. If we don’t like what our nation or our school has become, we can simply “love it or leave it.” Thus, our “freedoms” are preserved! God Bless the USA!

Jack Trades, at 1:10 pm EDT on April 11, 2006

There are so many bad assumptions and misinterpretations in the preceding messages that a book would be required to disentangle them. One or two things—

For huntly: yes, Christian colleges and universities do expect their administrators to be spiritual leaders. That is part of waht makes them Christian institutions. Christianity has something to say about the whole of life; there’s no reason to divorce it from administration.

Mr McCool: student newspapers are often identified with the institution they come from, like it or not. The division you ask for is simple and usually unworkable, as a number of secular institutions are finding out.

Mr Morgunov: a small Christian institution dismisses two editors of a student newspaper. So far as I know, they are still at large and their work is freely available online. This adds up to—Intelligent Design, the war in Iraq, and ‘welcome back to the Dark Ages.’ Hmm.

Douglas Lewis, at 1:10 pm EDT on April 11, 2006

Culture war

Well, the culture war continues. While some secular campuses won’t allow anyone to voice politically incorrect opinions on homosexuality, some religious campuses won’t allow anyone to voice religiously inconsistant opinions on the same.

Back to the trenches we go.

Kevin, Undergraduate, at 1:40 pm EDT on April 11, 2006

Stop the Presses

Since when is an editorial decision by a publisher at all comparable to a totalitarian state’s censorship of the press? If the college owns the paper, it has the right to print or not print anything it wants or doesn’t want. That is what being a publisher is all about. Students are free to form their own independent newspaper, and have on numerous campuses, where the college administration has not say in what is published. If you work for the publisher though, you work FOR the publisher, and the publisher has the right to decide upon content and direction.

Gofer, at 1:40 pm EDT on April 11, 2006

“Rights” and Wrongs

Publishers have the “right” to decide on content. Universities have the “right” to censor their student-run newspapers. Religious leaders have a “right” to be intolerant and narrow-minded. The President has the “right” to classify, declassify, withhold, or leak information as he pleases. Students and citizens have the “right” to go elsewhere to secure their freedoms.

Having a right and being right aren’t the same thing—and these actions aren’t right. The law only determines what you can do, not what you should do. I have the “right” to say what should be done, and students or citizens have the right to protest a clear injustice. The law has always lagged a bit behind on issues of social justice and political freedom, so it’s no surprise that it still favors the powerful and the prejudiced over the still-theoretical “values” of American democracy.

huntly, at 3:50 pm EDT on April 11, 2006

What’s really the issue?

This is no different than a company newsletter. Read the article again. The institution owns the newspaper and both are private entities. They CAN dictate what is printed and what is not. It’s no different than an employee at a large company producing a newsletter. If an employee newsletter denigrates the CEO, do you really think the author/editor is going to be allowed to print whatever he/she/they want? This isn’t a case of “free press” so stop trying to turn it into one. Whether you agree or disagree with their viewpoints on the article’s content is moot.

By the way, don’t kid yourself, the “free press” is edited every day.

Befuddled, at 3:50 pm EDT on April 11, 2006

Huntly

Huntly, exactly what are you advocating? Total control by the writers? Perhaps we should haul all the newspaper editors off to jail too, since they tend to act as a pikegate to content....

The university owns the press — they have not only the legal but every concievable moral right to decide what they will and will not allow to come off the presses that they own — down to the last dot of the i, cross of the t and spot on the semicolon.

Kevin, Undergraduate, at 10:00 pm EDT on April 11, 2006

Free expression in Northern Light’s pages, while not constitutionally guaranteed, is what would make it a student newspaper. It’s clear that North Central doesn’t want such a paper — it wants a PR newsletter to show off to donors and to “the movement.”

Why not drop the farce, then, and just hire a publicist to oversee the whole thing?

Matt Zeidel, Editor at SUNY-Binghamton’s student paper, at 4:35 am EDT on April 12, 2006

Rights vs. what’s right

Everyone who has posted comments regarding the right of North Central to preread, censor and control the content of the student newspaper is correct.

However, I suggest you visit the school’s Web site, http://www.northcentral.edu/studentlife/organizations/northernlight.php and read the description of why the paper exists.

Quote:"2. To give students a forum in which to discuss current events.

The Northern Light is the voice of the student body. As such, a variety of stories and a diversity of voices should be evident in its pages. The focus will be on events and issues which affect the North Central community.

The opinion section is a venue where students should be free to express their opinions on matters that concern them. This includes columns or commentaries that advocate change in university policy or practice.”

So how exactly does sacking the editor and news editor after publishing a commentary that questions a doctrine of the Assemblies of God and a news story about an upcoming Soulforce rally jibe with the stated purpose of the paper?

Yes, the administration has a legal right to institute whatever policies it sees fit, but it seems at the very least against the own stated reason for the paper’s existence to have a policy that precludes any newspaper content that may “make North Central look bad.”

Further, if the administration wanted to institute a preread and censorship policy, why couldn’t they wait until the current school year was finished so that the new “editor” would know the rules of the game?

JohnW, at 9:20 am EDT on April 12, 2006

In my opinion, those willing to pay twice for the same service are really the ones getting ripped off. When you think about it, do those people still pay their ‘mandatory student fees,’ as well as fund their own newspaper? Sounds an awful lot like paying twice for the same service. Would you purchase an item and pay twice? Would you pay for a car twice?

I suppose it’s easier to just fund an “independent” newspaper, rather than stand up for your rights.

Stephanie, at 9:55 pm EDT on April 12, 2006

If the “student” newspaper is funded through “student” fees, then who owns the newspaper????

Newspaper independence does not solve everything ~ look at the Daily Illini case. Even so, why would you expect the students to fund an activity twice? Maybe the administrators should live up to their end of the bargin (i.e. claiming the newspaper is a public forum)

RB, at 9:55 pm EDT on April 12, 2006

Ownership

The university is the legal owner. End of story.

Kevin, Undergraduate, at 1:20 pm EDT on April 13, 2006

Actually, it’s false advertising if they are using student funds to build a faculty newsletter that they advertise in the catalog as a student-run publication.

RB, at 11:40 am EDT on April 14, 2006

Which law?

Which law states the university is the legal owner of the student newspaper? Does that same law allow people to sue the university if they don’t like what the university allows printed in the newspaper?

Stephanie, at 4:45 pm EDT on April 14, 2006

Covering the war

As the old saying goes, it is hard to cover a war when a general signs your paycheck.

The school is the publisher of the newspaper. This is true at liberal schools and conservative schools. Students also agree to live by the rules of the school, signing papers promising to do so — of their own free will.

So this is a private school enforcing its rules, even if those rules are new or changed or vague. The same rules apply to left and right, whatever their speech codes.

Sadly, the school can do what it wants. It is hard to call it journalism education, but what happened is within the school’s rights.

tmatt@tmatt.net, GetReligion.org, at 11:30 am EDT on April 19, 2006

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