1 post tagged “first amendment”
Some news stations didn’t cover the protests last night.
But The Creightonian did, and rather extensively too.
According to a conversation with Katie Larson, The Creightonian adviser, some news organizations don't cover groups with messages like the Westboro Baptist Church because that is what the groups want.
I agree. But I’m OK with that.
Martin Luther had a fanatical message. Galileo. Susan B. Anthony. Voltaire. Contemporarily speaking- Bill Gates and Rosa Parks are fanatics as well.
To limit the coverage of some fanatics means the press must limit the coverage of others.
As the Editor-in-Chief of The Creightonian, it’s my job to give you the news and let you, the reader, decide what to think. If you want editors of newspapers telling you what to think, go to North Korea.
The Creightonian doesn't cover things for scandal or to sell papers, we cover things because they are news. As readers you deserve to know what is going on in your world no matter how offensive the news is. Sometimes what is printed in The Creightonian won't impress donors or entice incoming students, but you deserve to know, so we cover that too.
On our Web site you will find what members of the Westboro Baptist Church said and you will see the signs they held. You can read letters from inflamed readers, some laced with profanity. We didn’t censor that either.
As readers, you’ve earned the right to decide for yourself what is right, what is wrong and what to read. Read it or don't read it. Take whatever side you think right. Either way, to know is your first amendment right. Don’t let anyone, even newspaper editors, take that away from you.
