The Chico News & Appeal has pulled a story that plays up the party school reputation of California’s Chico State University so it can get its advertisement-laden edition into student packets distributed by the school. The story will continue to appear on the publication’s Web site and in editions not distributed through the school.
A story in the Chico Enterprise-Record faults the alternative weekly for caving in to the university, and it faults the university for forcing them to do so. That’s ridiculous. This is a classic example if the First Amendment and the markets at work. The publication doesn’t have to distribute its stories to incoming students at Chico State, but to do so it had to tailor its standards of those who are providing the forum. Should the univeristy be forced to participate in its own criticism?