College Journos Avoid Censorship By Running Entire Paper Below the Fold
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LaSalle had an embarrassment on their hands when a professor was shown to have hired strippers for a business seminar. The administration barred the Collegian, LaSalle's student paper, from publishing the story. Once the whole sordid story broke nationally, the admins told the Collegian they could publish it -- but only if they put it "below the fold," i.e. on the bottom half of the front page, to minimize its impact.
And so that's exactly what the paper did. Except, they put the entire front page below the fold, leaving the top half blank. Get it, kids. The Philadelphia Inquirer talked to Collegian editor-in-chief Vinny Vella, who said, "You need to stand up for yourself every once in a while. You can't let authorities intimidate you."
The LaSalle Collegian thus demonstrates one way to cleverly stick it to the Man. Another way is to start a blog, stop depending on university funding, and do whatever you want.
[rgray@villagevoice.com] [@_rosiegray]
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