Fascist Democrats

“University suspends publication of The Gramblinite
January 25, 2007

By Nick Todaro
ntodaro@thenewsstar.com

Despite a leading industry lawyer’s contention that it represents censorship and is illegal, The Gramblinite newspaper is under university-imposed suspension and will not be delivered as usual today.

Provost and Vice President of Student Affairs Robert Dixon said he imposed the suspension because of the paper’s “poor quality” since he arrived at Grambling State in 2004. Grammatical and factual errors concern him the most — the errors reflect poorly on the university as a whole, he said.

A lack of improvement in quality over time dismayed him, he said, and the crowning moment was plagiarism of an article from The News-Star last fall.

Dixon also expressed frustration that the newspaper was published last week. He said he imposed the suspension Jan. 16.

“The students published an edition last week anyway. And it also showed evidence of plagiarism.”

Dixon pointed to an article in the Jan. 18 edition as another example of plagiarism. A story about Martin Luther King Jr. Day included material from The Associated Press but did not credit the wire service.

Student editor Darryl Smith and staff members published an edition Jan. 18. Smith said Dixon’s orders were not followed because the $4 fee students pay for the paper represents a contract.

In response, Smith said that in a meeting Tuesday with Dixon and Mass Communications Department Head Anita Fleming-Rife and the rest of the mass communications department, he was told the staff of The Gramblinite could not use the newspaper’s computer laboratory to put out another edition.

Meanwhile, Mark Goodman, an attorney and director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., said the suspension is “clearly unconstitutional. The administration at Grambling simply doesn’t have the power to shut down the newspaper based on its content.”

He is particularly troubled that the events are unfolding at Grambling State, a school with a strong history of journalism training and that the administration thinks its actions are acceptable. That stance, Goodman said, amounts to censorship.

“If the students at GSU were to sue, it would be an open-and-shut case. And (the Student Press Law Center) would be eager to come to the student journalists’ defense.”

The administration felt it could suspend the newspaper based on the 2005 Hosty v. Carter decision, in which the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that limited freedom of expression rights applicable to high schools could be extended to colleges and universities, Dixon said.

He is prepared to lift the suspension when he is shown how the product will be improved and ensured of more faculty involvement. “The work on the paper should be tied to classes in the department of mass communications. I want the staff to buy into the notion of a paper free of errors in grammar and fact.”

Dixon compared the situation to physics laboratories, which he said require instructors to not release students to work with equipment until they are able to show they can work with it safely.

Pearl Stewart, founder of Black College Wire and a teacher at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, hopes the administration can use the allegations of plagiarism as teaching opportunities. “It doesn’t help anybody to suspend the paper. How is this helping the students educationally and helping the campus be informed?”

Sean Waters, 20, a business management major at Grambling State, is concerned that the suspension could be indefinite. “It’s unfortunate GSU has taken away The Gramblinite. Maybe they could work with the staff instead. It’s our source of news.”

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070125/BREAKINGNEWS/70125009

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Oh my!!!
Fascist Democratic Academics Vs Biased Unprofessional Democratic 'Journalism'

Why is it the very first thing a Democrat does is get rid of that pesky Freedom of Speech thing?

Freedom of Speech for me, but not for anyone else.”

“only you and xl would make this about left vs right”

“Silly crash.
It's about Left vs Left.”

“i bet when you fart, you contemplate whether it came out more from the right side or the left side”

“Sadly the Freedom of Speech and the press does not apply to School publications. I know this from an issue of a College Paper we tried to put out.

I guess many people in college forget that if the School is paying for the paper...UM they have the control. Its kinda like if you are living at home FREE and CLEAR you have no private property rights. If Mom and Dad want to allow police to search your bedroom....BUMMER they can.

But you know it is kinda humorous the misunderstanding that you cannot demand someone PAY for you to live or act as you want seems to be especially challenging for CERTAIN GROUPS (LOL).”

“And, right vs right,silly crash.”

“Sounds more like you are doing that, crash.
Any on topic comments?”

“o my bad. youre changing it up for once. left vs left as opposed to left vs right. how very new.”

“the only reasons cited in the article you provide are "poor quality" and "plagiarism". while we may not agree with him shutting the paper down, thats not censorship

if he was shutting it down due to CONTENT, then yes, that would be censorship. nothing in the article indicates that he has been. if it comes out later that it was due to content, then sure, i would agree with you”

“and dont get on me about on-topic comments. all i ever see out of you is cut-and-paste followed by vast generalizations. ive NEVER seen you make a sustained argument”

“The students were questioning many of the schools policies. They pi$$ed the Pres off.”

“where does it say that questioning of policies led to the shutting down of the paper? i see a lot of (rightful) griping after the fact, but none before”

“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/grambling

Scrutiny for the Student Press?

From the moment in 2005 that a federal appeals court applied to a public university a 1988 Supreme Court decision that allowed censorship of high school student newspapers, press freedom advocates have anticipated — or at least feared — a crackdown on campus journalists. Flareups have been few and far between since then, but a move by administrators at Grambling State University — which was quickly reversed — has renewed their concerns.

Administrators at the Louisiana public university directed editors of the weekly student newspaper, the Gramblinite, to suspend publication this month, citing a range of reasons. Grambling officials said that the newspaper was rife with errors and misspellings and that advertisers and local groups had complained about its lack of professionalism, and they cited a sports article that was plagiarized in large part from a local newspaper.

In a January 17 memorandum to the newspaper’s faculty adviser, Wanda Peters, university administrators said that the newspaper should suspend publication through January, so that Grambling officials could be assured that the student editors will “clean up their act,” Ralph Wilson, director of media relations and special services at Grambling, said Thursday. “We’ve asked them to present a detailed and comprehensive plan on how they’re going to straighten out those kinds of things.” Students submitted such a plan late Thursday.

The newspaper’s editor in chief, Darryl D. Smith, said the students welcomed any help the administration wanted to provide in helping them make fewer errors. But Smith said that while administrators had raised issues of accuracy and plagiarism, they had also made comments complaining about articles that have criticized the university.

“After having met with them twice, no matter how much they say it’s not about content, it is about content,” Smith said in an interview Thursday. “They keep saying there’s nothing but negative articles in the Gramblinite, but that makes it clear they do not read it. If you were to sit down and count the positive and negative, at least 85 percent of the time, the positive outweighs the negative.”
Smith also said that Grambling administrators had cited the June 2005 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the case known as Hosty v. Carter as a justification for their right to suspend publication of the Gramblinite. “Yes, that idea has been conveyed to the students,” said Wilson, the media relations director. “The university has that right in that the publication is supported by the institution,” both through use of its equipment and because it has a separate account in the university’s budget.

But Smith noted that the student newspaper is supported not with university funds but with a $4-per-semester charge for the Gramblinite that undergraduates pay as part of their overall student fees. More importantly, he said, Grambling officials can’t cite the Hosty case as a reason for their own actions because the decision, which came in a case involving Governors State University, in Illinois, applies only there and in Indiana and Wisconsin, the other states in the Seventh Circuit.

The day after Grambling officials sent the memo asking that the Gramblinite temporarily cease publication last week, the newspaper published its latest weekly edition, much to the dismay of university officials. Smith said mid-day Thursday that the students had decided not to publish an issue so far this week, fearing that the university might punish their advisers if they did so.

But late Thursday, administrators reportedly lifted their suspension of the publication, after reaching an agreement with the students that will require the newspaper’s adviser to edit each article for grammar and stylebefore it appears.

Despite the reversal, the suspension at Grambling troubled Mike Hiestand, a legal consultant to the Student Press Law Center, which has publicized the situation at Grambling. He describes it as one of several “significant isolated incidents” in which colleges and universities have considered leaning on the Hosty decision to exert more control over student publications. One of those was a 2005 memo in which lawyers for the California State University System suggested that the appeals court decision gave them added authority over student publications, which prompted action by the state Legislature to extend First Amendment protections to college journalists.

Similarly, Hiestand said, a committee in the Washington State House of Representatives will meet today to consider a bill in response to suggestions by administrators at a community college there that they, too, have “more control over student publications,” according to Hiestand.

Taken together, he said, the incidents in California, Louisiana and Washington may suggest that “after a little bit of a honeymoon period, we may be starting to see” fallout from the Hosty decision.”

“Looks like the cowards backed down after the press got ahold of it!
LOL!!!”

“the second article seems to erode the credibility of the universitys position. nothing conclusive, but it does hurt them”

“Looks like the cowards backed down after the press got ahold of it!

oh gee, you mean that liberal press that you people are always b!tching about?”

“Unlike you lefties. I believe in Freedom of Speech for all.
last edited: 1/26/07 1:32:19 PM”

“another generalization”

“It looks like a case of right versus wrong. If the paper has the aleged errors then there need to be consequences.”

“That's what I like about, SS. Always worried about individual rights,regardless of which side is attacking them.”

“...
last edited: 1/26/07 8:26:12 PM”

“SEN. BIDEN SHOCK INTERVIEW: 'I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy'...

http://observer.com/20070205/20070205_Jason_Horowitz_pageone_newsstory1.asp


*******************************************

I'm sure violin and the other racebaiters will be calling for Biden to step down now, seeing as Biden is from a slave state.
I'm sure J. J. and Al are so pleased.”

“Ol' Vile must be waiting on his talking points. LOL”

“lol - Joe did put his foot in it didn't he. Of course Obama is more mainstream than Sharpton or Jackson, but there are planety of others. Colin Powell and way back when, Edward Brooke.”

“Come on people demand of him the same thing you demanded of Lot.”

“Violin
Tom Terrific
Tilt
treebeard
geobeet
Dunadan
laqtis
lee

These were the most vocal anti-racists during the Lott thread.

Is Trent Lott an unreconstructed racist?
http://www.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk/thread/18071,-1,1.php

Just more proof that they feel it's OK to be a racist as long as it's a Democratic racist.”

“Pretty much.”

“Hell in comparison what Lot said was mild because it didn't even have anything to do with race.”

“Meanwhile Clarence Thomas, JC Watts, and a slew of others on the Conservative side are sitting there going?????? WTF?”

“Maybe I should have titled this subject:
Is Joe Biden an unreconstructed racist?
LOL”

“Gee whizz Stove, you've chased quite a few on that list away from Trail Talk.

Well, to be fair, you had a great tag team along with Sarge and XLax.

You guys make the Unrelenting Azzhole List.

What about Julius Caesar Watts?
Didn't he get out of the House to avoid some kinda Nookie Scandal?”

“Typical response from poor dim maRko.
He still doesn't 'get' it.
Hypocrite”

“The comparison to Lott is ludicrous. First off, Biden's statement really hinges on one word ("clean") that he apologizes for and says it created a meaning he didn't intend. There isn't a history of his playing up to racists. If its not simply a poor word choice entirely misconstrued, it is indicative of some racial bias. Biden apologized quickly and should have. I have no way of knowing if there is some underlying bigotry there.

On the other hand, Lott's statement went way beyond a word choice, or the disclosure of some racial bias. It was an endorsement of a racist political agenda, he went beyond saying he was proud of voting for Thurmond - but suggested his segregationist agenda would have been better for the country. Secondly Lott had a history of catering to racists like the CCC (heirs to the White Citizen's council). I have no way of knowing if Lott is a bigot, just that he caters from time to time.”

“"apologizes for"


Guess that makes it OK.
Typical Democrat.”

“Dum-dum-dum dum-dee-doo-waa.......”

“I'll attack Biden as soon as you defend him, SS.”

“It's more than just a misinterpretation of the word "clean" ped.

Listen to the audio of the interview: http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=463858485

It's pretty clear from the long pauses, that he isn't saying that Obama is the first clean, articulate, good-looking African American Presidential candidate.

He is saying that Obama is 1) the first mainstream African American Presidential candidate and 2)he is articulate, bright,clean and good looking.


That said, I'd be happy to see Biden step aside. I don't much care for him.”

“Biden is a loser.”

“Biden's not the brightest bulb on the christmas Bush.”

“Spin, libbies, spin.............
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!”

“David Frum, writing for the National Review on line said of Lott:

"What came out of his mouth was the most emphatic repudiation of desegregation to be heard from a national political figure since George Wallace’s first presidential campaign. Lott’s words suggest that one of the three most powerful and visible Republicans in the nation privately thinks that desegregation, civil rights and equal voting rights were all a big mistake."

Biden's statemtn hardly falls in that league. Looking for sources, I found this interesting conservative commentatary (which does provide the quote):

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article2045.html

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article2045.html”

“Violin:

Listening to it, with the pauses - I can see your reading of it, but then he's saying "the first mainstream African-American" - which is still wrong and makes less sense. Perhaps he was meaning the first one to run for president - which might be true. At least I can think of one.

Anyhow, I'm not going to play "contradiction and insult" with Stove. Stove: if you want to develop an argument or analysis, I'm try to check back.”

“So pedx is making up for his somewhat lukewarm turd throwing on the Lott thread.
LOL

Nothing to see here....
Move along...
move along.....
(because he's Democrat)

The nice thing is, Biden is toast.”

“Time we stop children, what's that sound...”

“...and the Hillary machine rolls on......
...another Dem Bites The Dust!!!
LOL!!!!!!!”

“I' will defend Biden....face it he probably plagerized the wrong guy ...easy mistake everyone had done it before.”

“Anyhow, I'm not going to play "contradiction and insult" with Stove. Stove: if you want to develop an argument or analysis, I'm try to check back.”
PedXing
2:06:03 PM
2/01/07

“So pedx is making up for his somewhat lukewarm turd throwing on the Lott thread.
LOL

Nothing to see here....
Move along...
move along.....
(because he's Democrat)

The nice thing is, Biden is toast.””

“The San Francisco mayor admits to an adulterous relationship with a staffer's wife. What kind of politician has an adulterous affair with a staffer or his family?

Oh, never mind.”

“A typical Democrat?”