David Spett

by Katie Andriulli

(Flickr/Jonathan D. Blundell)

The Perspective, a Campus Progress-supported publication at the College of New Jersey, interviewed Governor Mike Huckabee recently when he visited campus. In the interview, Huckabee discusses many controversial topics, including health care reform and the recent travails of RNC Chairman Michael Steele. But Huckabee’s comments on gay marriage, wherein he likens it to incest and polygamy, have proved to be the most incendiary:

“You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal,” he said of same-sex marriage. “That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them.”

Unsurprisingly, Huckabee is now trying to distance himself from the comments, issuing a response claiming that the student reporter “grossly distorted” their conversation, and even going so far as to say that he hopes the reporter will “find a career other than journalism.” He also calls for a public release of the interview tapes. So, like good journalists do, the paper issued their own response containing the taped interview which clearly shows that the reporter represented the conversation truthfully.

Looks like it’s TCNJ Perspective 1 – Huckabee 0.

(Cross-posted at CampusProgress.org)

A Mar. 28 column in American University’s student newspaper, The Eagle, has sparked controversy and incited anger beyond AU’s campus by arguing that a woman who consumes alcohol and walks with a man back to his room is implicitly consenting to sex.

As you might expect, students on campus responded quickly. Our sponsored magazine at AU, American Way of Life (AWOL), wrote:

The response from the university community against [columnist Alex] Knepper and the Eagle was swift and unforgiving; Eagle newspaper stands were vandalized, some labeled with signs reading “NO ROOM FOR RAPE APOLOGISTS.” Various parties from the Women’s Initiative to Student Government representatives immediately decried Knepper’s statement as offensive and appalling [...] The comments section on the online verison of Knepper’s column was eventually frozen after death threats and personal attacks overtook any sane dialogue that had been occurring.

But AWOL points out that critics outside the university might not be aware of the bigger picture here: In fact, the problem at The Eagleisn’t simply related to this one column.

In November 2009, the paper editorialized that students’ tuition shouldn’t go toward the campus’ women’s center because the center benefits a “special subgroup.”And in an earlier column, Knepper argued that the women’s center was merely a front group for feminist activists on campus.

AWOL concludes: “This latest controversy over Knepper’s disavowal of the existence of date rape seems to be the logical trajectory of several articles’ worth of increasingly provocative content.”

[AWOL: Why is The Eagle so hostile to feminists?]

(Cross-posted at CampusProgress.org)

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) just named one of our brand-new grantees, North by Northwestern at NU, the Best Student Magazine in its region (Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky). SPJ was so wowed that they decided not to award a second or third place finisher.

That’s not all: North by Northwestern also took 2nd place in the Independent Online Student Publication category; 1st place in the Non-Fiction Magazine Article category for this story on so-called “expiration dating”; 2nd place in the same category for a story on suburban slumlords; 1st place in the Online Feature Reporting category for an interactive graphic on university presidents’ inauguration speeches; 1st place in the Online Opinion & Commentary category for columns by Sourav Bhowmick; and 3rd place in the Editorial Cartooning category for cartoons by Matthew Leib.

Talk about cleaning up! In the next round of SPJ’s competition, the stakes get higher: North by Northwestern will compete for national prizes against winners from other regions.

Major congratulations to the magazine’s editors and staff for their great work.

(Cross-posted at CampusProgress.org)

Campus Progress’ sponsored publication at The College of New Jersey, the TCNJ Perspective, got noticed by a prominent New Jersey politics blog for its story on Newark Mayor Cory Booker charging the state school $10,000 for a recent speaking engagement.

The Perspective wrote that the honorarium seemed suspicious:

Is it customary for sitting elected officials to accept such large payments for speaking engagements at colleges? Not for Cory Booker, at least. Just one day prior to his TCNJ appearance, the Newark mayor delivered a strikingly similar lecture at neighboring Rider University. That engagement fee? $0.00.

The Perspective’s staffers couldn’t reach Booker’s office for comment. Commenters on the site are saying the money must have gone to Booker’s nonprofit, Newark Now! and that the Rider appearance was for a campaign event.

This is an interesting issue, but I doubt Booker pocketed the money (or that The College of New Jersey would let him). He’s been scandal-free for so long, and that would be quite a scandal.

(Cross-posted at CampusProgress.org)