IT'S ALMOST AS IF STUDENT JOURNALISTS ARE SELF-ABSORBED SCOFFLAWS:

CSU newspaper editor keeps job, admonished for profanity (Erika Gonzalez, 10/5/07, Rocky Mountain News)

J. David McSwane, the editor who caused an uproar for allowing the F-word to run in Colorado State University's student newspaper, will keep his job, a student-run governing board ruled Thursday night.

Instead of dismissing McSwane from his duties as editor-in-chief of The Rocky Mountain Collegian, CSU's Board of Student Communications decided to admonish him for publishing a profane editorial referring to President Bush.

The punishment was one of the least severe the board could impose. The only lesser penalty was to dismiss the allegations against McSwane.

The decision came after a four-hour, closed-door hearing of the board, which includes three faculty members and six students. CSU College Republicans and others had called for McSwane's firing for publishing the Sept. 21 editorial, which simply read: "Taser this . . . F--- Bush, with the expletive spelled out. The editorial was written in response to an incident at the University of Florida, where a student was shocked with a Taser during a forum featuring U.S. Sen. John Kerry. [...]

While the editorial was credited to the entire Collegian editorial board, McSwane was held responsible because of his position with the paper. He has said that he approved the piece after hours of debate.

"We did not do this to capture headlines," McSwane said last week. "We did this to spark a discussion about free speech."

Huh? Did he think he was going to spark a controversy minus any headlines? He got the "discussion" he was looking for, he just doesn't like the consequences.