The Power of the Press

[CORRECTION APPENDED]

On Feb.18, Max Karson published a column in The Campus Fress—the University of Colorado at Boulder’s online news source—calling readers to attack the souls of Asians and threatening to hogtie Asian students in his apartment. The content of this column was obviously appalling. Although made in jest, threats against a particular ethnic group are never funny. But more curious is this: How can a column like this, entitled, “If it’s war the Asians want…” get published in a college weekly? [See correction below]

The straightforward answer to this question is simple, although the effects of the column are more profound. One of the two editors of The Press’s opinion section wrote the column. Then it went under review by both opinions editor Amanda Pehrson and Editor in Chief Cassie Hewlings, who decided to run the column. “I was really hoping the article would be thought-provoking and didn’t want it to be hurtful at all,” the editor-in-chief later said. A disclaimer was considered, and then decided against.

Karson’s piece came on the heels of another opinion published the day before, entitled “No hablo ingles: Try speaking English, this is the United States.” From these two pieces, it seems as if cultural sensitivity is not The Campus Press’s forte. This decision amounts to a serious lapse of judgment on the part of many higher-ups in The Campus Press. Freedom of the press is a right to be defended at all costs. It is crucial to remember, however, that along with asserting the right of freedom of the press comes a responsibility. By virtue of the influence and mission of news publications, it is their responsibility to publish well-informed articles.

These racist columns that made their way into a college publication violated that responsibility. Because of this, it was a wise decision on the part of The Campus Press to temporarily suspend the opinion section. The publication is currently under self-examination, and opinions editor Pehrson is in the process of drawing up an opinions policy that will set an “acceptability standard” for content in the future.

These are all steps in the right direction, and hopefully will prevent this sort of racist discourse from running under the radar in the future. Many other opinions writers for The Campus Press wrote that they were appalled to see, “If it’s war the Asians want…” appear in the paper.

In a letter to their readers, these editors wrote, “We did not see this article before it ran. We felt the same shock and outrage that the rest of the campus felt when they read the opinion Monday afternoon.” Hopefully the new opinions policy will allow wider review of controversial content so that all reservations can be expressed before publication.

The opinion section is a valuable voice of the newspaper and a forum for students to express their beliefs, and so this section should not be out of commission for long. As soon as standards are reviewed and rectified, we look forward to seeing the opinion section returning to The Campus Press. Hopefully, it will offer more substantiated opinions to inspire and inform its readers, instead of making unqualified derogatory generalizations.

CORRECTION:

A March 10 editorial entitled "The Power of the Press" incorrectly stated that The Campus Press is an online weekly at the University of Colorado. In fact, it is an online daily. The Crimson regrets the error.