Battered Ram

By Shawn Healy

Rocky Mountain Collegian editor David McSwane was admonished by an independent review board for his bone-headed editorial featuring a headline that used President Bush and a four-letter word in the same banner. The Colorado State University Board of Student Communications found that McSwane violated the newspaper's code of ethics (“profane and vulgar words are not acceptable for opinion writing"), but that his actions were protected by the First Amendment. McSwane's decision to publish the editorial was deemed “unethical and unprofessional.”

I concur, and at the same time commend the wisdom of the Board of Student Communications at Colorado State. The members will without doubt face scorn for their leniency, but freedom of the press emerges triumphant.

By admonishing McSwane, the Board will hopefully teach him a valuable lesson that would have even more severe consequences in a professional newsroom, (namely, he would be out of a job and unable to pay rent). Moreover, they vindicated the First Amendment rights of student journalists, seemingly a lonely victory after a series of defeats.

McSwane's comments were concise after surviving the storm he precipitated,: “I am proud to be a student at a university that respects students’ First Amendment rights.” Let's hope he exercises them more responsibly going forward.