Can't buy a free press
The Cavalier Daily
The decision fit within established and nearly universal newspaper policy: Editors reserve the right to forsake any ad - and the cash it would bring in - to keep inappropriate content off their publication's pages. In the past, we've rejected ads from hate groups and those that claim the Holocaust didn't happen. These are legitimate opinions and defensible under the First Amendment. But like the reparations ad, we chose not to profit from their dissemination.
Much of last week's Wall Street Journal commentary accused The Cavalier Daily, along with papers at Harvard, Columbia and at least 13 others, of not running the ad "on grounds that it was politically unacceptable." Critics cried that today's student press has been appeasing some sort of militant minority faction pervasive on college campuses. This is an extreme and unfair view.
At the same time, we'll admit it - we do care about how our diverse readership views its community newspaper. While we're confident that all University members - regardless of their race, gender or any other classification - can read through an ad's slick lacquer and see its advertiser's agenda, these readers might wonder why we ran the ad in the first place. They expect this paper to serve the University community, to be fair and honest in everything it prints. They do not expect us to run an offensive, racially charged advertisement for a measly $632.
Other newspapers, like the University of California-Berkeley's Daily Californian, the Wisconsin Badger and The Brown Daily Herald ran the ad. That's within their prerogatives. Each newspaper represents a different local community and different set of ideals.
In these papers' cases, the ad was published and soon after protestors stormed newspaper offices and tried to force the resignation of editors. At Brown a coalition stole nearly an entire day's worth newspapers. At Berkeley, the editor-in-chief even printed a front-page apology for running the ad.
The whole affair demands the consideration of the meaning of a free press. We maintain that a free press is not obligated to print everything that comes across its in-box. Yes, Horowitz's views are protected under free speech, and he's welcome to spread his opinions. This newspaper, however, maintains the right to publish content that in its editorial judgement it sees as accurate, fair and decent for its readers. The Cavalier Daily, like any respectable newspaper, is not some literary bathroom stall where any crackpot theory can be publicized for the world to read.
The press needs to be accountable to its public, and its content must serve the needs of its readers. However, the truly free press must also be able to stand by its ideals in the face of popular opposition. It is patently offensive, un-American and uncivil to try to force the hand of the independent journalist through intimidation. Instead, newspapers have outlets - opinion pages, letters to the editor and ombudsmen - for voicing dissent. These instruments were designed to encourage thoughtful, reasoned debate. The press serves democracy, not mobocracy.
Like all great propagandists, Horowitz has brought out the worst in people. While it was distasteful to try to run an ad stating, "Reparations to African Americans have already been paid ... in the form of welfare benefits" during Black History Month, the reaction to the ad has topped the eccentric ol' extremist. Labeling student newspapers that make thoughtful, independent editorial decisions as communist censors is a hypocritical way of defending free speech. On the other hand, those who would employ the power of mobs, hot tempers and demagoguery to influence the press in turn destroy any notion of intellectual discourse entirely.
A free press does not allow itself to be held hostage by anyone with an agenda and a checkbook. A free press does not allow its content to be governed by the whims of a minority - or even majority - opinion. Instead, a free press accumulates information and viewpoints, whether paid or unpaid, weeds through them for accuracy and merit, and disseminates them to a larger truth-seeking community. In these ways The Cavalier Daily still very much considers itself a free press.
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