Furor over First Amendment: CMU editors assailed over spoof paper

[Lori Price CLG]

Furor over First Amendment: CMU editors assailed over spoof paper

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Spotlights beat down on the three Tartan newspaper staff members sitting on stage before a crowd of fellow Carnegie Mellon University students. Soon enough, so did the criticism.

The Tartan's April Fools' Day edition, which included a cartoon with a racial slur and graphic poems about raping and mutilating women, was a failed attempt at satire, said Jenny Andrus, a graduate student in English...

<snip>

(...Well, it's actually furor over *hate speech,* NOT furor over the 'First Amendment.')

[Lori Price CLG]

1. Here is the previous article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

CMU slur brings apology

Student editor tells angry protesters of disciplinary action

Sunday, April 04, 2004

The editor-in-chief of Carnegie Mellon University's student newspaper, The Tartan, said he will suspend operations tomorrow because of public protests over a racial slur in the newspaper's April Fool's Day edition.

Editor-in-Chief Alex Meseguer couldn't apologize enough yesterday to an angry crowd of CMU students who had gathered to demonstrate against him and his newspaper.

<snip>

Meseguer has fired cartoonist Bob Rost, who drew the strip in which a goat uses a racial slur to brag to a mouse that he had hit a black person on a bike. Meseguer said he and Managing Editor Jim Puls, who signed off on that page, are considering resigning. All are white.

<snip>

[PaDUer]

5. There's more to the story from the Univ of Scranton..

http://www.scrantontimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11249699&BRD=2185&PA...

http://www.scrantontimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11242978&BRD=2185&PA...

[BigBigBear]

2. This is a sad thing for me

I'm a CMU graduate (1980 H&SS), and I wrote for the Tartan. It was a good, if smallish, college newspaper in those days, very non-controversial as I remember it.

I hope they pull their shit together and get through this.

[Lori Price CLG]

3. Here is another article on the subject:

April Fools' spoofs not suffered lightly

Special editions spur controversy for college newspapers

Carnegie Mellon's paper, The Tartan, voluntarily shut down for the rest of the semester after publishing a racially charged cartoon in its 12-page spoof edition. The cartoonist lost his job, and the editor in chief -- who blamed fatigue for clouding editors' judgment -- is taking a leave of absence until fall...

About 75 readers protested Carnegie-Mellon's The Natrat -- Tartan backward -- which included... poems about rape and mutilation. The school is forming a committee to investigate.

<snip>

[drfemoe]

4. kick

additional comment / links ..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x471840

[Blue_Tires]

6. students

At George Washington University did almost the exact same thing..it was on all the local news

[PaDUer]

7. Seems like an organized effort..

wonder how many others haven't been reported as yet.

[drhilarius]

8. I read the GW edition.

You'd think college students could recognize the difference between satire and patently offensive crap. read The Onion for pointers!