Spring Break
Editorial incites furor; Gavin Rossdale swears vengeance.
Ryan Nowell
Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: Opinion
As you've all probably heard, it's been quite the fallout since Friday concerning that edition's embedded f-bomb.
A few columnists have resigned, inboxes and voicemails have been filling up, local news networks have started circling the student media center, everyone will receive pay cuts, a few people's jobs are on the line and the paper lost some advertisers.
While a reaction was expected, I don't think anyone here anticipated it being this large. Here's a brief rundown on the many kinds of offense people have decided to take from this:
Some construed it as being derogatory towards the military.
Let's make it clear that no one on this staff has anything but the utmost respect for those that have served in the armed forces, past and present. To take criticism directed towards an elected civilian and apply that to the soldiers under that official's command is a highly presumptuous, not to mention very mannered, way to interpret political statements.
Soldiers don't make their own orders, and any critique of any administration's military agenda is a critique of that administration. The people sworn to follow orders are our friends, neighbors, and family members, who are risking a lot for very noble reasons.
No one is besmirching their sacrifice. We're only questioning the leaders that would sacrifice them.
Other people were bothered that we disrespected the president. And yes, we did, absolutely.
Respect is not won by an election. Titles do not endow worth. Respect needs to be earned, and in this instance, according to the Collegian Editorial Board, it was not. Yes, he's our commander-and-chief. He is also accountable.
Still others were offended by the language. And why, I couldn't agree more.
Such churlish mouth-offery hasn't been endured since Kaiser Wilhelm pronounced the Prussian czarina "a most winsome-less unscrupule". And we all know how newsreels of that caused pan-European fainting spells.
A few columnists have resigned, inboxes and voicemails have been filling up, local news networks have started circling the student media center, everyone will receive pay cuts, a few people's jobs are on the line and the paper lost some advertisers.
While a reaction was expected, I don't think anyone here anticipated it being this large. Here's a brief rundown on the many kinds of offense people have decided to take from this:
Some construed it as being derogatory towards the military.
Let's make it clear that no one on this staff has anything but the utmost respect for those that have served in the armed forces, past and present. To take criticism directed towards an elected civilian and apply that to the soldiers under that official's command is a highly presumptuous, not to mention very mannered, way to interpret political statements.
Soldiers don't make their own orders, and any critique of any administration's military agenda is a critique of that administration. The people sworn to follow orders are our friends, neighbors, and family members, who are risking a lot for very noble reasons.
No one is besmirching their sacrifice. We're only questioning the leaders that would sacrifice them.
Other people were bothered that we disrespected the president. And yes, we did, absolutely.
Respect is not won by an election. Titles do not endow worth. Respect needs to be earned, and in this instance, according to the Collegian Editorial Board, it was not. Yes, he's our commander-and-chief. He is also accountable.
Still others were offended by the language. And why, I couldn't agree more.
Such churlish mouth-offery hasn't been endured since Kaiser Wilhelm pronounced the Prussian czarina "a most winsome-less unscrupule". And we all know how newsreels of that caused pan-European fainting spells.
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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