[NYTr] Media: Calls for student editor to resign after 'Fuck Bush' column

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

CNN - Sep 25, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/25/bush.cnnu/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Calls for student editor to resign after 'Fuck Bush' column

By Brett Okamoto
Special to CNN

CNNU campus correspondent Brett Okamoto is a senior at Colorado State
University. CNNU is a feature that provides student perspectives on
news and trends from colleges across the United States. The views
expressed in this article are not necessarily those of CNN, its
affiliates or the schools where the campus correspondents are based.

FORT COLLINS, Colorado (CNN) -- The College Republicans, a student
organization at Colorado State University, weren't planning anything
special for the last week of September. 

Then on September 21, David McSwane, the editor-in-chief of The Rocky
Mountain Collegian, the daily student newspaper, printed the four-word
column that sparked a national free speech debate and sent the College
Republicans into action, writing a petition to force him to resign.

"Taser this: Fuck Bush" was printed on the opinion page of the
newspaper, causing CSU president Larry Penley to issue a formal
statement and the Board of Student Communications to plan a meeting for
Wednesday night. During the meeting they will decide on the fate of
McSwane and his future involvement with the publication.

"We'll present our petition to the board at the meeting," said student
Chelsey Penoyer, the chairman of the College Republicans. Don't Miss

"We're petitioning that he should resign on his own. The petition also
urges students to think twice before going to businesses who continue
advertising with The Collegian."

In a confidential memo mistakenly released to the local newspaper, The
Coloradoan, Fort Collins businesses have already pulled out $30,000 in
advertising with The Collegian, which relies completely on external
revenue to operate, not student fees.

According to the memo, to make up for the loss, student employee wages
were cut by 10 percent, the newspaper reported.

McSwane confirmed the memo after its release.

McSwane has defended his actions, referring to the incident involving a
college student who was Tasered at a recent John Kerry speech in
Florida. He said that his decision was exercising his right to free
speech.

He refused to comment for this story.

Students around the CSU campus expressed a majority feeling that while
they felt McSwane's right to free speech should be protected, many of
them felt as though he misused it.

"At first I totally supported him and the paper," said senior Evan
Isoline, who read the initial column when it came out. "I thought he
was making a political statement and then throwing away his college
career at the paper. I thought he would resign right away.

"Now you look at it and it's like, 'Taser this. Taser what?' The issue
isn't even about President Bush. If you're going to stand up for
something like that you have to have something to back it up. You have
to believe in something."

Some students however have stopped in to the newsroom in support of the
paper's actions.

"I completely support him and the paper for their decision," said
Alesia Gifford, vice president of the Young Democrats, another
political student organization. "In this society we are taking a step
backwards, especially with the free speech debate. President Bush has
lost our respect as a country. "At some point we have to stand up for
our rights. [McSwane] was just showing that speech, even when explicit,
should always be protected by the First Amendment."

Many more students however were shocked at the paper's decision and
failed to see the political stance they took. In addition to writing a
column they felt lacked substance, students also were concerned of what
it would do to the university's image.

"It makes the students at Colorado State look like a bunch of
uneducated children who don't have anything intelligent to say,"
Penoyer said. "So we just yell bad words."