Looking for practice material?

Find thousands of free archived packets for practice and study from the Quizbowl Packet Archive!

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Discussion of non-quizbowl topics
Post Reply
User avatar
Jeffrey Hill
Posts: 6653
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2004 12:00 am
Location: In between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown (aka Johnson County, KS)
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

They use whatever money they have left to sue the University claiming the budget cut is an act of censorship

Seek

User avatar
DeckardCain
Posts: 4472
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:00 am
Location: Viburnum, MO
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by DeckardCain »

Hilarious. I hope the Miner gets shut down.

Side note: Why is this in the college quizbowl section?

User avatar
Jeffrey Hill
Posts: 6653
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2004 12:00 am
Location: In between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown (aka Johnson County, KS)
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

Oops, still used to Miscellaneous being second-to-last (for mods)

But really, how many copies of the Miner that don't get picked up by someone do you think they probably throw out each week... about half of them at least? The only reason I ever picked it up was because I could see Friday's and Saturday's Get Fuzzy, Dilbert, and Non Sequitur on Thursday if I wanted to. There's no reason to waste money to syndicate comics that people can get for free on the Internet. Is the Post-Dispatch going to sue the population of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area if they suddenly stopped reading the newspaper or their advertisers for suddenly pulling their business? It's the same reasoning really - the readership base pulling away its financial support. If you polled the UMR population I'm sure a vast majority would want to see the Miner go altogether.

Yes, I recognize their right to free speech but if I don't want to financially support it with my student fees, I should have a choice to not pay the Miner. Maybe I should sue the school for forcing me to pay a portion of my student fees to support the Miner when I don't want to.
(yes this entire paragraph was sarcasm)

Online
User avatar
L-Town Expatriate
Posts: 6910
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:00 am
Location: Riding a Mule down the Katy Trail to the State Fair
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by L-Town Expatriate »

Have to chime in here, seeing as I've somewhat of a vested interest in this issue.

I think this is the story that's got everyone riled up, and frankly, what the heck is an op-ed piece doing in News?

Flat out, I agree that the Miner looks like a complete piece of crap and that student fees should not go into a campus newspaper. (I can say that easily because student fees don't fund the Index here at Truman (it's from a division budget) and (oh yeah) we've won best weekly college paper in the nation three of the last four years at national convention in New York.) Second, I must propose that the Miner is risking much more than they realize in pursuing this lawsuit, even with the support of the Student Press Law Center and Society of Professional Journalists backing them.

25 years ago, another (IMHO) shoddy school publication in Missouri created administrative ire that wound up before the Supreme Court. That resulted in the Hazelwood decision, which declared that high school newspapers were not forums for public expression and were subject to prior restraint.

This decision stayed confined to high schools until 2004, when the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Hosty v. Carter that state universities in their district could exert prior restraint. That case stemmed from a state university dean not liking what her school's paper was printing about them and the school's administration. Illinois attorneys argued successfully for the extension of Hazelwood to state universities in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

If you get a look at the PDF on the SPLC's case page, that paper (Also IMHO) looked like crap too. I fear that this decision, which the Supreme Court decided last year not to consider, could come into play should the Miner pursue its case. And should the Miner lose through a new precedent established via Hosty, it would affect university papers in Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.

This isn't the right fight, but at the same time, "cut and run" won't work here either. What the heck are students doing to ensure free press in Rolla? Near as I can tell, nothing. Should the Miner collapse, who then will provide a check on University spending? The Post-Dispatch? Random small town paper? Bueller? Bueller?

So instead of clamoring for its dissolution, why not provide constructive ideas, like establishing online undergrad journalism classes taught from Columbia? Unpegging the Miner's funding from student funds? Taking more rudimentary grammar and/or ethics courses?

User avatar
scphilli
Posts: 2097
Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:00 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by scphilli »

L-Town Expatriate wrote: Have to chime in here, seeing as I've somewhat of a vested interest in this issue.

I think this is the story that's got everyone riled up, and frankly, what the heck is an op-ed piece doing in News?

Flat out, I agree that the Miner looks like a complete piece of crap and that student fees should not go into a campus newspaper. (I can say that easily because student fees don't fund the Index here at Truman (it's from a division budget) and (oh yeah) we've won best weekly college paper in the nation three of the last four years at national convention in New York.) Second, I must propose that the Miner is risking much more than they realize in pursuing this lawsuit, even with the support of the Student Press Law Center and Society of Professional Journalists backing them.

25 years ago, another (IMHO) shoddy school publication in Missouri created administrative ire that wound up before the Supreme Court. That resulted in the Hazelwood decision, which declared that high school newspapers were not forums for public expression and were subject to prior restraint.

This decision stayed confined to high schools until 2004, when the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Hosty v. Carter that state universities in their district could exert prior restraint. That case stemmed from a state university dean not liking what her school's paper was printing about them and the school's administration. Illinois attorneys argued successfully for the extension of Hazelwood to state universities in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

If you get a look at the PDF on the SPLC's case page, that paper (Also IMHO) looked like crap too. I fear that this decision, which the Supreme Court decided last year not to consider, could come into play should the Miner pursue its case. And should the Miner lose through a new precedent established via Hosty, it would affect university papers in Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.

This isn't the right fight, but at the same time, "cut and run" won't work here either. What the heck are students doing to ensure free press in Rolla? Near as I can tell, nothing. Should the Miner collapse, who then will provide a check on University spending? The Post-Dispatch? Random small town paper? Bueller? Bueller?

So instead of clamoring for its dissolution, why not provide constructive ideas, like establishing online undergrad journalism classes taught from Columbia? Unpegging the Miner's funding from student funds? Taking more rudimentary grammar and/or ethics courses?
I'm going to try to clean up what Kyle said by putting his explanation correctly. The Hosty decision only applies to the 7th Circuit. Missouri is in the Eighth Circuit which is as Kyle stated all those states plus Nebraska. If the suit is brought in federal court (and this suit does not have to be brought in federal court) the district court judge is not bound by and likely would not elect to follow the 7th Circuit. An appeal from that is also going to be met with skepticism. The Miner really has two options here:

1) Sue in federal court. If it got appealed to the Court of Appeals, depending on which 3 judges they get to hear the case, it's fairly likely The Miner would not win. This Court of Appeals, particularly when Chief Judge Loken is sitting, really does not like setting out on its own. They really like agreeing with other circuits as a "cover our butt" move. Leads to fewer reversals that way.

2) Sue in a state court and dodge the issue altogether. State courts aren't bound by federal precedent unless it comes from the Supremes. The recent voter ID case that was decided by MO shows how very very seriously MO's Supreme Court takes fundamental rights, which press certainly is. I could see MO's Supreme Court siding with the paper. Depending on what language the Court would couch its opinion in, it could be written to where the Supreme Court of the US would not be able to review it, or would decline to review it if petitioned for a writ of certiorari.

So essentially, bad article. This area of law profoundly sucks because it is borderline incoherent. Sue in your state system which is a little more sane.

User avatar
DeckardCain
Posts: 4472
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:00 am
Location: Viburnum, MO
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by DeckardCain »

L-Town Expatriate wrote: This isn't the right fight, but at the same time, "cut and run" won't work here either. What the heck are students doing to ensure free press in Rolla? Near as I can tell, nothing. Should the Miner collapse, who then will provide a check on University spending? The Post-Dispatch? Random small town paper? Bueller? Bueller?

So instead of clamoring for its dissolution, why not provide constructive ideas, like establishing online undergrad journalism classes taught from Columbia? Unpegging the Miner's funding from student funds? Taking more rudimentary grammar and/or ethics courses?
I should probably point out here that UMR has an independent paper, which is both free of student funds and infinitely better than the Miner.

User avatar
scphilli
Posts: 2097
Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:00 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by scphilli »

I suspect what I'm about to say will only interest myself and Kyle:

Upon reading Hosty in entirety, I think you misinterpret what the court is actually saying there. It's not a broadly written opinion and appears to only be concerned with two issues: does the dean have qualified immunity from suit and what kind of forum is the newspaper in that case (which is a very fact specific examination, not necessarily applicable to other newspapers). I would put it on the low end of the scale in terms of persuasive value. The fact that it's been cited in other cases positively within its circuit a handful of times and by one district court in Puerto Rico doesn't help matters either.

User avatar
Jeffrey Hill
Posts: 6653
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2004 12:00 am
Location: In between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown (aka Johnson County, KS)
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

DeckardCain wrote: I should probably point out here that UMR has an independent paper, which is both free of student funds and infinitely better than the Miner.
Yes, the underground newspaper created after that article was published to prove a point that lack of funding isn't why the Miner sucks. I should actually read it sometime.

Online
User avatar
L-Town Expatriate
Posts: 6910
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:00 am
Location: Riding a Mule down the Katy Trail to the State Fair
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by L-Town Expatriate »

ScoBo1987 wrote:
DeckardCain wrote: I should probably point out here that UMR has an independent paper, which is both free of student funds and infinitely better than the Miner.
Yes, the underground newspaper created after that article was published to prove a point that lack of funding isn't why the Miner sucks. I should actually read it sometime.
You mind sending me a link while at it?









^_^

East Buc & UMR
Posts: 5401
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2004 12:00 am
Location: Gower
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by East Buc & UMR »

I don't think they have a link they just print out a single sheet of paper from what I hear.

User avatar
Jeffrey Hill
Posts: 6653
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2004 12:00 am
Location: In between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown (aka Johnson County, KS)
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

No it's longer than one page but they only e-mail it out to people who "subscribe" to it as well as put it on random tables throughout campus

Online
User avatar
L-Town Expatriate
Posts: 6910
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:00 am
Location: Riding a Mule down the Katy Trail to the State Fair
Contact:

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by L-Town Expatriate »

ScoBo1987 wrote: No it's longer than one page but they only e-mail it out to people who "subscribe" to it as well as put it on random tables throughout campus
Did they figure out how to cover breaking news like this?

*L-Town Expatriate shakes his head at the Miner running the University's press release on today's little scare. (Lazy twits.)

User avatar
scphilli
Posts: 2097
Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:00 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

The Miner gets their budget cut...

Post by scphilli »

I've been looking for favorable precedent since Kyle brought this up. Pitt News v. Pappert, 379 F.3d 96, is a recent case that should cut almost certainly in The Miner's favor. Written by then Judge, now Supreme Court Justice Alito, it recognizes the Supreme Court's long held belief that "laws that impose special financial burdens on the media or a narrow sector of the media present a threat to the First Amendment." (citing Grosjean v. Am. Press. Co., 297 US 233) Alito writes that laws or state actions that single out a "relatively 'small group' of speakers" (here the Miner) are presumptively unconstitutional. The State would have to show a compelling government interest in cutting the Miner's budget and then that the cutting of the budget by $2000 is narrowly tailored to meet that interest.

Post Reply