That is the question. I happened to be channel surfing last night and came across a show that some adolescents watch called "One Tree Hill". During the episode, part of the storyline centered around one of the characters who is now a high school English teacher at her alma mater and one of her students who wrote a contraversial essay about a guy she liked and how life has been for the same student so far. Seeing that Haley (the teacher and student newspaper advisor) decided to publish Sam's (the student) well written essay, word got to the principal who demanded a brief meeting with Haley. Giving her a choice, publish and lose your job (fear of parental backlash) OR find another essay to publish, to me this reminded me of what we read for tonight's class about a similiar incident. This, however, gave Haley a difficult choice to make and I believe that she decided to publish the original essay before Sam offered to pull it in order to save her teacher's job.
Chapter 3 of Strike presented a case where a journalism teacher, Mr. Lane, spent some time deciding about whether to not to publish a libelious article about Mr. Waters and Beth, who were both involved in a questionable dilemma. While Eddie, the student, argued about his first amendment right to free speech, Mr. Lane could not decide whether to censor the article or outright reject it in order to prevent a possible libel/slander suit. Cases, like these, are often presented in high schools everywhere and do present a dilemma that each of us can take and bring out the title question "To publish or not to publish?". If I sponsored the student newspaper (which being a Social Studies major, likely won't happen), my only answer to Eddie would be is to ask him to clean up the article before publishing.
Both scenarios do, however, present the same question that each of us have to ask ourselves. What is the right thing to do and is publishing a controversial article/essay worth losing our jobs over? (Sorry for the revision, but there were some typos that I apparently did not catch!)
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2 comments:
Unfortunately, there is a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court that upholds the idea that public school officials may impose limits on what is published in a school-supported (read: school-funded) newspaper: Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988). There's actually another case involving free-speech rights of colleges and unviversities, Hosty v. Carter, in which the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the Hazelwood ruling could apply to college/university papers as well.
A libel or slanderous article published is one thing, but if the story isn't one of the above, there is no reason constitutionally, in my opinion, to not publish the article.
For me, the right thing to do would be to publish the story as long as it's not libel or slanderous.
But I have a background in journalism, and am a firm supporter of free speech, so I suppose I have a biased view.
I regularly watch One Tree Hill and watched the episode you were talking about last night. I found it very interesting to coincide with the readings, and yet I felt like the two situations were extreme opposites. The essay in question on the show dealt with the reality that Sam had experienced throughout her life. It was an autobiography of sorts, and Haley stood up for Sam's right to have her voice heard. Once again, I mention that her essay was based on truth.
When considering this, I found the case with Eddie to be a black and white one. He has written an essay that is (most likely) libel, and would be detrimental to a fellow student. In this case, I believe that Mr. Lane should not publish the case. If it were a well-written factual event, I would have no problem publishing it even if I thought it were risky.
Like Rebekah, I also have a background in journalism and my teacher drilled libel laws down our throats. He never discouraged writing the hard stuff, but did teach ethics and always told us to write the truth. I hope to teach a journalism class some day, and I know these issues will come up. It is my responsibility as the teacher to convey ethics and responsibility as a journalist. Free speech is not something to be abused, and written word is very powerful.
I liked your post, so thanks!
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