Your School. Your Paper. Since 1936.

The Suffolk Journal

Your School. Your Paper. Since 1936.

The Suffolk Journal

Your School. Your Paper. Since 1936.

The Suffolk Journal

Letter to the editor: Nov. 4, 2009

The October 29 edition of the Suffolk Journal contained one of the most offensive articles that I have ever seen written in any school newspaper. It was an article that made me sit there and think to myself, “What is the point of this?” The article entitled “Anal Cunt” was a highly offensive article about a band full of 40-year-olds that create highly offensive material and sing about it on stage.  In talking with some staff members who were initially unaware of the article, we had discussed what the purpose of the article was, and why the Suffolk community needed to be aware of this band? I would ask the Suffolk Journal the same question: in what way did the article provide necessary enlightenment to the Suffolk community?  The article itself was extremely offensive because it talked about songs the band had written that were extremely defamatory and extremely racist towards members of the Jewish community, and to women that attend Suffolk. The pictures that were printed, although the band’s logo, were unnecessary and were highly degrading to women in the sense that personal and private parts of their bodies were being printed in a school newspaper intended to inform the student body of important and interesting events that happen around our community. In no way, from my interpretation of the article, did it inform Suffolk of any important or interesting event that happened. I was also very discouraged to see that the article was the top headline on the Arts & Entertainment section of the Journal.  I think there are a lot of other interesting events happening around the community that are a lot more worthy of informing the student body than this highly offensive band that played at the Middle East a couple weeks ago.

I don’t want you to think that I am writing this to say that you, the Journal, have no right to publish whatever you want, that is the power and great freedom we get in this country thanks to the First Amendment. But I would encourage you to please think about those people that you could be angering and offending and take into account the purpose for each article that you are publishing in your newspaper. The use of your free speech was highly stretched with this article, because you did not print anything that was of pertinent information to the University, and I would encourage the editors of the newspaper to really determine what purpose this article served in being printed. If you could let me, and members of the Suffolk student body, know why you felt the need to print such an offensive article in a school newspaper, it would really answer some troubling questions that we have.

David Capone, Class of 2012

Karen Phillips, Office of Student Leadership and Involvement

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All The Suffolk Journal Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Activate Search
Letter to the editor: Nov. 4, 2009