Printed profanity ("F--- BUSH") draws Collegian complaints

[Newsjock]

Source: Fort Collins Coloradoan

A four-word editorial published in the student newspaper at Colorado State University has landed the paper’s student managers in hot water with campus administrators.

The Rocky Mountain Collegian on Friday published an editorial that reads, in total, “Taser this… F--- BUSH,” spelling out the expletive, along with an explanation that “this column represents the views of the Collegian’s editorial board.”

The second two words of the editorial are printed in extremely large print, about twice the size of a headline.

While the Collegian is editorially independent, CSU retains a measure of control though a 10-member faculty-student Board of Student Communications, which can fire the paper’s editor-in-chief, David McSwane.

... McSwane earned international attention when, as a high school senior, he pretended to be a high school dropout wanting to enlist in the military. McSwane, who at the time was 17, recorded video of a recruiter saying he would get help to cover up a supposed drug problem, and acquire him a fake high school diploma.


Read more: http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/UPDATES01/70921018

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Here's a link to the actual editorial on the paper's website:
http://media.www.collegian.com/media/storage/paper864/news/2007/09/21/News/Taser.This-2984348.shtml

[BOSSHOG]

1. I have to chuckle

ray-gun made the fairness doctrine disappear giving birth to limbaugh and fox and now some folks are offended that liberals have joined the move to change the tone in America originated by conservatives. FUCK THEM AND THEIR FAKE PIOUSNESS.

[Lance_Boyle]

2. FUCK THE 10-MEMBER BOARD OF STUDENT COMMUNICATIONS!

My humble suggestion for the follow-up editorial.

[lonestarnot]

11. Ditfuckingto!

[Critters2]

3. Since CSU is a government institution,

they can't limit speech without raising 1st amendment issues, it seems to me.

[rodeodance]

4. ha ha. this guy will go far I predict.

[Dr.Phool]

5. Gotta stop 'em now, before it's too late.

Next thing you know, they'll be running MoveOn ads!

[superconnected]

6. Fuck Bush.

[Bonobo]

7. FUUUUUUUCK BUUUUUUUSH!!!

[shanti]

15. got that right

fuck him and cheney too.

[saigon68]

23. You mean "Gangster Cheney"

[shanti]

25. yeah, the BIG DICK

!

[Buns_of_Fire]

26. (Self-delete)

Someone already pointed it out below. That'll remind me to read the rest of the thread first. Nah, it probably won't...

[Journeyman]

8. 'Tis the best they can do at CSU? Quite an inadequate school, if so. . .

Better to take lesson from Edmond Rostand and and truly learn the art of insult and invective. This paltry pap's too easy to parry, too light to hold.

[rateyes]

9. And, the horse he rode in on. nt

[The Icon Painter]

10. Can't Do

He's afraid of horses.

[rateyes]

12. He's a "rancher" and he's afraid of horses?

But, Laura said that he milked a male horse.

Are you kidding me?

[Journeyman]

14. A bit of explanation. . .

George Bush the Texan is 'scared of horses'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3000084

[rateyes]

20. Bwaaaahahahahahahahahaaaaaaa.

What a doofus.

[Milo_Bloom]

13. Fuck the fucking bush fuck! (nt)

[Pachamama]

16. Buck Fush....

Works everytime.....

[kurth]

17. Yes, Fuck him and his whole family

[Danger Mouse]

18. FUCK BUSH, and FUCK CSU FOR TRYING TO CENSOR THEM.

It won't work, but they are welcome to try.

[uppityperson]

19. FUCK BUSH (yes, I'm sophmoric also)

[Orsino]

21. Imagine the outrage the college administrators could muster...

...if * were to launch an unprovoked war that killed hundreds of thousands and paupered millions?

[jayschool]

22. Advertisers pull $30,000 in ads

A profane four-word editorial in Friday’s Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University’s student newspaper, caused advertisers to pull $30,000 worth of advertising and prompted the newsroom to slash student employee pay and other budgets by 10 percent, according to a confidential memo.

The Friday editorial read simply “Taser this… F--- BUSH,” along with a sentence in regular type saying “This column repre-sents the views of the Collegian’s editorial board.” The F-word was spelled out in the editorial and the phrase was printed about twice the size of a normal headline.

(snip)

The confidential memo, signed by Newsroom Manager Jeremy Trujillo and obtained by the Coloradoan, said the editorial board stood behind its statement but that “many” advertisers had decided to pull their ads.

“Because of this, Editor in Chief David McSwane has had to make tough decisions regarding budget and payroll,” the memo said, citing 10 percent pay cuts for all student salaried and contract positions at the Collegian, 10 percent cuts for newsroom departments and a hiring freeze.


FWIW, the Rocky Mountain Collegian is funded solely through advertising revenues raised by student ad representatives, who are seeing their commissions go down the drain as well.



Link: http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/UPDATES01/70921024

[Fierce]

24. Way to go!

Way to take a stand!

[olddad56]

27. The advertisers who pulled out will be replaced by advertisers who agree with the students.

[pretzel4gore]

28. have you ever read 'Babbitt'?

by Sinclair Lewis. George Babbitt is inclined to republican type bluster, but he also feels there are wrongs and, well, dare anyone to try to force him to obey any dictates. But George also is carrying on an affair, which the town power brokers know about, which exposes his social standing, and when he later expresses instinctive sympathy for the girls in the telegraph office who went on strike- it brought out the reality that the entire thing we have is brute force enforced! Babbitt had to choose, and had he chosen to defy the powers in his small town, he would be destroyed in Zenith; his family uprooted. None of this was stated outright, but the message was plain....repent, confess and obey. And Babbitt did, but that he was forced to, and that he never admit it, even to himself, made him a terrible man precisely because he was outwardly so tough, so loud and superficial. Babbitt was a awarning, according to Prof Mark Schorer in a 1960 edition afterward, to America's ruling elite to NEVER lose control of the Babbitts, or calamity would result. Bush is god today to George Babbitt, and ...well maybe George has learned god isn't what god used to be(?)

[Solly Mack]

29. FUCKBUSH-FUCKBUSH-FUCKBUSH

and fuck those people offended by FUCK BUSH

[Oeditpus Rex]

30. CSU certainly has some serious journalism students

This'll look great on their resumes.