As if Foxgate wasn’t giving me enough blog material on the topic of press freedom this week, now the Student Bar Association here at Notre Dame Law School is threatening to censor its satirical bathroom newsletter, the Patty O’Herald (named after — and often targeted at — Dean Patty O’Hara), because of an “offensive” article in this week’s issue about a white 1L who joins the Black Law Students Association because he thinks it’s “fly.” Earlier this afternoon, we got the following e-mail from the SBA’s president:

Dear NDLS,

Good afternoon. I hope this message finds you well. I am writing in my capacity as the President of SBA, and also as an individual who cares deeply about the law school community. On behalf of the SBA I apologize to anyone whose feelings were hurt as a direct result of content contained within this week’s issue of the Patty O’Herald. I deeply regret that this occurred. There was absolutely no intent to offend any member of the Notre Dame Law School community. I also extend an apology to those who have been offended by any of the articles published in the Patty O’ this semester.

As a bathroom publication, the Patty O’ is a satirical look at situations that confront the law school community. It is not published with any ill intent, nor is it meant to target any group or individual. Despite SBA’s good intentions at offering comedic relief, it is clear that the Patty O’, on more than one occasion, has been read as offensive. Therefore, the SBA will be re-evaluating the Patty O’Herald over the holiday break to determine how it can better serve its purpose.

Obviously, this isn’t nearly as big of a deal as the Daily Trojan controversy. That involves official meddling in the internal affairs of the student newspaper at a university with one of the nation’s best journalism schools; this is voluntary self-censorship by a student organization that produces a silly law-school bathroom newsletter. As such, this isn’t really a battle over “press freedom,” per se. Still, I think the SBA’s position is kinda lame.

It’s not like the article in question contained any material that could be mistaken for a Michael Richards rant. I thought it was pretty funny, and like many things in the Patty O’Herald (which has been much edgier — and funnier — this semester than in past years), falls under the category of “jokes that thin-skinned people might be offended by, and that’s just too bad.” Unfortunately, the P.C. police almost always win such debates if the offended people complain loudly enough.

I mean no disrespect to those who take offense. What bothers me isn’t their sensibilities, but their attempt to impose those sensibilities on me. My attitude toward such things is analogous to the “change the channel” principle: if you’re offended by it, don’t read it! It’s different when something is so objectively offensive that huge numbers of people are upset, but I get annoyed when a small but vocal group of easily offended people is allowed to impose its mores on the rest of us.

Anyway, to foster an informed debate, and to allow people to tell me I’m an idiot if they disagree and think it’s horribly offensive (I do have a rather “anything goes” sense of humor, admittedly), I’ve posted the article in full after the jump.

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Jeremy Beecher, the close ally and anointed successor of ousted editor Zach Fox, “overwhelmingly” won the second election for Daily Trojan editor-in-chief Friday.

Fox, who won the first election but was prevented from taking office by USC Vice President of Student Affairs Michael Jackson, decided last night to throw his support to Beecher in the second election. He was apparently successful in nixing a write-in campaign on his behalf and consolidating support behind Beecher.

Fox will serve under Beecher in a lesser capacity — precisely what capacity is not clear — and they will continue to pursue the reforms that Fox had promised, which so irked the administration that they refused to recognize Fox’s initial election. (Facing intense pressure and bad press, the administration eventually pledged to respect the results of today’s election even if Fox had won as a write-in candidate, but Fox reportedly decided that his long-term goals would be better served by remaining more behind-the-scenes while his ally Beecher assumes the reigns. Fox told the Harvard Crimson yesterday: “I feel like it might be beneficial, not to stop fighting this, but if someone else were to fight it so that the administration would realize that this is a demand for transparency that hopefully won’t go away.”)

Zachary Franklin, who lost to Fox in the first election and sided with Dr. Jackson in the ensuing conflict, reportedly self-destructed as he “completely went off in his speech,” drawing gasps as he accused Fox and Beecher of playing martyrs in pursuit of “personal glory.” Franklin “really killed his chances with his own speech,” according to my source.

I don’t have the exact vote tally, and don’t know whether it will be forthcoming. [UPDATE: Reportedly, there were 36 votes for Beecher, 4 for Franklin, and 2 write-ins for Fox.]

So ends, somewhat anticlimactically, this stage of the Zach Fox controversy. As I wrote previously:

Electing Beecher rather than Fox (and putting Fox in a more behind-the-scenes capacity) strikes me as a “lose the battle, win the warâ€? strategy. Obviously, it would be a cathartic moral victory to elect Fox a second time, forcing the administration to accept the very candidate it initially rejected. But, according to one of my sources on staff, “editorial and financial independence are the eventual goals” — and, according to another source, the fear is that it will be more difficult to achieve those goals with Fox as the newspaper’s public face, given how many administrators he has already angered. Beecher is, I gather, viewed as more diplomatic, or at least as having less baggage simply because he’s not Zach Fox. …

The good news is, although a decision by the staff to elect someone other than Fox might seem like a victory for the administration, it’s a hollow one. Not only would a Beecher/Fox administration at the DT continue to push for much-needed reforms that the administration would rather not see happen, but the mere fact that Jackson has been forced to furiously backpedal and publicly pledge to accept a second Fox victory is itself a major victory for Daily Trojan independence. After seeing how this played out, methinks the administration will be very hesitant to make a move like this one again. By overplaying his hand, Jackson has weakened his (and the Media Board’s) position, long-term.

It’ll be interesting to see how things play out next semester, and I hope my new contacts at the Daily Trojan will keep me informed. :)

UPDATE: A little bit behind the times, but I just noticed this post on L.A. Observed which contains a video report from yesterday’s forum with Dr. Jackson:

The money quote comes from Jackson, who waffles on whether he “regrets” rejecting Fox’s application, but then says: “Maybe if I faced the same situation in the future, I might do it a little bit differently.” This is precisely what I was talking about above. Whether he wants to directly admit it or not, Jackson has obviously been chastened by this experience, which is a victory for the editors in their power struggle with the administration. And what’s great is, from Jackson’s persective, this setback was entirely self-inflicted. Thanks to his general ham-handedness, the administration came off looking arbitrary, arrogant and censorious. Personal foul, 15-yard penalty, first down student editors.

That said, the interview with Jackson also brings to mind an important hurdle that will be the next major “event” in this story: the Media Board will meet on Monday to consider editor-elect Beecher’s application. What will they do? I’d bet the house they approve him with nary a peep of protest, in light of all the bad press of the past week. But we won’t know for sure until Monday.

UPDATE 2: Michael Jackson just sent out an e-mail in response to the letter from 15 ex-editors that lambasted his decision and called his initial refusal to explain it on-the-record “perhaps arrogance, perhaps cowardice, but…certainly not leadership.” His response?

Dear Blake [Hennon]:

Thanks very much for your thoughtful email. We will keep these thoughts in mind as we work with students to make sure the DT continues to be an excellent student newspaper and educational, training, and leadership development program for students.

I hope all else is well.

Sincerely,

Michael Jackson

Only in Arizona:

SIERRA VISTA - A grandmother found with a trunkful of marijuana was convicted of drug running in what prosecutors said was an attempt to earn cash for a bingo habit.

State troopers found 10 bundles of pot totaling 214 pounds hidden in Leticia Villareal Garcia’s car trunk last year when they stopped her outside Bisbee, in far southeastern Arizona.

Villareal, 61, told jurors before they convicted her Thursday that her only regular income was a $275 monthly welfare check, but she frequently played bingo and occasionally won thousands of dollars.

Heh. (Hat tip: BK.)

With mere minutes until the Daily Trojan re-vote is scheduled to commence (noon PST, 3pm EST), one of my sources on the newspaper staff reveals that there is an ongoing split within the staff regarding whether to vote for Zach Fox or Jeremy Beecher, despite Fox’s attempts to throw his support to Beecher. My source writes:

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I just realized… the way my schedule works out this semester, although the exam period extends through Saturday, December 16, I’ll actually be done at 1:00 PM on Friday the 15th, when I finish my Federal Income Taxation exam. (This is in contrast to last semester, when I had so many take-home exams with open-ended schedules that I went literally down to the wire, e-mailing in my last exam from the car en route to the airport just minutes before the exam period ended.)

Why is this significant? Because it means, although I won’t be able to go to a midnight showing of Eragon on Friday morning the 15th (unless I want to take the FedTax exam on less than a full night’s sleep, which I don’t), I will be able to see it on opening night, mere hours after finishing my second-to-last semester of law school. Nice! And what better way to celebrate being five-sixths of a J.D. — and finishing FedTax — than by watching a dragon fly around on the big screen and fantasizing about said dragon breathing fire on my copy of the IRS code? :)

P.S. One possible complication: Becky will probably be more enthusiastic about seeing Charlotte’s Web, which also opens on the 15th, than about seeing Eragon (though she did allow that the Eragon trailer was “cool” when we saw it in the theater over Thanksgiving weekend). This could lead to a battle royale in the Loy household over which movie we see first. Which, inevitably, I will lose. :)

After much wrangling over terms, Mike and I have agreed on a bet for tomorrow’s USC-UCLA game. I insisted that we bet on the game’s outcome straight-up, not on the spread, because I hate betting on the spread (I don’t want my team to win, yet be unhappy). But because of the hefty odds against the Bruins (the Trojans are favored by 13 1/2 points), Mike insisted that my penalty if UCLA wins be more severe than his penalty if USC wins. That seemed fair. So, here are the terms:

• If USC wins, Mike has to wear one of my USC shirts to Professional Responsibility class on Monday.

• If UCLA wins, I have to wear one of Mike’s UCLA shirts to Professional Responsibility class on Monday, and I have to publish a post on the blog about why UCLA is better than USC. (Mike promised to help me think of some things to say in this post, since personally, I can’t think of a single reason.) And Becky has to co-sign it.

Fight on! Beat the Bruins!

While we wait for word on the Daily Trojan revote, here’s yet another angry letter to the USC administration from yet another slew of ex-editors — including several of my fellow colleagues and one of my former editors, Jennifer Medina, now the Hartford bureau chief of the New York Times (and author of many front-page articles on the Lamont-Lieberman race). I think it may be the best letter yet. Money quote:

The manner of the rejection and excuses offered are appalling and insubstantial, respectively. That the vice president of student affairs would veto the staff’’s selection for its editor is unconscionable. That the vice president of student affairs would then decline to comment on the record about his actions to the very students he is supposed to serve is perhaps arrogance, perhaps cowardice, but it is certainly not leadership. The “job descriptionâ€? defense offered by the administration is narrow, disingenuous and untenable. Fox’s election should stand.

Emphasis mine. I love it! Complete letter after the jump.

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Arash Markazi: “An ex-girlfriend once told me if I cared for her as much as I cared about football our relationship would be better. I told her if I cared for her as much as I cared about football she would probably file a restraining order against me.”

I’m a couple of days late on this story, but the East Valley Tribune is reporting that ASU is interested in Norm Chow. (Hat tip: the Orange County Register’s Talking Trojans blog.)

I really, really hope this happens. As I wrote earlier in the week when a commenter alluded to the possibility of Chow coaching the Sun Devils: “If true, I suppose I should be worried, but I’m psyched. Pete Carroll vs. Norm Chow once a year? AWESOME.”

Some discussion by other USC fans here.

P.S. The Sporting News’s Tom Dienhart writes:

All of this talk of Tennessee offensive coordinator Norm Chow getting the jobs at N.C. State and Arizona State is likely just that — talk. I’m told Chow fails to impress in interviews. And, if the guy was that good, you’d think he would have scored the gigs at Stanford or BYU. Alas, it didn’t happen. And I don’t see him being a head coach at any of the major openings this time around, either.

I’m not sure if I can take seriously a professional writer who starts two sentences with the word “and” in the same short paragraph, but there it is, for whatever it’s worth.

Because of all this Zach Fox stuff (and my still-in-progress 30-page paper), I haven’t been doing nearly enough anti-UCLA blogging during this all-important Hate Week. My apologies. Luckily, Displaced Trojan, lex icon, Brandon Hancock, Jonathan Tu and various others are picking up the slack. Anyway, to get the ball rolling here on the Irish Trojan’s Blog, I offer some photos from the Trojan-Bruin game my freshman year, 1999, when USC began its current seven-game winning streak by beating fUCLA, 17-7. And oh, what a sweet victory it was…

A Bruin piñata takes a nasty fall at “Save Tommy Night.”

These future Trojans know what’s up.

For those who don’t remember the UCLA handicapped parking scandal that this sign refers to, click here for a refresher (and a good laugh).

Fans rush the field after USC wins, ending UCLA’s record eight-year winning streak — a record USC can match with a win tomorrow.

My friends Jenny and Jeff celebrate the Trojan victory on the Coliseum field.

More photos after the jump.

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Now that’s something you don’t see every day — and especially not the day before the big football game! But the Bruin’s editors are right:

[A]lthough we may have little in common with our crosstown rival, something we can all probably agree with is that such administrative control over the student press, no matter where, is unacceptable. …

USC has one of the best journalism schools in the country and the administration should be teaching its students about freedom of the press, not how to stifle and control the media.

Administrators should allow the students complete control of The Trojan, and take the high road in this matter. If the new job descriptions of the editor and managing editor cause problems, the staff should be able to learn for themselves, without big brother intervening.

Well said!

But UCLA still sucks. :)

Some less than encouraging news about Eragon, the dragon-centered fantasy movie that debuts in 15 days:

Just as Eragon closes in on its theatrical release, the film begins to do a downhill slide. First we are told that the film is only rated PG, something that had even the Potter kiddies chuckling. …

[W]hat kind of epic running time has Fox given us? Under two hours? Come on! … According to the BBFC, Eragon’s final running time will be 103 minutes or, for the layman, one hour and forty-three minutes. …

That’s right folks, Eragon has a running time that is less than most comedies. I can’t figure out what is going on here, but it looks like the dragon s**t has finally hit the fan… or whatever contraptions they had in those days to keep cool. …

Well, at least if the film is disappointing, it will be a quick disappointment.

I’m still looking forward to it, and hoping for the best.

Developments are moving fast and furious now in the Zach Fox controversy. As the article by Joshua Sharp below indicates, Vice President of Student Affairs Michael Jackson has expressed regret over his decision to block Fox’s election as editor-in-chief — while insisting that “the decision I made can’t be undone” and today’s re-vote must go forward — and has vowed to respect the results of today’s election, even if Fox is elected again. However, I’m now hearing that Fox has asked his close ally Jeremy Beecher, the editorial director who was in line to become Fox’s managing editor next semester, to run for editor-in-chief in his stead. Fox will reportedly urge people who had planned to write him in to vote for Beecher instead.

If Beecher is elected — and that’s not a foregone conclusion, as the result of the first election was a relatively close 37-24 (or 37-28; there are conflicting reports) — he and Fox will essentially pursue the Andrew Long stealth solution, with Fox carrying on his planned reforms from a behind-the-scenes capacity while Beecher will run the paper day-to-day as editor-in-chief. In essence, Beecher would be doing the same job that Fox had wanted him to do as managing editor, just with a different title. (Recall that a major portion of this controversy revolves around Fox’s desire to delegate many of the chief editor’s day-to-day tasks to other editors.) I’m not sure whether Beecher would appoint Fox as his managing editor under this plan.

However, the whole thing is still mired in considerable mystery, because while I have it on good authority that the above-stated plan is what Fox and Beecher had agreed upon as of very early this morning, just a few minutes ago I received an e-mail from a staff member who is a strong Fox supporter, and he was clearly unaware of any plan to vote for Beecher instead of Fox, writing: “The regular contributors to the paper (beat reporters, etc.) seem to be rallying around Fox, from what I can tell. However, their numbers alone will not win this election, and it’s difficult to say exactly how they’ll vote. … I personally believe and hope Fox will win in today’s election. I’m afraid it will be close, however, simply because of the obstacles inherent in waging a write-in campaign.”

Given the hour (it’s 5:45 AM Los Angeles), I suppose it’s unsurprising that the word hasn’t gotten around yet. However, with less than three hours until absentee voting begins (and just over six hours until the in-person election), the confusion raises the possibility of a “split” vote between Fox and Beecher. That could potentially throw the election to Zachary Franklin, the current city editor who ran against Fox the first time and is running again.

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By JOSHUA SHARP, Dec. 1, 2006

The administrator who previously blocked the former Daily Trojan editor-in-chief’s re-election to the job said he would not veto the nomination again if it came to him after today’s special election.

Michael Jackson, vice president of student affairs, spoke during an open forum for Daily Trojan staff members in Topping Student Center yesterday.

More than 30 people attended, including Daily Trojan staff members, faculty from the School of Journalism and employees from Student Affairs.

“I’m clearly open to moving forward and talking about this,” Jackson said, calling for a “healthy respect for the process that is in place.”

Jackson sparked an outcry from students, faculty and alumni when he refused to present Zach Fox’s nomination to the Media Board for approval.

Fox was the fall 2006 editor-in-chief until he resigned in response to Jackson’s refusal. Daily Trojan staff members had re-elected Fox to a second term by a vote of 37-21.

The Media Board, an advisory committee composed of faculty and students, reviews all editor-in-chief nominees.

Jackson acknowledged some people were discussing the possibility of electing Fox as a write-in candidate during today’s special election, and said if Fox was re-elected again he would forward the nomination to the Media Board, provided Fox was willing to talk through their differences.

“The key is that Zach will be willing to sit with me and others and talk,” Jackson said.

“I am,” replied Fox, who was in the audience.

But some Daily Trojan staffers questioned the need for a second election.

“We voted once,” said City Editor Joanna Lin. “It was a legitimate election.”

“The decision I made can’t be undone,” Jackson said. He said today’s election must be held because other candidates not in the first election had submitted applications.

Jackson said he would review the results of today’s election on Monday.

[Article continued after the jump]

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