Topic: Constitutional Issues
Censorship Update Never give up without a fight!by Hickory Hendrickson
(Libertarian)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
As I informed all 50 readers of my Censorship at the Ranger article, I have battled censorship at my college newspaper over the last two years. It's been frustrating at times and some people might have given up. People like you and me don't give up without a fight though and I kept plugging along just like you would have.
The College Censorship article was not at all popular, it only had about 50 views.......but the Ranger didn't know that! I can just imagine the scrambling and cursing going on when my post in the article submissions thread of the Ranger web-site hit the editors email. It would have been priceless to see in person!
I haven't won yet but I forced their attention and I forced them to cover their metaphorical you know what. If one no-body like me can stir up enough attention to get things changed, imagine what we could do if we all worked together.
The Ranger has not published the article about the five perfect web-sites for college students yet. They have however started making amends for prior censorship. It's only fair to point out what they have done since I published the original censorship article on the Nolan Chart. I now have my own column at the Ranger online. They posted one of my censored articles from last year on my column and I hope to have future articles posted there as well.
The moral of the story is: Don't give up! If I can win a small battle as one person alone, imagine what we can do if we raise our voice together.
I never would shut-up and here's what I got! My new Ranger column.
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2008 Hickory Hendrickson, all rights reserved.
Published: Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Last modified: Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The views expressed in this
article are those of Hickory Hendrickson only and do not represent
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employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2008-02-27 08:09:05
Congratulations! They finally gave you a column. Better late than never. If your column also appears on their website at some point, provide a link sometime. Again, congratulations!
Thanks Walt! The blue "Ranger Column" words at the end of what I wrote are the link to the online column at the Ranger. I'm the first ever with the Title "Online Reporter" I don't know how to find it from the homepage but my page is hosted somewhere on their website.
Oh and I'm actually supposed to be getting diverse story assignments from the Ranger Editors every week instead of a column but I'm OK with the column. I get to be more opinionated!
First of all, let me say that as a contributer to the Ranger last semester, I was very pleased with your dedication and dependabililty. I won't deny that your stories were always turned in on a timely basis and were generally well written. In case you haven't noticed, I ran all of your stories, except this story about websites for college students that you're so concerned about. I followed the link you've posted to the Ranger website, and I'm not surprised to see that it still hasn't been posted. I don't think you realize that we don't run every story that's turned in to us, generally if they're poorly written or lack relevance. I'm not accusing your story of being low quality. You probably worked out the best story you could with what you had. I recall this assignment, but I don't remember the product.
I can't expect you to understand the stress that assigning stories puts the editor of the Ranger under. I not only speak for myself, but for past editors who struggled to find topics that are not only relevant to AC students, but that will be interesting for them to read. In a community like Amarillo and a campus as uneventful as AC, it's often difficult to assign lively, event oriented topics, and I highly doubt the Republic of Lakotah is of interest to Amarillo College. Sometimes press releases are the only source left for story ideas. When I chose your assignments (and I do recall a few instances when I allowed you to write on topics that you came up with for yourself), I chose subjects that wouldn't be affected by your distance from the campus. My reasoning told me that as an online student, online leads would probably be the most effective method for you to turn out a story. If you had a problem with your assignments, you should have informed me.
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2008 Hickory Hendrickson, all rights reserved.