{"id":38382,"date":"2018-08-21T09:31:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T13:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=38382"},"modified":"2018-08-21T09:35:56","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T13:35:56","slug":"38382","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/08\/38382.html","title":{"rendered":"Liberty University Cracks Down on Its Student Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In a recent WORLD Magazine article<\/a>,\u00a0Charissa Crotts, Elizabeth Rieth, and\u00a0Isaiah Johnson shed light on a struggle taking place at Liberty University over control of the Liberty Champion, the school\u2019s student newspaper. The students want independence, and freedom to criticize President Trump, or the university\u2019s hypocritical policy on unwed pregnant students, and the administration wants none of it. The administration wants complete administrative review.<\/p>\n

And it seems they\u2019re getting it.<\/p>\n

Crotts, Rieth, and Johnson\u2019s article is full of fascinating stories, as told by students formerly employed by the student paper, peppered with quotations from the administration that the students obtained after they began, out of increasing concern, recording their conversations with staff advisors, deans, and Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. himself.<\/p>\n

Here is an excerpt by way of example:<\/p>\n

Liberty junior Jack Panyard was writing lots of bylined articles\u2014but one he wrote did not have his name on it. Early in 2018 he interviewed the director and producer of a film, Commander<\/em>, planned by Liberty\u2019s Cinematic Arts program. Based on a 2017 book, the film was to tell the story of Mark Taylor, who spoke of his vision that Donald Trump would become president. Panyard\u2019s piece indicated some uncertainty about Taylor\u2019s descriptions of talking with God. When his article came back from vetting, those reservations were gone. Panyard took his name off the piece.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mark Taylor, by the way, is a firefighter who claimed in April 2016 that God told him in 2011 that Donald Trump would become president and save the world. No really. After going public only when Trump had the primaries in the bag, Taylor wrote out the entire message he says God gave him. It\u2019s paragraphs and paragraphs long. He then wrote a book about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Liberty University\u2019s Cinematic Arts program is turning Taylor\u2019s book into a grand patriotic movie. Many Liberty students consider Taylor\u2019s comments to be heretical<\/a>. And frankly, Liberty\u2019s involvement is just embarrassing for them. If they want to be taken seriously as an academically qualified Christian college\u2014say, on the level of a Wheaton or a Grove City College\u2014they need to not do things like this. And yet here we are.<\/p>\n

All this is to say that Panyard\u2019s qualifications\u2014his uncertainty over whether Taylor actually heard from God\u2014were nothing but good journalism, and not out of step with a Christian worldview at that. There\u2019s reams and reams of room within evangelical Christianity, from Jerry Falwell Jr., who apparently bought Taylor\u2019s vision hook line and sinker, to Warren Throckmorton, who teaches at Grove City and is quick to call out nonsense when he sees it. Panyard was not out of step.<\/p>\n

Except, of course, that Falwell appears to be intent on running Liberty like his own private playground, and Panyard was a student there. Falwell believes that he\u2014and not the students or independent advisors\u2014gets to determine what is published in the student newspaper and what is not. And that is exactly what he said when he called the student reporters in for a drubbing.<\/p>\n

Two days later, April 18, Falwell addressed the current and incoming Champion<\/em> staff in a hastily arranged conference call. A dozen students pulled their rolling desk chairs around the news editor\u2019s desk to wait for the phone to ring. Staffers prayed that God would help them be respectful and everything would be resolved soon. Kirk and Huff were also in the room.<\/p>\n

Falwell then called and told them the newspaper had been \u201cestablished to champion the interests of the university, disseminate information about happenings on Liberty\u2019s campus, as well as the positive impacts of Liberty in the community and beyond. And as such, the publisher of the publication, which is the university, is responsible for content decisions, to find stories to be covered by Champion<\/em> personnel and makes all of the calls on the articles, photographs and other content.\u2009\u2026 We\u2019re going to have to be stricter in the future if these protocols aren\u2019t followed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just Falwell, either:<\/p>\n

After Falwell hung up, [Liberty University Dean of Communications and Digital Content Bruce] Kirk said, \u201cIf you don\u2019t know, I\u2019m Dean Kirk.\u2009\u2026 In the real world, which this isn\u2019t, let\u2019s just be honest, right?\u2009\u2026 You will be beholden to an organization, to a company.\u2009\u2026 That is just part of life. And it\u2019s part of life for all of us by the way. Put journalism aside for a second. Do I get to do everything that I want to do or does Jerry dictate what I get to do?\u2009\u2026 Somebody else decides what you do and what you don\u2019t say or do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kirk called Panyard to his office and fired him\u2014except, of course, that he refused to call it a firing. They had, Kirk said, simply eliminated his position<\/em>. There would be no more editor-in-chief.<\/p>\n

Some days later, Kirk gave this message to the remaining staff at the Liberty Champion, once the purges of troublesome staff\u2014Panyard among them\u2014were complete:<\/p>\n

\u201cYour job is to keep the LU reputation and the image as it is.\u2009\u2026 Don\u2019t destroy the image of LU. Pretty simple. OK? Well you might say, \u2018Well, that\u2019s not my job, my job is to do journalism. My job is to be First Amendment. My job is to go out and dig and investigate, and I should do anything I want to do because I\u2019m a journalist.\u2019 So let\u2019s get that notion out of your head. OK?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s the thing\u2014Liberty\u2019s student newspaper staffers weren\u2019t employees. This wasn\u2019t an alumni newsletter written and published by paid staff (and perhaps paid student workers) working in the alumni department. Working at the student newspaper is more like an internship, where you have the opportunity to gain skills and experience. This only works if you\u2019re actually allowed to be what you\u2019re supposed to be gaining practice at being\u2014a reporter.<\/p>\n

The Liberty University administration is being incredibly disingenuous. Either this is a student paper, where you offer a certain amount of leeway and freedom to pursue leads and publish stories, or it\u2019s not. And if it\u2019s not, it should not be called a student newspaper, and the students who work there need to be paid, their positions acknowledged for what they are\u2014promoters. Not reporters.<\/p>\n

Oh and guess what? From now on, students who work at the Liberty Champion will have to sign an agreement stating that they will not talk to the press. This is, presumably, because that is just what Panyard did,<\/em> telling his story and sharing his audio with WORLD Magazine.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unsurprising to me that WORLD Magazine covered this story. They run the World Journalism Institute, training college journalism students and young journalists in providing solid reporting from a Christian worldview (at least, that is how their advertising reads). WORLD Magazine has a very big paddle in the pond that is Christian journalism.<\/p>\n

Marvin Olasky, the editor-in-chief of WORLD Magazine, attached his own scathing editorial to\u00a0Crotts, Rieth, and Johnson\u2019s article, defending journalistic freedom. He titled his piece \u201cAgainst Journalistic Slavery,\u201d and ripped into Falwell and his crack down on the Champion.<\/p>\n

Independent reporters, of course, are irritants, and young ones may make more mistakes than older ones would. I was a Christian college provost\/academic vice president for four years, put up with some negative stories in the college newspaper, and sometimes told the young journalists I thought they were wrong\u2014but never said they couldn\u2019t write a story, and never purged the editorial staff. The purpose of an educational institution is education, and its leaders need to decide whether they are teaching students to be slaves, or free men and women.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m not certain how far Olasky is willing to these arguments. Has he written against Trump\u2019s attacks on the freedom of the press? Given that he too believes that the mainstream media is biased, I wouldn\u2019t hold my breath.<\/p>\n

Olasky is a far-right conservative, and I disagree with nearly everything he writes. Why this piece, then? It may be that that there was already no love lost between WORLD Magazine and Liberty University\u2014I don\u2019t know one way or another. It may simply be that the actions of Liberty\u2019s administration against what Olasky saw as reasonable reporting offended him deeply, given his interest in promoting independent Christian reporting.<\/p>\n

Either way, Olasky didn\u2019t hold punches in condemning Falwell\u2019s actions, or those of the Liberty University administration. I wouldn\u2019t be at all surprised if Panyard finds himself with a scholarship to a World Journalism Institute course, and a meeting with Olasky himself.<\/p>\n

At the end of Crotts, Rieth, and Johnson\u2019s article is this update by Olasky, offering Liberty University\u2019s response to the coverage:<\/p>\n

Update from WORLD Editor in Chief Marvin Olasky (8\/17\/18):<\/strong> I had a cordial conversation this afternoon with Scott Lamb, Liberty University\u2019s Vice President of Special Literary Projects, who is part of Liberty\u2019s Office of the President. Referring to what WORLD quoted from Bruce Kirk, Dean of the School of Communication and Visual Content, Lamb said, \u201cMr. Kirk spoke for himself. He was not speaking on behalf of the university or as a spokesman for the university.\u201d Lamb said Kirk was \u201cspeaking his own thoughts, giving his own understanding of what he was communicating.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suppose they have to throw someone<\/em> under the bus, and Kirk got the short straw.\u00a0It\u2019s just that Kirk didn\u2019t actually say anything different from what Falwell had already said. Besides that, Kirk was acting in his official position as dean of Communications and Digital Content when he made his quoted comments, both after Falwell\u2019s conference call and when firing Panyard.<\/p>\n

The real question is whether Liberty University going to remind their policy changes vis a vis the running of the student paper\u2014and the answer so far appears to be no<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crotts, Rieth, and Johnson’s article is full of fascinating stories, as told by students formerly employed by the student paper, peppered with quotations from the administration that the students obtained after they began, out of increasing concern, recording their conversations with staff advisors, deans, and Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":38385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[753,750],"class_list":["post-38382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","tag-jerry-falwell-jr","tag-liberty-university"],"yoast_head":"\nLiberty University Cracks Down on Its Student Newspaper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crotts, Rieth, and Johnson's article is full of fascinating stories, as told by students formerly employed by the student paper, peppered with quotations from the administration.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/08\/38382.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liberty University Cracks Down on Its Student Newspaper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crotts, Rieth, and Johnson's article is full of fascinating stories, as told by students formerly employed by the student paper, peppered with quotations from the administration.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/08\/38382.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-21T13:31:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-21T13:35:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2018\/08\/bundle-1853667_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/08\/38382.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/08\/38382.html\",\"name\":\"Liberty University Cracks Down on Its Student Newspaper\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-21T13:31:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-21T13:35:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Crotts, Rieth, and Johnson's article is full of fascinating stories, as told by students formerly employed by the student paper, peppered with quotations from the administration.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/08\/38382.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/08\/38382.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/08\/38382.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Liberty University Cracks Down on Its Student Newspaper\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. 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