Censorship in Seattle

The previous post was, of course, in response to this article in the Seattle Times. This situation has the potential to have wide-ranging impact on free speech and civilized discourse on all college campuses, and I hope to see the national media pick it up as they did this story.

The protest organized by UW freshman Kyle Rapinan--Kyle, way to assimilate quickly--is barely worth noting. A newsworthy day on the UW campus would be one in which no one is protesting. The disturbing aspect of the fallout of The Daily's attempt to resurrect journalism in this country and actually present both sides of an issue (an adherence to professional responsibility not displayed by the New York Times since the Reagan administration) is the desire of the UW Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) to exact retribution through censorship and the gutting of the Daily's editorial staff.

The text of the GPSS' resolution rebuking the Daily can be found here. The Seattle Times reported that the Senate is demanding an apology for John Fay's Nov. 25 article, which is correct. However, the times did not mention that, failing to receive an apology, the GPSS "requests" the resignation of editor-in-chief Sarah Jeglum and opinions editor Natalie Sikavi.

To recap, the UW GPSS wishes to extort contrition from the Daily for printing an article written by a person not on the Daily staff supporting California's gay marriage ban, which included an illustration by someone not the author of the article, showing a cartoon man having his hand nuzzled by a cartoon sheep. The controversial article ran in tandem with an editorial lamenting the passage of Proposition 8, which was accompanied by a cartoon of two same-sex people holding hands.

Again, education and intelligence seem to be mutually exclusive, if not polar opposities. Wondering what course of study could possibly befit a person who could spend 5+ years in "higher learning" and yet claim to be so hurt by viewpoints disagreeing with his own that he could advocate for ouster--a public spanking, really--of its purveyors.

First I was surprised that GPSS President Jake Faleschini, who was first to call for action against "such a bigoted and hateful editorial," and Vice President Dave Iseminger are both law students. Mr. Faleschini is his third year of study toward a degree in international criminal law and his second year toward a Master's in International Studies. Mr. Iseminger (apparently bulky, unpronounceable names a prerequisite for graduate student leadership at UW) is in his fourth year working on a law degree and Master's in public health genetics. Source: GPSS Officer Biographies. What kind of lawyer would a person make who exploits the public's ignorance of the law, launches vendettas against those who offend him, uses his position to advance a personal agenda, and exhibits contempt for the professional ethics and responsibilities of others? Answer: an exemplary one.

Mr. Faleschini and Mr. Iseminger are in a better position than most UW students to understand the legal definition of hate speech, which is speech "intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action" against a targeted group. Did John Fay's article intend to incite violence or prejudicial action? Even if it had, there are laws against violence and policies at UW against prejudice. Did it intimidate supporters of gay marriage? Recent events prove otherwise. Was it intended to degrade opponents of Prop. 8? Reasonable people may argue this. However, Friday's protesters and the sponsors of the GPSS resolution show no evidence they understand that speech which causes you to hate the speaker is not itself hate speech.

Thus the GPSS appears to be engaged in some kind of vendetta against the Daily. Nor are they alone, as responses to editor-in-chief Sarah Jeglum's end-of-quarter letter to readers have called her a "picture of Aryan perfection" (when reason fails, call your opponent a Nazi) and taken exception, often with correct punctuation, to Ms. Jeglum's belief that a student newspaper should be the voice of campus.

As a conservative Christian and 2007 graduate of UW, I have never harbored the illusion that the Daily spoke for me. For all of my college years, it was a bastion of left-wing prejudice, shoddy research, inaccuracy, and utter lack of relevance. For one brief, shining quarter, under Sarah Jeglum's leadership, the Daily came to exhibit actual journalism, an endangered commodity in the freest nation on earth.

Evidently, the GPSS, in their bubble of academia, fear balanced reporting and any argument contrary to a secular-progressive, everybody-do-whatever-you-want worldview. Whether they agree with the speech or not, it is the obligation of journalists to present the truth--even if that truth is that some Americans find homosexuality morally equivalent to bestiality. The leadership of the Daily continues to fulfill their professional responsibility better than any member of the New York Times, or the UW Graduate and Professional Student Senate.