The Nasty Game of Chicken at MSU's Weekly

He needs to get laid more.

All kidding aside, this guy is truly in violation of the Constitution.

I can imagine the Montclarion's staff feeling very cooped up indeed now, even feeling peckish that they cannot get a new issue out. All over the release of funds which as a sum amount to chickenfeed in MSU's budget.

Is the red pic because it used to be the MSC Indians before Indians was this horrible thing to name a team?

I love the title "President Chicken".

But this is a case-in-point as to why government should not be paying for journalism. The paper should be independent of the student government.

It's what you get with 'State Run Media'.

and p.s.

Why kind of journalist needs to consult a lawyer to run a story about closed door government meetings?

It's time to 'grow a pair' and print the paper on xerox machines.

and p.p.s.

This is sure one big opportunity for some student journalist to make a name for him/herself. He or she could end up on GMA very easily.

Is it time for the Chicken to come home to roost?

The situation is fast devolving, too, into one with all the charm of a cockfight. During which one hopes to see student journalists appropriately spurred to action.

Why kind of journalist needs to consult a lawyer to run a story about closed door government meetings?

I love how being completely uninformed about an issue never stops Baristanet comment-folk from blathering on. It's funny, ROC, that you can't just comment on this, you have to insult people, even though you clearly no very little about this.

The reason the Montclarion editors had to consult a lawyer about covering a closed-door meetings is because the SGA wouldn't let them into the meetings. They were consulting with the lawyer to find out how to make the SGA open the doors.

It's time to 'grow a pair' and print the paper on xerox machines.

It's 2008. The paper is doing a modern version of printing the paper on xeriox machines -- they are publishing online. But thanks for sinking this thread to the level of high school humor so quickly. It's much appreciated.

unless they're too chicken

if a journalist needs to consult a lawyer to figure out how to exert pressure on government, they should hang it up now.

if a journalist needs to consult a lawyer to figure out how to exert pressure on government, they should hang it up now.

Journalists regularly consult lawyers to fight governments. You know why? Governments have the power! If they don't want someone in a meeting, they close the doors and say the discussion is private. If someone objects, they are arrested.

From The Montclarion all the way up to the New York Times, journalists have always had to seek legal counsel to access public information. Many times, it's the only thing that works.

I imagine that the student government is involved so that they can fund the paper. After all, putting out a paper costs a lot of money, not some poultry sum.
How typical of ROC, who fancies himself a superhero, to put his capon and leap into action.

It is time to beat the drumstick for press freedom, as liberty fills many a breast whilst oppression gripps harshly the gizzard. Take wing! brave journalists -- it is time to show the flock that fingers raised in bravery can overcome fowl nuggets of despotism from here to Kiev!

I don't see how the first amendment forbids a govt from closing down its own newspaper.

What kid of journalist, you ask, consults a lawyer? A prudent one.

A pox on both their houses! At this point, I'm ready for someone to do jail time. That's right! Put them in stir, fry them, whatever it takes.
Intrigue like this is like henbane in a newsroom. People are worried about their bills, they're trying to claw their way to the top -- they haven't the energy for this nonsense. When something smells this rotten, one can only wonder how it tastes -- and I'm betting it tastes like chicken!

"The center's legal consultant, Michael Hiestand, said suspension of the newspaper's publication, is a blatant violation of its constitutional rights. "It's very unusual," he said. "It's unusual not just because it doesn't happen very often, but because it's illegal. It's a complete violation of the First Amendment."

The Montclairion may want to spend their money on better legal advice. The SGA is an independent incorporated entity, not an arm of government. Just because the SGA didn't give the paper its allowance doesn't make this a violation of the first amendment. The paper is still free to pay for its own printing or put its edition up on a website.

The "Inc." doesn't necessarily mean a thing. Is it a non-profit corporation? Probably. If so, it will arguably be an incorporated arm authorized by a state body & be subject fully to the First Amendment.

Even if it's a non-profit, there are plenty of scenarios in the purely corporate context where shareholders or other constituencies of a corporation (for example, a public company's board of directors) get to have their own independent counsel funded by the corporation. Even from a pure corporate governance standpoint, I don't expect the Chickenistas to prevail.

oops: Even if it's a non-profit should read
"Even if it is not a non-profit..."
or, if you want to avoid double negatives,
"Even if it is a for-profit corp..."

Hear hear! Also, let me add that my lawyer vets all my Baristanet posts before they go up. So don't even try to sue me -- appltony will be all over you like squirrels on a garbage can.

Bok Bok! Chicken heads be cluckin!

I suppose this means, walleroo, that when YOU run round like a Rhgode Island Red with its head cut off, shrieking that "The sky is falling," it really is. You never, uh, wing it on such occasions, do you?

Absolutely. Though appletony was wrong about the Giants. (I wanted to be more optimistic, but he made me insert all these clauses and such, the bastard. I hate lawyers!)

"President Chicken?" Isn't he giving the State of the Union tonight?

This story has gotten big enough to be in the regular rotation on 1010 WINS this morning, right up there with Hillary, Barack & Heath.

I'm not sure why. Maybe they just like saying "President Ron Chicken."

I was a college journalist, and one of the standard "beats" was to cover the weekly SGA meeting. Our SGA had no power -- certainly no power to control our pursestrings -- but it looked good on a resume for business majors so about 50 people were involved.

Very few people on either side knew what they were doing. Sometimes reporters were asked to leave for no real reason. (They usually declined to leave, happily.) I was kicked out of a closed-door session, and simply asked someone afterwards about it on background.

This is different. Their SGA apparently has some actual power, and according to any smell test they're not using it properly.

I have to agree with ROC that this is going to be a net positive for anyone with the paper: they'll be honest-enough heroes of the first Amendment because someone was dumb enough to try to get them to whimper away.