Professional vs. Educational?

We all know about the college student who wrote the F--- BUSH editorial. Right? Well, if not, here’s the basic story:

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For those who don’t know, McSwane is the editor of the Rocky Mountain Collegian, the student newspaper of Colorado State University. Last week, after the outcry over a student being tasered at a University of Florida event featuring John Kerry, McSwane published a four-word editorial, in big bold letters, that proclaimed "Taser This: F--- BUSH."

Read the Editor & Publisher story

Joe Strupp, author of the article above, challenges the journalistic world to treat the Colorado student editor, McSwane, not as a villain, but as a student who is learning his art.

So… should we?

University and high school publications are some of our most volatile First Amendment rights battlefields. Perhaps because their staffs are so young or because they do not have to concern themselves as much as large publications with making a profit, or some other reason, they seem to take the greatest risks. Free speech in school seems to be quite a volatile subject: the initial tasering of the Florida student, now the fiasco in Colorado, students being expelled the nation over for comments against their school administration on their blogs or MySpace.

As a result, school papers are tinder that can easily take flame. Should school publications take care to avoid these types of situations by removing such editors as McSwane? Or is this battlefield an excellent learning opportunity for those who want to make a career in the wild, wacky world of journalism? Should university papers consider themselves a place to learn or a true publication? Can they be both?

To follow up:

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Collegian editor J. David McSwane declined to apologize for the profane "F --- Bush" editorial printed in the Colorado State University student newspaper last week, but acknowledged recent days have been "hell."

McSwane was called before the university's Board of Student Communications, or BSC, on Wednesday night to hear complaints that the editorial was offensive to the university community. The BSC is considering whether to fire McSwane over the editorial and its financial implications for the newspaper. Advertisers have pulled thousands of dollars in ads from the paper.

McSwane answered about 10 minutes worth of questions from BSC members, who probed the process by which the editorial was decided on and how the lost advertising is affecting the staff. As the paper's publisher, the BSC has the right to fire McSwane for poor management, but not for exercising the First Amendment.

The paper has lost so much money that it's publishing today's paper in black and white, rather than with the color it normally uses.

"We did not do this setting out to make headlines. These past couple days have been hell for all of us. Our intention was to get college students, CSU students, thinking about issues that affect them," McSwane said. "Our points have been made, judging from the attendance here."

The BSC also questioned Jeff Browne, director of student media, and the paper's student advertising director, Lenay Snyder. She said that her staff is afraid to call advertisers and that 18 clients cancelled their contracts within days of the editorial's printing.

"Dave's job was not only to decide the editorial content of the paper, but also its financial well-being," Snyder said. "He failed."

Browne said the situation has been hard on Collegian staffers who had no input in the decision. Browne, who serves as a faculty advisory to the paper, was not consulted before the editorial published.

Read The Coloradoan story