The controversy Eugene blogged about
yesterday reminded me of one of the more outrageous such incidents, back in the late
1980s. UCLA suspended an editor of the student newspaper for running an editorial
cartoon ridiculing affirmative action preferences. In the cartoon, a student asks a
rooster on campus how it got into UCLA. The rooster responds, "affirmative action."
After the editor was sanctioned by UCLA, student editor James Taranto (now of
OpinionJournal.com) reproduced the cartoon in the California State University,
Northridge student newspaper and criticized UCLA officials for suspending the paper�s
editor for engaging in constitutionally protected expression. Northridge officials
then suspended Taranto from his editorial position for two weeks for publishing
controversial material "without permission." However, when Taranto threatened a
lawsuit, the school removed the suspension from his transcript.
You'll find a similar version of the story at
www.collegefreedom.org:
I hadn't realized till now that the estimable James
Taranto got his start in controversy then.
These are cases where conservative views have been censored, and they should be
condemned. One case is the UCLA Daily Bruin, which ran a cartoon where a rooster was
asked how he got admitted on campus and the rooster replied, "Affirmative action." For
this cartoon, the editor and art director were suspended for violating the policy
against using derogatory stereotypes. At California State University at Northridge, the
editor of the campus paper wrote an editorial criticizing the decision, and also
reproduced the offensive rooster cartoon -- as a result, the paper's faculty advisor
gave a two-week suspension to Taranto for printing "controversial" material without
permission. After ACLU intervened, a settlement was reached.
I remember the UCLA incident, because I was an assistant professor
there at the time and was involved at its periphery. As I rememember it, though, the
UCLA punishment was by the management of the Daily Bruin itself, not by the
University Administration. Thus, we ought not to blame the University. I was
shocked at the time, though, and wrote a letter to the Daily Bruin, which it published,
explaining how bad self-censorship can be and, and, essentially, telling the student
journalists who did it they should be ashamed of themselves. Soon afterwards they did do
something that made me feel they had taken my letter to heart-- a courageous editorial
or something like that. I don't rememember more details, alas, and can't find anything
in my computer files.
To return to Eric Rasmusen's weblog, click http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/0.rasmusen.htm.