The Daily Forty-Niner of Long Beach, California has also has their share of
controversy, all be it mild cases. "They only type of controversy has been in
letter's to the editor and on the opinion page which is fairly normal," Natasha
Wanchek, On-line editor of the Forty-Niner, said (interview Nov 9). "Due to some
investigative reporting into the wages of administrators last semester, some
higher up in the hierarchy are weary of our reporters. But Robert Mason, our new
campus president has worked well with the staff and hopes continue of gaining
trust of administrators." Neither of the papers above have any censorship policy
placed upon them which puts them at the university's heel. When something
questionable does appear, they handle it themselves. "I haven't pulled an ad
(but) the student ad manger asked me to once this semester," Grechit said. "It
was a Sheik condom ad that was a poster-type pull out. I said to run it and they
did. We got a few letters, but that was about it. I'm not going to protect
someone from themselves by censoring what they see in the paper. If they don't
like it, they don't have to buy Sheik condoms." As Grechit said, she is not
responsible for protecting people from what they see and neither is any other
newspaper. They are just here to report on events and happenings that concern
their student body. If they do run some story or ad another person finds
questionable, then they should write to the newspaper . Many newspapers welcome
feedback and letters from the public to help them better their paper. However
when that help turns into censorship, we must draw the line. The example with the
Arizona Daily Wildcat is extreme. Not all schools or universities would go that
far to silence their critics, but it could happen.Newspapers like the ones above
are for a highly diverse student body and is a paper about the school. The paper
must report issues and topics that relate to the students and back to the
students. They must cover all issues, good and bad, to be an effective paper. If
the paper can't produce some type of emotional response what good is it?
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