Took me 3 semesters to realize the student newspaper's opinion page isn't actually free speech

Was complaining to a journalism professor about an op-ed they rejected from me, and he just flat out told me 'the editorial board decides what fits our brand.' Made me wonder how much actual campus speech gets filtered through administrative approval without anyone questioning it. Any other students run into the same wall with their campus paper?

2 comments

2 Comments

aaron_ellis422d ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the opinion page in most student papers is actually one of the few places where the editorial board gets to decide what fits. It's literally their job to pick and choose based on their brand or mission, not a violation of free speech. Still sucks when you're the one getting rejected, but that's how it's always worked.

ryan_clark401d ago

You ever been on the other side of that and seen how it actually works? I had a piece rejected from my college paper years back and was all bent out of shape about it until a friend on the staff showed me the stack of submissions they got for one issue. In my experience, it's not about silencing anyone, it's just that they have a certain number of pages and a certain tone they're trying to keep. Your mileage may vary, but I think people forget how much editing and space constraints play into it, not some big conspiracy.