By snoadmin
Recently the Student Media Advisory Board made changes to the standard operating procedures for ASI-funded media outlets. These changes will affect KBEACH, The Union Weekly, and College Beat.
These changes include mandatory training, an approval process for content, and an new code of conduct for ASI media outlets.
This is obviously an attempt to prevent another unfortunate situation such as the infamous Pow Wow article, which spawned weeks of controversy and media coverage when it was published.
According to the new Editor-in-Chief of the Union Weekly, Chelsea Stevens, the new rules are not infringing on their right to free speech.
“If anything, it became more clear that The Union is protected by first amendment rights, which has always been the case,” Stevens said.
However, this situation brings to mind the question of how much regulation there should be toward student publications. As offensive as the Pow Wow article was, it was still protected under the First Amendment. The fact that they are bringing in specialists to teach these writers about the first amendment is a bit strange.
The Union has always been very opinion-based and they allow anybody to contribute. These new rules may not be changing what they are allowed to write, but it seems that they are trying really hard to influence what gets put in the paper.
The reason the previous Editor in Chief Kevin O’Brien caused so much controversy with the Pow Wow situation was because he refused to apologize for the article in question. He didn’t feel like he needed to because the Union has never censored its content. Now they are requiring the editors to go through training to decide what goes in the paper.
If the Union starts to worry about what they are publishing, they are going to lose some of the edge that makes them so unique in the first place. They should not be printing blatantly racist articles, but they shouldn’t be wondering what might offend people because that was never the point. The independent, uncensored style of The Union is what makes it different.
There is also the issue that the Student Media Board may contain people who are biased against certain media outlets. According to John Trapper, general manager of KBEACH, a lot of “Union haters” applied for positions on the Student Media Board after the Pow Wow Article.
Student media outlets should not be scrutinized for their content by an outside source. They should be informed about their first amendment rights, but what they decide to publish should not be questioned. The Pow Wow story was a long time ago, and the Union has learned its lesson.
Clearly the Student Media Advisory Board is scared that something like the Pow Wow incident will happen again, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to make laws to prevent it. If the Union publishes something that causes controversy again, they will have to deal with it, but they do not deserve to be censored.
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