Posted on 06/20/2006 11:34:58 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
(AgapePress) -- Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, Maryland, is being accused of condoning mob censorship. An academic freedom and individual rights watchdog group is decrying school officials' part in an apparent attempt to silence a conservative newspaper.
In May, the Carrolton Record published an issue critical of a group that brought a pornographic film director to the JHU campus. Afterward, hundreds of copies of the newspaper were stolen; however, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), the university administration "turned a blind eye to the theft."
According to the Record's editor, about half of the 600 copies that went missing were confiscated by university administrators. However, the editor of the conservative paper says a campus security officer and the Dean of Student Life both said the seized papers did not constitute theft.
Meanwhile, some members of JHU's Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance have filed harassment charges against the Record. The group leveled its complaint against the newspaper for publishing a front-page photo of Alliance members posing with the porno filmmaker.
If that act constitutes harassment, FIRE president Greg Lukianoff comments, at this rate harassment may come to be known as the exception that swallows the First Amendment. He claims the word "harassment" has become a catch-all for anything that makes students or other individuals in the university setting uncomfortable.
"I'm just sick of seeing this," Lukianoff says. "On campus, if you're offended, if you're angry, if there's something you're just uncomfortable with, if there's an opinion you dislike, or if an op-ed comes out that you disagree with, there's an all-too-common tendency to call that harassment," he asserts, "and it happens in case after case, after case."
In a similar example, the FIRE spokesman notes, JHU has a troubling policy that allows its resident assistants (RAs) to arbitrarily ban certain flyers and student publications. "Johns Hopkins has just done so many things wrong," he says, and he believes the school has many areas it needs to address to make amends.
"But the number-one thing that they must do is repudiate this harassment investigation against the newspaper," Lukianoff adds. "And the next thing they need to do is get rid of this policy that essentially gives infinite power to censor to RAs," he says.
Also, one of the most essential things that Johns Hopkins University's administrators must do, Lukianoff insists, is something "they should have done already." He says JHU must immediately condemn, in no uncertain terms, the theft of the Carrolton Record's newspapers.
Copyright © 2006 AgapePress -- All rights reserved.
PING!
Someone should send these lefty fascist administrators a box of red pens with the first amendment printed on them.
Since it was not done under the authority of anyone with the power to LEGALLY make this decision, it is the act of a despot who positioned himself as DICTATOR. If others accept him as dictator (and do not prosecute his power grab) then it is censorship (because he has been granted the authority to do as he wants regardless of the rights of others).
cen·sor·ship - n.
1. The act, process, or practice of censoring.
2. The office or authority of a Roman censor.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.Main Entry: cen·sor·ship - noun
1. the institution, system, or practice of censoring
Source: Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.cen·sor -n. 1. A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.
2. An official, as in the armed forces, who examines personal mail and official dispatches to remove information considered secret or a risk to security.
3. One that condemns or censures.
4. One of two officials in ancient Rome responsible for taking the public census and supervising public behavior and morals.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
A censor must be sanctioned by the powers that be (whether that is an editor, government, etc...). The leftist activists can no more "censor" the speech of someone they oppose than the KKK can "censor" the speech of a minority they oppose.
Commies = free speech = 0
"Meanwhile, some members of JHU's Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance have filed harassment charges against the Record. The group leveled its complaint against the newspaper for publishing a front-page photo of Alliance members posing with the porno filmmaker. "
If you are too ashamed to be seen with pornographers, stop inviting them to your campus. Total lack of backbone in these hypocrites.
BUMP!!!!
The governing authority allows the abuse and punishes the victim, it is not only condoning but all but participating.
PING
Moronic that they'd claim harassment when they were so proud, say it loud, to pose with a porno producer. It's sick stuff, it's Bizzarro World.
Where's the ACLU? Working overtime on that NAMBLA support?
Johns Hopkins U gets plenty of government money. Undoubtedly they've done something that endangers the continued flow of bucks into the pockets of the administration and their favorite building contractors.
Well, you must have priorities, don'tcha know...
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