Spring Break
Editorial incites furor; Gavin Rossdale swears vengeance.
Ryan Nowell
Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: Opinion
How dare the Collegian risk scandalizing our women-folk with such vulgar dictions! Tut, friends, to action! We shall take the next aero-zeppelin to Washington Town. President Taft will hear of this!
Now don't get me wrong, the comment was not without its indefensible flaws.
It would be hard to argue that it wasn't immature. Not to mention convoluted, ham-fisted, and, all issues of articulation aside, not the sort of thing that does wonders for your journalistic integrity.
Many have criticized that we caused a big stir without saying anything worthwhile. And they're probably right. But the reasons behind the statement are anything but immature.
The editorial was not trying to blame the recent University of Florida Kerry/Taser incident on President Bush, as many have incorrectly inferred. It was more an exhibition of free speech than an effective commentary on the president.
It was responding to the UF incident by demonstrating the rights that are being redefined and moderated when a student, obnoxious though he may be, gets hogtied and electrocuted by eight police officers.
Base sloganeering, yes, but the statement was made to challenge the alarming amount of regulation being placed on what we can say, when we can say it, where we can say it.
Tuesday, our Editor in Chief J. David Mcswane will be defending his job.
If he loses it, he will expose two frauds: that the Collegian is a "learning" paper there to train students through their successes and mistakes, and, that the Collegian is truly student run, when at any point a governing entity can silence those found inappropriate. It would also reaffirm the web of restrictive policymaking that the editorial was decrying.
The first amendment protects that Florida student's insufferable agitprop, as it does the Collegian's crude, clumsy, but principled editorial.
Why that doesn't seem to matter would be the $30,000 question.
Ryan Nowell is a junior English major. His column appears Monday in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com
Now don't get me wrong, the comment was not without its indefensible flaws.
It would be hard to argue that it wasn't immature. Not to mention convoluted, ham-fisted, and, all issues of articulation aside, not the sort of thing that does wonders for your journalistic integrity.
Many have criticized that we caused a big stir without saying anything worthwhile. And they're probably right. But the reasons behind the statement are anything but immature.
The editorial was not trying to blame the recent University of Florida Kerry/Taser incident on President Bush, as many have incorrectly inferred. It was more an exhibition of free speech than an effective commentary on the president.
It was responding to the UF incident by demonstrating the rights that are being redefined and moderated when a student, obnoxious though he may be, gets hogtied and electrocuted by eight police officers.
Base sloganeering, yes, but the statement was made to challenge the alarming amount of regulation being placed on what we can say, when we can say it, where we can say it.
Tuesday, our Editor in Chief J. David Mcswane will be defending his job.
If he loses it, he will expose two frauds: that the Collegian is a "learning" paper there to train students through their successes and mistakes, and, that the Collegian is truly student run, when at any point a governing entity can silence those found inappropriate. It would also reaffirm the web of restrictive policymaking that the editorial was decrying.
The first amendment protects that Florida student's insufferable agitprop, as it does the Collegian's crude, clumsy, but principled editorial.
Why that doesn't seem to matter would be the $30,000 question.
Ryan Nowell is a junior English major. His column appears Monday in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 120
Cathy
posted 9/24/07 @ 6:53 AM MST
"The first amendment protects that Florida student's insufferable agitprop, as it does the Collegian's crude, clumsy, but principled editorial."
This is where you are TOTALLY WRONG. (Continued…)
Harold A. Maio
posted 9/24/07 @ 6:55 AM MST
It is a curious culture that finds offense is a term that is basically without meaning, except that which we choose to assign to it. How fuck became an expletive is through consensus, and only through consensus. (Continued…)
Dave Collins
posted 9/24/07 @ 7:43 AM MST
Anyone who has to resort to vulgarity to make his/her point is a pinhead who is not to be taken seriously.
Angelo
posted 9/24/07 @ 8:48 AM MST
Struggling my way through this insufferable defense of McSwane, it dawned on me that nowhere, do these "journalists(???) acknowledge that you DO have freedom of speech, as witnesessed in the vile, obnoxious editorial that set off this shit storm in the first place. (Continued…)
John Kane
posted 9/24/07 @ 9:04 AM MST
Once again, you are entirely missing the point (no matter how 'cutesy' you phrase it...). The First Amendment is intact and, in spite of your efforts to prove how base the language it will protect, does survive and thrive. (Continued…)
jeff musen
posted 9/24/07 @ 10:14 AM MST
McSewer has to go. You talk like shit, you should quit.
Brian Lorenz
posted 9/24/07 @ 10:16 AM MST
I would have to say that if I have ever seen the proper use of the F word, it was in this editorial. The purpose was to spark debate and it did. In a society where proper english is butchered everyday it is refreshing to see a vulgar word we have all become rather numb to being used the way it should be. (Continued…)
Terry Honeycutt
posted 9/24/07 @ 10:23 AM MST
Yes even idiots and uneducated college students have the right of free speech. Talk about throwing good money after bad. Maybe mom and dad should tighten up the purse strings on this kid. (Continued…)
Jim Colbert
posted 9/24/07 @ 10:29 AM MST
That expletive only convinces more people that much of the left wing are classless pieces of garbage.
K Weed
posted 9/24/07 @ 10:35 AM MST
No fraud here.
A LESSON WAS LEARNED.
You guys lost $30,000 in ad revenue and your boss may get the axe. Actions have consequences.
Welcome to the real world. (Continued…)
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