By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
There’s probably something to be said for shock value, but after watching the aftermath of college newspaper editor David McSwane’s decision to run an editorial that said “Taser This. F*** Bush,” it’s difficult to know what.
McSwane, editor of
A student/faculty committee met publicly Wednesday night to question McSwane and get an earful from supporters and detractors before meeting privately Thursday to decide whether to discipline McSwane.
The 20-year-old junior was clearly nervous. He rightly refused to resign under a blatantly political attack by college Republicans and advertisers more interested in the B-word than the F-word in the Collegian editorial. Still, McSwane was contrite.
He had not anticipated the national and international outcry, he told me. He had not anticipated the scope of advertising losses that cost members of the newspaper staff pay and could cost many their jobs.
McSwane’s family story has been told – sometimes incorrectly he said – rather than the story of a student tasered by cops at the
Free speech was supposed to be the focus of the four-word editorial, just like the waste of lives and money in
McSwane got big doses of both.
Last year’s Collegian editor told the six-student, three-faculty Board of Student Communications committee that McSwane should be fired for “making a joke” of the Collegian.
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The paper’s current advertising director, Lenay Snyder, wanted McSwane out for costing a potential $50,000 in ad revenue and threatening a 116-year-old publication with “pure extinction.”
It took one young student and one old student to bring things back into perspective.
“Most of us who attend CSU for the academic collegiate experience hand over the tuition not for the facts in the textbooks, but in hopes that we will graduate with an intellect that has been tested, challenged and grown as a result,” Allison Knight said. “Although we may hope that this process spreads itself out over the course of four years, it seems the Collegian gives us a taste of this in the course of four words.”
Barry Arthur Littwin, who said he gave up a career as an investment broker to return to college at
“Next week, our college newspaper will still be here,” Littwin said. “Next year, it will still be here.”
As for McSwane, Littwin asked the Board of Student Communications to show “grace and wisdom.”
That didn’t necessarily mean a free pass. It meant that, handled correctly, “our biggest mistakes” can translate into “our biggest gains.”
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
27 users commented in " Here’s a Shocker: Shock Value Doesn’t Work "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI was fortunate. When and where I attended colege, the newspaper was incorporated as a for-profit company under the laws of the state. We were based off campus and there just was nothing the university could do about the journalism we produced. I doubt I would have been very happy trying to learn my craft in the CSU environment.
That said, Jim is right when he suggests that the Board of Student Communications should show “grace and wisdom.” Jim also is right in his comments about shock value. Little children frequently say things to see what kind of reaction their utterances bring. Fortunately, most of us learn the lesson that doing things just for shock value rarely results in the outcome we want. Mr. McSwane, I daresay, now knows this, although if he was articulate enough to become editor of the CSU paper, he should have known it before publishing his puerile test of free speech. Yes,the offending editorial was a test of free speech; it also was puerile. Truly articulate people can communicate without have to resort to gutter language.
Isn’t it remarkable that it is perfectly OK to equate Obama with terrorists (Coulter), declare that gays are out to destroy religion (Savage), call Chelsea Clinton a dog (Limbaugh)and make any number of outrageous statements about liberals EVERY DAY, but don’t you dare use the same tactics on conservatives. They get all hurt feelings and cry like a bunch of little girls. What hypocrisy! I am sick of hearing the word liberal used as a pejorative and I am not going to let it go anymore. BTW: Limbaugh was the originator of the term “Betray-Us”, not Moveon.org.
Paula,
You aren’t comparing “apples to apples”… Using foul language on the front page of a student newspaper is far different than free speech commentary. I personally could care less about the use of the word f..k, but I am sure that the students who attend the university would like to keep their discourse at a higher level than what lhkman described as gutter language. Whining about what conservatives say about liberals or vice versa is so passe….and childish.
Thank you Paula49 I agree. If we want to save this country and the constitution we must stand up to these Rovian tactics.
Offensive language is used, as are offensive clothing, tattoos and piercings, to call attention to the people using these tactics. They are simple and effortless but totally ineffective substitutes for intelligent discourse and accomplishment. As such, these tactics are counterproductive in that they call unfavorable attention to the tactics rather than favorable attention to what may be a worthy cause. One would hope that after three years of college, a young man (or woman) would have attained greater maturity.
I think everyone has lost sight of the true problem here. A young man, admitting to choose his words after midnight, showed a terrible lack of judgment. My son is a Fresham at CSU. While he will defend to the end our freedom of speach, he said that by using a four letter word instead of his brain, McSwain let the message of his opinion get lost. Perhaps the fact that a student was tasered for refusing to give up the microphone wouldn’t have been forgotten if Mr. McSwain had not allowed himself to slip back into a juvenile mentality and simply said “Taser this…Bush is Wrong”. No uproar, no knee jerk reactions from advertisers. My son is embarrased by Mr. McSwain’s lack of judgment more than the four letter word he used. Personally, I say, everyone needs to get a GRIP. Mr. Bush has a 29% approval rating, and I can only assume these people do not read the papers, watch the news or listen to the radio. People are DYING for no real reason; we are continuing to allow the current government regime stomp all over our civil rights, not just freedom of speach, but just plain FREEDOM! What has happened to this world? President Clinton was put through the wringer for not admitting before God and Country and HIS WIFE that he had an improper relation with another woman, yet Mr. Bush continues to mock our constitution and our laws and yet NOTHING is being done about that! When our Senators and our Representatives grow some intestinal fortitude, and we as citizens insist they have that fortitude, things as foolish as a four letter word will continue to be fodder for those who really do not want our country to be the home of the free!!
Excuse me?
I seem to remember Ann Coulter being
characterized as a “Witch” by her liberal
detractors, Limbaugh being called a “Fat
Pig” and even Oreilly is called “The big
giant head” Hillary even stupped but not
far to call the president “Alfred E. Newman”
of MAD Comic fame. Liberals are ALWAYS
getting personal and insulting usually
because they are WEAK on the facts and their
arguments fall apart upon logical debate.
You’re absolutely wrong.
Here’s a typical Liberal debating tactic:
If you can’t refute the assertion change
the question or the topic. If that doesn’t
work criticize the phrasing or sentence
structure. If THAT doesn’t work get
personal.
I think Republican generally stick to the
topic and disguss facts without getting
childish or personal.
I’m not nearly as concerned about what college papers do (lessons will be learned…and the editor is learning) as about Moveon.org. I love what they did and I love it that the president and congress got into such a snit about it. We’ve got sons and daughters dying every day in this hellish, stupid war, and our representatives are going to spend time nattering about Moveon? I love it that a group of citizens has gotten big and powerful enough to create some discomfort. Many of us want this war to end. The mid-term elections sent reps to Washington for the explicit purpose of ending the war. They’re not. I still don’t know what happened when they got there. But Moveon will keep poking and poking — what could be more American?
First Obama and the n-word is not an analogy. This is not about race, or religion etc. This is about one offensive word and one offensive president. (are you getting the connection?)
A better analogy would be, what if it said “F*** Hillary!” Would the Republicans be be outraged. Or maybe they’d be defending the author?
It’s like the 15 year old kid in the mall, dressed head to foot in black leather and denim with 56 million metal studs and piercings, and an equal amount in his face along with the tatoos and spiked orange mohican, and everyone stares. If you want attention, you can get it.
The newspaper should retract it, republish with “Freak’in Bush!” Or “Screw Bush!” Then the young Republicans won’t be outraged at words they never heard before.
Dennis can’t seem to understand the relative difference between name-calling by the right and by the left. “Liberal” is name-calling for the right. I don’t recall a liberal group creating a “swift boat” group with big bucks to attack Bush’s military service like they did Kerry or Cleland - oh that’s right, Bush really didn’t serve in the military (this is baiting Dennis to correct me on Bush’s military service).
and Ann Coulter is a witch.
The Fort Collins citizen who said “…Obama is a n****r is Ed Haynes, Chairman of the Larimer County Republican Party.
MamaT,
Clinton lied under oath in a civil trial where he was accused of sexually harassing a different woman (Paula Jones), a pattern that he had displayed (including a rape accusation) for many years that doesn’t seem to bother the women’s rights groups. It had nothing to do with admitting an improper relationship. He didn’t just lie about sex. Did you fall off the turnip truck?
Keith,
Republicans never attacked Max Cleland’s military service. To say that they did is a lie and the fact that you lied about this minimizes your entire statement and anything else that you might say. There were ads that criticized his CURRENT (at the time) views on the use of the military that tried to paint him as weak on National defense, there is a BIG difference.
No the Liberals headed by CBS and Dan
“I’d rather be RED” Rather fabricated
phoney military records and presented
them as legitimate right before the
election. I find journalistic lying
much more reprehensible than any
profanity. Besides, Keith’s still mad
at me for the poor marks I gave him in
remedial reading class.
As for Doety’s idiotic remarks would you
rather fight the hellish war on OUR soil?
This war in Iraq, like it or not, is the
front on the global war on terrorism and
attested by no attacks here since 9/11
it’s working.
President Clinton lied and hurt his wife and family and perhaps a few vulnerable young women. He didn’t start a war on falsified evidence that caused hundreds of thousands of people to be killed and maimed. President Clinton brought prosperity to our country that the poor, the middle class and rich alike could enjoy.We were at peace with the world.
He didn’t put our country in deep debt that our grandchildren will have to pay. People didn’t have to make choices about whether to heat their home, eat, or pay for their prescriptions. President Clinton didn’t try to raid our social security.
Who is enjoying prosperity now? Only the very wealthy got richer during the current administration.
President Clinton did not leave an American city’s people without food and water for three days in a bureaucratic bungle. President Clinton didn’t surround himself with Nazi stormtroopers.
Say the word Bush now and a taser goes off.
Reminds me of Nixon..and Hitler..
I actually liked what Clinton did for our country. But his treatment of women is horrible and possibly criminal. I was pointing out to MamaT that it isn’t just a situation where he went to the bar, cheated on his wife and then lied to her about it.. He lied under oath in a civil trial where he was being accused of sexual harassment. No big deal to Democrats obviously, but sexual harassment is a big deal to me.
I just tire of the analogy of just lying about sex by people that only repeat what they hear over and over…….
To imply that if we weren’t fighting the war in Iraq we would be fighting it here is typical GOP rhetoric and absolute HOGWASH.
It’s the excuse they use for our soliders being slaughtered and maimed. And spending billions on a useless situation. The truth is, if our soldiers were here, we’d be a lot safer. And if they’d get serious about border security instead of planning on letting the trucks full of God knows what roll in from Mexico we’d be safer too. Secure our borders, bring our soldiers home, then we’ll be safe. from the enemy without. I don’t know about the enemy within.
This kid is a hero, he just said what most people are thinking he has nothing to apologize for.
I agree with you Wildflower. I just tire of the b.s. rhetoric…
Ye gads! I’d say Ye Gods, but someone no doubt would object to perceived blasphemy. Look at the previous 18 comments, folks. Everyone is getting twisted in his/her underwear lamasting Limbaugh, Coulter, Democrats, Republicans, you name it. Very few have given a moment’s worth of thought to the very simple fact that a young man, a would-be journalist, crossed a line and used language that should not be used in a general circulation publication. Jim, how about a column dealing with this issue, or have I said all that needs to be said about it?
LHK I think most of us are aware the young man could have had a better choice of words and less ego and most of us have given it a great deal of thought. Judgment at that age isn’t always the best. But I laud his trying to wake people up to what is happening to free speech in this country even though most of the attention was diverted to the messenger rather than the message.
Watching the video of the tasering of the student in Fla. and other college and police taserings ran chills down my spine.
Perhaps we got off track
But hey Ann Coulter really IS a witch
I attended Hamilton College, which is a small liberal arts college in Clinton, NY. Of Colarado local interest is that a protest against Ward Churchill speaking at Hamilton is what eventually led to that esteemed scholar’s (I’m joking) dismissal from CU.
I am not comfortable with preventing people from presenting their ideas, and I was uneasy with Hamilton’s eventual decision to cancel Mr. Churchill’s talk, just as I am uncomfortable about the Columbia/Ahmadinejad controversy. Suppressing ideas does not lead to understanding.
The CSU situation does not rise to that level - it is trivial (relatively and/or absolutely). A college junior, a kid, decided to make an inflammatory statement, and it did draw attention, as he wished. It was immature, perhaps, but immaturity is a characteristic of young people.
I would much rather deal with a minor language transgression by a college student than… say, the lock step performance of congressional Republicans. Now THAT demands some outrage!
lhkman (I’m assuming Mike Littmwin),
I agreed with Spencer’s original commentary (and said so) and only rebutted the manufactured outrage that followed. When will either side of this foolish (yet vitally important) debate quit creating talking points that only distracts us from real solutions?
Noidea, you apparently agree with my comment about everyone getting twisted in his or her underwear and using the CSU foul-language incident to peddle their political agendas, right or left. Hate to disabuse you, however, on your assumption that I am Mike Littwin. I am flattered, though. Actually, with no offense intended to Littwin, I think I write rather well all on my own.
Noidea, no kidding. No I didn’ fall off a turnip truck. Been activly involved in politics my entire life. Misabuse of women, children and men in any shape or form is indeed a disgusting, and most times illegal offense. However, apparently, my point sailed way over your head to understand, so I’ll make it simple. 1. President Clinton was accused by women long after the “events” happened. Now, hon, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand getting ones 15 minutes of fame, ok? My use of this comparison is to point out that he was hassled for a civil issue, where our current government is getting of scott-free by breaking our CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS. I agree with the previous poster, had the F word been used in connection with Future President Hillary Clinton, there wouldn’t have been the fall out. Why? Because the Democrats, and all other less conservative parties agree that free speech is just that…free. You can stop reading the paper, you’re free to do that. I’m just tired of our country focusing on a bunch of NOTHING and ignoring the millions of folks who can’t afford health insurance, the folks who can but still can’t pay for their medical bills and prescriptions. Perhaps YOU should eat more turnips and read more papers, because you seriously HAVE NOT IDEA!
MamaT,
I regret the turnip comment and am sorry. I will agree to disagree with you. But I still think that you are giving Clinton a pass if you think that he has not had a predatory past. But this wasn’t even the issue that Jim was writing about and that was my point.
also MamaT…Clarence Thomas is in the news again after writing a book about his life. It would be very interesting to see how you felt at the time about Anita Hill and the “hi-tech lynching” of his character 8 years after she worked for him. Are you consistent or were you part of the lynch mob? I bet the latter…
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