2008 Woodie Awards
Our reader's voices
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Voices
Wednesday's Lifeline section was revolting.
Many people, including myself, were appalled after opening the CM Life to find sex toy information and prices dominating an entire front page.
I could go on about how this conveyed a complete disregard for the morals of a large majority on campus, but I want to focus mainly on the lack of professionalism that is exhibited in this article. This elaborate showcase of sex toys was completely inappropriate for a University newspaper.
If someone wants to seek out information about these products, that is their own business, but the rest of us should not have to be bombarded by it. Not only was this topic out of line and inappropriate, but that space could have been filled with relevant information.
If I was a visitor or a potential freshman on a tour with my parents and happened to reach for a copy of the newspaper to see what Central was about, I am pretty sure Central would have been immediately crossed off my list.
Someone needs to do a better job at keeping an acceptable level of professionalism in the newsroom here at CMU because the population isn't so "accepting and comfortable" with this topic as CMU appears to think.
Jessica Julius
Grand Rapids junior
I never thought I would see CM Life stoop to "yellow journalism" to fill in another insipid back section. Your recent article on sex toys was just that.
Is your pickup rate really that bad? This rag is read by minors at local businesses and members of the community in the waiting area for the CARLS clinic, many of whom are children, who do not wish to see such obscene pictures.
As an editor of a successful paper, surely you are aware of the implications of Miller v. California and should know better than to push your paper into the unprotected gray areas of the First Amendment. First you degrade the Catholic Church, now you publish obscene pictures that a vast majority of your readers do not want would not want to see.
It is time for David Harris to apologize to the university and the staff for putting the university in danger of litigation. If you get through next week without losing advertisers or being censored you should start buying lottery tickets.
Steven Lowrance
Graduate Student
Many people, including myself, were appalled after opening the CM Life to find sex toy information and prices dominating an entire front page.
I could go on about how this conveyed a complete disregard for the morals of a large majority on campus, but I want to focus mainly on the lack of professionalism that is exhibited in this article. This elaborate showcase of sex toys was completely inappropriate for a University newspaper.
If someone wants to seek out information about these products, that is their own business, but the rest of us should not have to be bombarded by it. Not only was this topic out of line and inappropriate, but that space could have been filled with relevant information.
If I was a visitor or a potential freshman on a tour with my parents and happened to reach for a copy of the newspaper to see what Central was about, I am pretty sure Central would have been immediately crossed off my list.
Someone needs to do a better job at keeping an acceptable level of professionalism in the newsroom here at CMU because the population isn't so "accepting and comfortable" with this topic as CMU appears to think.
Jessica Julius
Grand Rapids junior
I never thought I would see CM Life stoop to "yellow journalism" to fill in another insipid back section. Your recent article on sex toys was just that.
Is your pickup rate really that bad? This rag is read by minors at local businesses and members of the community in the waiting area for the CARLS clinic, many of whom are children, who do not wish to see such obscene pictures.
As an editor of a successful paper, surely you are aware of the implications of Miller v. California and should know better than to push your paper into the unprotected gray areas of the First Amendment. First you degrade the Catholic Church, now you publish obscene pictures that a vast majority of your readers do not want would not want to see.
It is time for David Harris to apologize to the university and the staff for putting the university in danger of litigation. If you get through next week without losing advertisers or being censored you should start buying lottery tickets.
Steven Lowrance
Graduate Student
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Nate
posted 3/28/08 @ 10:04 AM EST
Seriously? Everyone needs to just chill out about this. I thought it was an entertaining article. It'd be awesome if there was the same level of outrage over. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 3/30/08 @ 7:03 PM EST
In regards to Jessica Julius and Steven Lowrance's comments in the paper, I must say that it is their hasty generalizations and unthought out comments that appear to be appalling. (Continued…)
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