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| The Erosion Of The First Amendment In College Radio | ||||||
| Free speech is one of the most sacred things our constitution guarantees. With it, we are able to speak our mind without suppression from authority, no matter whether our opinions are in agreement with the establishment or against. Historically, college campuses are bastions of free speech, yet more and more, especially as far as college radio is concerned, it seems like institutions of higher learning are censoring student views. Why is this? Isn't college supposed to be a place where one's mind is stimulated and where healthy discussion and debate is fostered? | ||||||
| Occidental College, located in Los Angeles, has been the site of a battle of free speech after they forcibly censored Jason Antebi, a student who was vice president of the student government and host of his college radio show, "Rant and Rave." Antebi, in a March 2004 broadcast, sarcastically mocked two political rivals (and one of their friends) by calling them various names, among them "Van Der Douche" (a play on words derived from one of the rivals' names) and a "bearded feminist." The program, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), "was a forum for political parody and provocative humor" and "frequently mocked Occidental's administration, its student government, and various political and social causes." In March of 2004, the three offended students ludicrously filed sexual harassment complaints against Antebi because of the obviously satiric comments that he made about them on the show. | ||||||
| According to FIRE, the three offended parties said that his show "promoted 'disrespect and slander' against 'women, diversity, and Occidental College' and thus constituted a form of punishable 'hostile environment' harassment." Maryanne Horowitz, Occidental's Title IX officer, in the wake of the sexual harassment complaints, deemed that Antebi was guilty of not only sexually harassing the students who filed the complaints, but also of harassing his entire audience! Does this make sense to any of you? If so, then I recommend getting your head examined. Antebi was almost expelled from school as a result of the remarks and the surrounding controversy, all because of some overzealous imbeciles who took some clearly sarcastic remarks seriously. | ||||||
| This story reminded me of my own experience at KBeach, Cal State Long Beach's student-run radio station. My show, which ran during the fall semester of 2001, was effectively taken off the air by John Trapper, one of the station's advisors, the reasons of which are still unclear to me. What it boiled down to was that Trapper had heard a vast amount of hearsay regarding my show, which he based his decision on. Ridiculously, I was offered a chance to pre-record the show and have it edited for content, which defeats the purpose of live radio in the first place. I challenged the ruling with the student judicial board in a meeting that took place not only between the members of the board (which is comprised of some students and some faculty) but also Trapper himself, the person who cancelled my show. The obvious intimidation factor stemming from Trapper actually being in the room during the meeting led to the ruling that I would not get my show back. | ||||||
| In the end, both Antebi and I were victims of oversensitive administrations and both because we said things that a select few found immature or unsavory. What I always find amazing about issues such as these is the blatant hypocrisy at the core of the debate. Colleges, typically liberal in nature, are supposed to laud free speech and encourage students to speak their mind, yet when students do just that, censorship can so easily occur. Apparently free speech is only guaranteed when it is on certain terms. | ||||||
| Copyright Gerry Wachovsky, 2004, and Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. | ||||||
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