Comments on State Senate Edits High School Journalists Out of Student Press Bill
As someone who was at the Senate judicial committee meeting, it was Rodney Tom who abandoned the bill for the Democrats. He was swayed by lobbyists for the principals association.
The editorial page of the Seattle Times is pure shit, as witness the letter they published from Rick Thomas of Woodinville about last year's murders at a Capitol Hill rave. You can check it out at
it's truly vile.
During House debate, the Republicans kept talking about how "in the real world" editors and publishers won't just publish any old thing, and that it's such an important life lesson for budding young journalists to be censored. Never mind any principles about public money being used or the legal precedents Feit has admirably laid out this session.
It's like they were saying, "In the real world there are assholes, and we're going to make sure you undersand that, because WE are those assholes." Way to inspire young people. It would be disappointing to find out that the poster at #1 is correct (not disputing it, just waiting for another confirmation.)
Schraum's point about how too many working journalists don't defend the First Amendment is an important one. You'd think during an administration that regularly fosters the idea that reporting contrary facts is treasonous, more working journalists would take a stand.
I totally agree that the Tinker standard should be upheld, but I also have this to say. If you're sick of the principal censoring your student newspaper, start up one that isn't school sponsored. There were two such newspapers in my high school, one of which I cofounded, and the only restriction the school could place on us was that we could only distribute it between classes and at lunch. It wasn't expensive, but we sure as hell got a lot more attention than the official school newspaper.
Hopefully, this will get fixed, assuming the bill passes the full Senate and goes to conference.
And just to address one of Mr. Schraum's comments, SOME members of the professional press HAVE been taking a stand in favor of the First Ammendment; SB 5358, which passed with a 41-7 bi-partisan vote earlier this month would shield reporters from revealing confidential sources under threat of prosecution. A similar bill passed unanimously through the State House & some minor tweaking is expected to reconcile the two bills before it is passed on to Gov. Gregoire, who has indicated she will sign it.
I should point out, this legislation was conceived, formulated and presented by members of AFTRA, which represents, among others, journalists in the broadcast media, although it also had the support of the Newspaper Guild, as well as receiving a unanimous endorsement from the Washington State Labor Council.
Unfortunately, rank-and-file working journalists don't normally have much sway on editorial boards, but I do know, from discussions I've had with my members, that the issue of student journalist censorship is not one they take lightly, and for some of the same reasons to which Mr. Schraum alludes.
Later in the statement:
" It would be unfair, however, not to credit those many professional journalists who supported us all the way. The Seattle P-I, The News Tribune, USA Today, and the Spokesman-Review deserve a very special and heartfelt thanks. Their willingness to go to bat for students, and their refusal to accept the quick and easy “principal-as-publisher” logic gives me hope. "
As I've said before, power of the press belongs to the person who owns the press. In the case of high school newspapers, the "owner" is the taxpayers, represented by their elected school board members. School boards should be able to set policy regarding their student-run newspapers, including how much control the principal or newspaper has in removing content.
Many have cried "censorship" in response to the amendment removing high schools from this bill. I'll re-ask a question I posed before on this blog that no one responded to, this time inserting a different faceless bureaucrat into the hypothetical. If it's censorship to control content in a government-financed publication, could Jay Manning, director of the Department of Ecology, censor information in the Ecology department newsletter? If so, is there some distinction between newsletters and newspapers? Does the medium matter?
You guys in favor of this bill should be arguing that you think extending these protections to high school student journalists is good policy, not that it's proscribed by the First Amendment, because it's a pretty shaky constitutional leg you're trying to stand on. Why make it about rights? Just say it's a good idea.
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