Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. -First Amendment of the United States Constitution
Our country was formed on several principles. The First Amendment promises America’s citizens several things, one of which is free press.
Chief Justice Hughes, in the court case Lovell v. City of Griffin, defined the press as “every sort of publication which affords a vehicle of information and opinion.”
You are currently reading the section that fulfills the Clarion‘s requirement for opinions.
In the past several weeks, we have had some readers concerned about the content of the opinions section. I would like to take a moment to remind our readers that these are the opinions of students and the DU community and are not necessarily believed by the Clarion staff.
Just because I choose to run a story does not mean that I personally agree with the author.
In every edition of the Clarion, we remind our readers in the staff box that the Clarion “serves as the voice of the Pioneers and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the faculty, the staff and/or the administration.”
I fully support freedom of speech and have printed every editorial I have received this school year. I’ll say that again: every single editorial that has been sent to me this school year has been printed. I have not censored the writing, and I will not censor you.
If your opinion is not represented in the opinion pages of the Clarion, then that is because you have not sent it to me.
While I have heard complaints of certain editorials being printed, I have not received a response letter to be printed until today.
If you would like to change the content of the opinions section, you may do so. Having an editorial printed isn’t about knowing me or someone else on staff, it is having the belief that your opinion is important enough to be sent in and printed in a school newspaper.
I don’t make that decision, you do.
Please send all editorials to du.clarion@du.edu or katie.mastroianni@du.edu.
