East Carolina fires student media adviser after paper ran photos of streaker

Ditto.

 

Tend to agree. My newspaper is a private company and has the right to set whatever standards it pleases for itself.

ECU is a public university and, if I understand the case law being used as examples by others, subject to different standards.

Not that the photo should have run. but that doesn't make it right to fire the guy either. The Romensko piece makes it sound like he was fired more for arguing that they shouldn't take them off the Web site....and I agree there. Once it's published, you can't unring the bell.

 

Thinking back, I don't believe our advisor ever saw the headline we ran my sophomore year until after publication:

RAPIST TO GO TO TRIAL

 

Was the rapist acquitted or found guilty?

 

Heh ... I don't remember.

 

Read that link. The original "unedited" column listed at the top is terrible... but what I can understand, it's not what ran in the paper. The bottom "edited" column is what ran in the paper.

Do I think the edited column is stupid and wrong? Yes. Do I think it's outrageous? No. If he had submitted that column from the beginning, it would just be a column with an opinion that I disagree with, but I would have run it.

I do, however, question, why after receiving the first column you wouldn't just write back and say "you are clearly an idiot if you think we are going to run this crap. Don't bother submitting any more columns." Anyone who tries to put "pussycat" in a column is just a moron and will only cause trouble.

 

Paul Isom is certainly full of himself on his Facebook wall. I guess he doesn't want to be an advisor anymore.

https://www.facebook.com/paul.isom?sk=wall

He also said he saw the photos beforehand and knew they could get published. Isom is incorrect in saying it would be prior restraint if he tried to get the editors to change their mind to print that. Giving advice is not prior restraint. It doesn't take a law degree to know that.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/06/1756524/ecus-newspaper-adviser-fired.html

 

Is there any chance that Isom saw this as an opportunity to make a name for himself as a First Amendment martyr and lay the groundwork for a payday lawsuit against the school, so he didn't do much "advising" about the photo in the first place? That's a conspiracy theory, but it makes far more sense than adults thinking there's nothing wrong with showing a big cock on the front page of the paper.

I think the student "journalists" are getting a pass on this, too. I remember when I was in school and taking a radio class, our instructor told us that if he ever heard us utter a profanity on the air, we better start looking for transfer options, because he would never give us a passing grade in his class. And he was the only instructor for that required radio class. I'd hope these students are getting that same treatment.

 

My first year at CSU, I was a staff writer when our ed board ran the "F BUSH" debacle. Our EIC came under fire, both nationally and by the school, but not our adviser. At least in our case, the adviser couldn't make any final decisions, she was there to advise.

 

Yep, and that's the way the independent student press is supposed to operate. (Apparently that view is rare on this board and elsewhere, judging by comments).

The decisions made by student editors, right or wrong, are the responsibility of student editors.

The idea of an adviser taking responsibility -- or credit -- for something that appears in the paper is foreign to my entire college experience.

 

Editors who like to use headlines with thr F-word and run full-frontal nudity make great baristas, waiters, and clerks at bookstores.

 

Wait? Is there some sort of auto change on this site now or did a mod change my post? I didn't write "pussycat" I wrote the c-word. (but the actual word, not "c-word").

Are there new rules on what words can be used in a post now? (If there is a rule against that word, that's fine. I won't miss it and can't really think of a time when I've used it previously. I was just surprised when I saw my post was changed.)