The Oregon Commentator is crude, sophomoric, misogynistic, sexist and irresponsible. The staff can be abrasive, arrogant, obnoxious and smug to the extreme. Most of their articles skirt the far edge of acceptable taste, and they certainly have gone over that edge in the past.
None of this, however, justifies theft of the Commentator’s property. Americans have a right to free speech — even that which others find distasteful and inappropriate — and the censorship implied in last weekend’s “missing” copies of the Commentator are a gross disservice to the community and the values we honor on campus.
The current issue is a case in point of tastelessness: In the “Drinking Holidays” article, the Commentator includes Purim (a Jewish festival), which the writer suggests celebrating, with tongue perhaps firmly in-cheek, “by drinking yourself into an angry fury and lashing out at the Jewish-controlled media, the Jewish-controlled government,” and so on.
This level of speech goes far beyond the Commentator’s usual level of “merely asinine.” The context of the paper is always unclear — when are the writers doing parody, and when are they being serious? No one can know. These words, then, calling for people to get drunk and lash out at a specific group of people based on their religion, rise to the level of hate speech, and if the Commentator staff is even capable of feeling shame, they should.
Maybe the writers meant it in jest, but there are still people who would gladly take the opportunity to attack Jews to sate their racist paranoia. In short, this was a thoroughly irresponsible act by the Commentator staff.
For that, we condemn them. We will say they are bad, and the community should express its anger about these words in an appropriate way. Increase the dialogue, tell a different story about Jewish people. But do these words mean that the Commentator should be stolen or silenced or defunded? Absolutely, unequivocally not.
A right to free speech doesn’t include a right to not be offended. And as despicable as the Purim segment was, it doesn’t seem to fall under the legal definition of incitement to violence, one of the very few criminal acts of speech. If someone wanted to make a case out of it, the courts ultimately would have to decide whether the words rise to that level.
While the Commentator’s words were ugly, the stolen papers were even uglier. The theft of newspapers is always wrong, whether it is students on campuses across the nation trying to silence conservative rabble-rouser David Horowitz, or Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates stealing college papers because the editorial board endorsed his opponent. Not only does it bring additional attention to the offensive matter, it’s a criminal act.
So, who might be considered a suspect in this case? We certainly don’t know, although rumors have been flying around campus. There are certainly plenty of people who could have motive from this issue alone: The Oregon Voice, who this past week began a fight with the Commentator over charges of digital theft; the University Hillel and the Jewish Student Union, who would likely be highly offended by the Purim segment; Students For Peace, who were characterized as “fucking racists” in the same issue; the Commentator’s perennial nemesis-in-funding, OSPIRG; Attorney General John Ashcroft; and the entire nation of France.
The rumors we’ve heard sound so proud, it’s almost as though people want to be associated with the act. And we realize that for some students, much of the Commentator’s speech leaves them feeling disgusted and angry. But to other people on campus (it’s likely only a few), the fact that OSPIRG receives incidental fees leaves them feeling disgusted and angry.
There’s an easy lesson here: If you feel enraged by other people’s speech, speak up yourself. Try to stop them from speaking that way again. Plead your case to the community. But physically forcing them to shut up leaves none of us with a voice — and that’s the really irresponsible act.
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent to [email protected].