Letter to our readers

Dear readers,

As you may have heard, The Collegian needs your help. We have a referendum on this week’s student ballot that, if passed, would free The Collegian from financial control of Associated Students, the student government body on campus.

A newspaper has a responsibility to its readers. In the end, we should not have to answer to a government body, but instead to you, the reader.

A free press independent of government control is a fundamental principle of our democracy. Even though our relationship with AS this year has been very good (The Associated Students senate has endorsed The Collegian referendum), we see the possibility of editorial control as a motivating factor in passing the referendum.

The current situation is equivalent to what would happen if The Fresno Bee was funded by the local government. What is to say the government would not cut off funding the first time a newspaper writes an unfavorable story? We don’t anticipate this ever happening, but we don’t want our reporting to be tainted by the possibility of government control.

Were it not for a free press, as guaranteed by the First Amendment, the country never would have learned about the corruption of President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal. The Pentagon Papers would have never been published by The Washington Post, and Nixon would have finished out his second term with America none the wiser.

Michael Oreskes, deputy managing editor of The New York Times, stressed at a recent college journalism workshop that the free flow of information is absolutely key in a democracy. That free flow is an impossibility without an independent press.

Democracy requires informed participation. We at The Collegian have the role of informing the campus and can only do that through the freedom of the press this referendum will provide if it passes.

We are asking for your support because we feel that the campus needs an independent press outlet without fear of retaliation from a government body that controls our funding. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Nathan Hathaway
Editor in Chief, The Collegian