Daily Archives: February 29, 2012

27-02-2012 19:37 Glenn discusses the Jeremy Lin controversy and the state of freedom of speech and capitalism in America web.gbtv.com

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GBTV: "Jellyfish Capitalism" and Free Speech PART 2 - Video

27-02-2012 21:38 atlah.org Recorded on 23 February 2012. Free speech in America is being taken away.

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Give Me Free Speech - Video

Summary: WKU has been accused of censorship and limiting free speech after fighting satirical and negative comments about the university on Twitter.

Western Kentucky University has beencriticized for censoring behaviour after fighting fiercely against negative comments and parodies of the institution on social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter.

In recent months, the academic institution has begun monitoring and fighting against satirical commentary and student criticism of the universitys officials and WKU itself which appears online.

Fighting the social media activity, Western Kentucky University has taken steps that have raised outcry by students and advocates, who claim it is a violation of free speech rights and that the moves were made in order to censor students.

Gary Ransdell, the WKU president wrote this message on the universitys Facebook wall:

Normally I post Facebook updates when interesting and cool things are happening with me or with WKU. This message, however, is aimed at everyone who uses Facebook or other social media, especially students and others who are building resumes. We, at WKU, have become particularly conscious lately of some who are misusing social media and using some poor judgment. So my message here is Be smart.

Use social media thoughtfully; always remember what you send is permanent and can be viewed years from now. Employers do their homework. They can and will track ways in which prospective employees have used social media. We, at WKU, track such things as well. Be smart and remember the Golden Rule. It applies as much to the use of social media as it does to how we conduct our daily lives. Think twice before you hit the post button or send key. Be smart, Hilltoppers!

It is reported that this may have been in response to a fake Gary Ransdell Twitter account (@PimpRansdell) that at the universitys insistence was closed down briefly by Twitter for several weeks this year before becoming reinstated.

Is this friendly, sensible advice, or a veiled warning against students thinking of satirizing him or the institution he represents?

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University battles Twitter parodies, strangles free speech?

According to free speech experts, censorship has spread in schools and colleges throughout the United States in recent years.

In 2011, the Minnesota State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the University of Minnesota to reprimand the off-campus speech of student Amanda Tatro for comments made on Facebook.

The court indicated this ruling was not due to the nature of the comments but their effect on the university's curriculum. Therefore, it became possible for the university to control a student's off-campus speech when it affected the reputation of the school.

"To the extent a decision is made regarding curriculum, the school should be able to make it," Missouri Press Association consultant Jean Maneke said. "To the extent a publication exists as public forum, there needs to be tolerance for free speech."

Tatro's Facebook comments focused on taking out her aggression in a science-mortuary class on a cadaver she named Bernie. Another student found the posts offensive and turned them over to the university. Families that donated cadavers called in concerns to the university, and Tatro was briefly expelled from class while police investigated her Facebook threats to stab an ex-boyfriend with medical equipment.

Tatro was venting in an off-campus forum thought to be outside the university's reach. Due to a lack of precedent for this case, the courts looked to the 1988 Missouri case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier involving high school students.

Before Hazelwood, the Supreme Court gave primary education students the benefit of free speech as long as it was not disruptive to the school environment. Hazelwood increased the level of censorship to control any action that caused "legitimate concern related to individual rights, safety or distractions to the school environment."

The Hazelwood decision allowed school officials to censor clothing, speech and even hair color. The 6th Circuit Court also recently applied the Hazelwood decision to permit a university to discipline off-campus speech it said affected school relations in the 2011 Minnesota v. Tatro case.

"The First Amendment document called this the chilling effect," said Charles Davis, University of Missouri's facilitator of the Media of the Future Initiative for Mizzou Advantage. "It makes people think twice about what they are saying."

A representative of the Student Press Law Center agreed that university students should not be judged on the same standard as high school students.

The rest is here:
censorship laws become an important issue in schools and universities