Student Editor Fired Over Mohammad Cartoons
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in EducationThe editor of the University of Illinois’ student newspaper has been fired for running the controversial Mohammad cartoons that sparked recent protests and violence throughout the Islamic world. Technically, editor-in-chief Acton Gorton was fired because he did not seek proper advice before running the cartoons. But that just sounds like a dodge by the board that governs the Daily Illini newspaper.
As a former editor-in-chief of a university newspaper, I have a lot of sympathy for Gorton. Running a school paper is not an exercise in professional journalism. It’s a learning experience. It’s a means by which future journalists and leaders can hone skills and test boundaries. As such, school newspaper editors should have greater leeway to make errors of judgment.
That’s not to say it was wrong to publish the Mohammad cartoons. It wasn’t. But it was foolish of the editor to think he could get away with it without angering others. When I was a student editor, I spent the entire year under fire for the various editorial decisions I made. Someone was always demanding an apology or calling for my resignation.
The lesson I learned was that it’s incredibly important to understand the ramifications of your actions before you take them. You have to know when you’re going to upset people and you have to decide whether what you’re about to say is worth the consequences. Sometimes upsetting people is unavoidable and absolutely necessary. Sometimes it just isn’t worth it. And sometimes the harshest of reactions can be tempered by seeking advice and, if possible, obtaining consent beforehand.
In the University of Illinois case, the editor seems to have erred by not warning enough people before publishing the cartoons. He simply failed to grasp the full ramifications of his actions. Had he consulted more people, he would either have avoided much of the ensuing conflict or he would have known beforehand that he was putting his job on the line.
But a failure to understand the ramifications of your actions is not cause for dismissal�not when we’re talking about a student editor. The board governing the Daily Illini was dead wrong to fire Gorton. Doing so sends the message that the Daily Illini is not a place where students are expected to learn journalism. It is instead a place where students are expected to obey a specific ideology that values a useless form of hyper-tolerance over the age-old rights of free speech.
What a poor lesson to be teaching.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006 and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 15th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
I agree wth you-the kid should not have been fired.
Offensive speech deserves the light of day. If there was ever a reason to take up the gun and fight, it would be for the right to offend. It’s a hell of a lot better reason than a few meaningless purple fingers.
March 15th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Plus, I can think of speech that is a hell of a lot more offensive than that. Not that it matters, except that this isn’t even speech that comes close to being an exception to the First Amendment.
March 15th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
To add support, this is a university newspaper, meaning it has the luxury of not having to turn a profit and placate its readers. If our universities’ journalism programs cower to fear and retroactive criticism, how can we expect the private, profit-driven media not to?
March 15th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
PC trumps learning everytime. This is wrong, but it sure doesn’t surprise me. A wonder if Gorton intends to pursue a career in journalism, and if so, whether this incident will inspire him to be the go-along-to-get along type or a maverick? For that matter, in this climate, does what happened to him help or hurt him when he tries to get his first journalism job, if that’s the path he takes?
March 15th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
reader_iam asks the 64 million dollar question: “does what happened to him help or hurt him when he tries to get his first journalism job.” All my experience says “hurts him.” Not necessarily because he came down on one side of the political fence, but because he showed himself to be an independent spirit, a firebrand willing to stir the pot and poke the hornets’ nest. Gods forbid we should have such in the corporate newsroom.
March 15th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
How would all of you go with an editor (of a university student paper) who publishes what is essentially a “Drug Rape 101″ article, justifying it with the reason that “people should know what to look for, what to do”…
Including;
What chemicals to use
What to put them into
How to mix them
How much to use
Time to take effect
How long the effects last.
Happened last year at one of NZ’s larger unis. Oh, and the editor responsible was a woman. The issue was banned and recalled.
March 16th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Probligo,
I think this issue has been out there forever, I remember discussing the Anarchist’s Cookbook in journalism school several years ago. The thing is, just like violence in films, are these types of articles really going to convince an otherwise moral, ethical, law-abiding person to try it out when they otherwise wouldn’t? Don’t you think the only people deranged enough to use these articles as how-to guides already have a prediliction for this kind of behavior?
I don’t think a newspaper that publishes a story like this is culpable for one lunatic who uses it to harm, just like people who make violent video games aren’t responsible for one instable person becoming “inspired”. I, personally, could see the value in printing a story like this: it’s interesting. I’d read it.
What happened in NZ anyway? Did the campus report a surge in date rape afterward?
December 5th, 2007 at 7:41 am
titrywipaxoto…
exkenowexywo…