On Wednesday, a bunch of student activists at Louisiana State University walked out of class at 11 a.m. to protest President Trump’s executive order on immigrants and refugees. They walked to the quad and formed a circle in solidarity with those they say were affected by a “Muslim ban.”
A conservative student named Chris Caldarera stood in the middle of the circle and corrected the protestors, drawing on arguments from Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro’s article to explain that the executive order was not a Muslim ban, but rather a ban on individuals coming from seven countries. He was subsequently booed by the crowd of virtue-signaling leftists and was told to get out of the circle.
Here’s a video showing Caldarera’s exchange.
After his public stance, Caldarera faced scrutiny from his peers. He works as a sports columnist for the student newspaper The Daily Reveille, which he says has a liberal bend. Last night, he informed The Daily Wire that the paper’s upper management said that members of the sports staff are no longer allowed to take a political stance in public or on social media because they want them to be unbiased.
For expressing his right to free speech at a public university, his political opinions have been censored by the student newspaper he works for.
“I also find it odd that liberal members of the staff could tweet their political opinions ad nauseam until a staffer such as myself took a conservative lean in public,” Caldarera said in an email. “I guess that’s how it goes now.”
UPDATE
Quint Forgey, a former editor-in-chief of The Daily Reveille, tweeted at the author of this piece claiming that upper management’s decision to silence Caldarera did not constitute censorship “because he is not an opinion columnist.”
@ElliottRHams @lsu @lsureveille This would indeed be censorship if Chris were an ops columnist. But he’s not.
— Quint Forgey (@QuintForgey) February 3, 2017
The author corrected Forgey by reminding him that the paper’s upper management did not tell Caldarera not to write his opinions in his articles, but that he was not allowed to publicize any of his opinions on social media at all.
But telling him to not publicize his opinions in public and social media is fascistic. That’s what the upper management told him. https://t.co/koBtaE77xU
— Elliott Hamilton (@ElliottRHams) February 3, 2017
UPDATE #2
Former staff members of The Daily Reveille told writers of The Daily Wire that Caldarera supposedly violated “decades-long” policy of non-opinion writers publicizing their political views. They also challenged Caldarera’s assertion that the newspaper’s staff seemed apathetic when their liberal staff members shared their beliefs. While it is not unheard of that some newspapers strongly recommend their employees to seem as unbiased as possible, The Daily Reveille fails to enforce that policy for its liberal writers.
Here are some examples of current staff on The Daily Reveille and other media outlets at Louisiana State University who use their public social media pages to promulgate a political agenda:
Daily Reveille Sports Writer Seth Nieman
This is the real American majority. THIS is what democracy looks like.#WeMustResist #LAX #Dulles #Ohare #JFK #NoBanNoWall pic.twitter.com/ZgcFiMhV1u
— Seth Nieman (@seth_nieman) January 29, 2017
#Resist https://t.co/0DojWWqeIZ
— Seth Nieman (@seth_nieman) January 29, 2017
Why I Won’t Vote for Betsy DeVos | @SenatorHassan https://t.co/9spMN5yLtb
— Seth Nieman (@seth_nieman) February 4, 2017
*fingers crossed* https://t.co/Zo9X8Q1SZB
— Seth Nieman (@seth_nieman) February 2, 2017
#StopDeVos #StopSessions https://t.co/OP6leM9U2S
— Seth Nieman (@seth_nieman) January 31, 2017
Daily Reveille News Reporter Chris Clarke
Next Up: Sean Spicer berates the press about “bullying” Kellyanne Conway, defends high-level deceit of American pplhttps://t.co/oMF1uS2d5v
— Chris Clarke (@ChristophClarke) February 3, 2017
ranting on Twitter is our president-elect’s go-to activity for “blowing off steam”?
I guess weve elected an angsty teen to be our president pic.twitter.com/xPW6fQxbNQ
— Chris Clarke (@ChristophClarke) November 16, 2016
“At least a Trump presidency won’t be dull”
One week in and we’re having a serious deliberation of core principles of American democracy
— Chris Clarke (@ChristophClarke) January 29, 2017
Daily Reveille News Reporter Hannah Venerella
President Obama thanking Malia, Sasha and @MichelleObama made my heart explode #ObamaFarewell
— Hannah Venerella (@hannahvenerella) January 11, 2017
Tiger TV Sports Reporter Reggie Chatman Jr.
Trump supporters. This is what you voted for: Racism, Intolerance, Ignorance. So scary ️ “Day 1 In Trump’s America”https://t.co/nwJx3GjD0H
— Reggie Chatman Jr. (@ReggieChatman) November 10, 2016
PSA: Idc who you are. Idc how close we are or how close we’ve worked together. If you voted or supported Trump, we not on good terms anymore
— Reggie Chatman Jr. (@ReggieChatman) November 9, 2016
I’m honestly worried about classes tomorrow. All the hidden Trump supporters will be out and very vocal. People you have been “friends” with
— Reggie Chatman Jr. (@ReggieChatman) November 9, 2016
Tiger TV Sports Reporter Nadeen Abusada
I almost didn’t vote, watching this election I’m happy I did but it still wasn’t enough
— Nadeen Abusada (@NadeenAbusada) November 9, 2016
I am Arab and I am apart of, “The Minority” that my president hates
— Nadeen Abusada (@NadeenAbusada) November 9, 2016
If student journalists at Louisiana State University are expected not to publicize their political opinions, then the Office of Student Media fails to enforce such a policy. Furthermore, it calls the question on why the upper management of The Daily Reveille only decided to invoke it the day after Chris Caldarera had the audacity to tell hundreds of campus activists that Trump’s executive order was not a “Muslim ban.”
This situation demonstrates either the incompetence of the newspaper’s staff to maintain “decades-long” policy or a concerted effort to punish a student for daring to combat a sensitive but categorically false narrative shared by a plurality of the student body. Neither of these scenarios puts The Daily Reveille in a positive light.
Through its actions toward Caldarera, the newspaper’s upper management demonstrated its own political bias by censoring a conservative student on their staff in the name of “objectivity” while refusing to hold its liberal-leaning staff writers accountable for similar if not greater transgressions of its supposed apolitical policy.
Shame on The Daily Reveille.
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