Thursday, September 9, 2010

What BYU's Daily Universe had to say for itself

Remember Cary Crall's refreshingly sane letter that appeared briefly in The Daily Universe before being pulled?  Here's their explanation:
The Daily Universe made an independent decision to remove the student viewpoint titled “Defending Proposition 8” after being alerted by various readers that the content of the editorial was offensive.  The publication of this viewpoint was not intended to offend, but after further review we recognized that it contained offensive content. 
This is consistent with policy that The Daily Universe has, on rare occasions, exercised in the past.
I think my friend Carla put it best: "The only possible offense is that people who are anti-gay are not doing it for logical reasons. And they're not, so just admit it already."


Or Lisa wittily asked, "Can't they choose not to be offended?"


But even beyond that, the editorial staff is essentially saying that they are incapable on their own of determining what's too offensive until some helpful readers point it out to them, and that they are unwilling to represent viewpoints that might upset people.


The real hat tip goes to Craig though for finding a truly offensive letter printed the same day as Crall's, this one from a horny and self-righteous student who feels it his duty to police the modesty of his slutty coeds. This letter was apparently A-OK. 


I think a little NonStampCollector is in order.




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13 comments:

  1. This is exactly why the idea of "offensive" thought is so nebulous. I mean, if something degrades into a tirade of slanderous obscenities, sure it ceases to be helpful, but I still don't see that as offensive, just not useful.

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  2. :D

    LOL - "hmmmm." Literally laughing out loud. Literally.

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  3. The sad thing is, is that kind of letter is seen as completely appropriate by the DU editors and BYU administration. One just like it is published several times a month. I can't remember how many I read while at BYU (dozens at least). Self-righteous, intensely misogynistic men shaming women simply for being women is ubiquitous at BYU.

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  4. The problem is that readers could attest to the offensive nature of the letter Craig brought our attention to, but it's more "in line" with church teachings and culture so it'd probably be A-OK.

    I've seen those letters before. Self-righteous prat.

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  5. I wrote in to say how pleased I was that Craig Crall's letter had been published and how disappointed I was that it was taken down, and why I didn't think it was offensive. But I figured that if they're willing to pull anything that some segment of the population finds offensive, they ought to do it for me as well as anyone else, so I asked them to please remove the letter about skirt lengths since it, unlike Crall's letter, really was offensive.

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  6. Well, I just found a new channel to subscribe to.

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  7. Awesome. Excellent post and excellent blog.

    There's been even more censorship with regards to the "Skirts too short" letter... I've written about it at byuletters.blogspot.com

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  8. Awesome. Excellent post and excellent blog.

    There's been even more censorship with regards to the "Skirts too short" letter... I've written about it at byuletters.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well, I just found a new channel to subscribe to.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I wrote in to say how pleased I was that Craig Crall's letter had been published and how disappointed I was that it was taken down, and why I didn't think it was offensive. But I figured that if they're willing to pull anything that some segment of the population finds offensive, they ought to do it for me as well as anyone else, so I asked them to please remove the letter about skirt lengths since it, unlike Crall's letter, really was offensive.

    ReplyDelete
  11. :D

    LOL - "hmmmm." Literally laughing out loud. Literally.

    ReplyDelete

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