Letters to the Editor

Dear Clemson Forum,
Congratulations to your paper for starting! I am happy to see that a progressive paper has finally formed on Clemson’s campus. Your voice is a welcomed and a needed addition to the discussion.
Those enrolled in an institute of higher learning like Clemson deserve a full education. I believe that this includes exposure to all ideas, opinions, and perspectives. I believe it is impossible to have any confidence in one’s viewpoint unless one has critically considered the presuppositions that are the basis of the viewpoint and one has listened carefully to the views of those that disagree.
Free speech and free expression are values everyone must hold dear. This includes the need to respect others’ rights to hold and express views contrary or repugnant to our own. We must allow the full range of views to be expressed openly, and encourage discussion and debate among competing perspectives. No idea or opinion must be prejudged as taboo; rather, all speech must be welcome. This view has been wonderfully articulated by John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, and by the U.S. Supreme Court in such notable cases as Whitney v. California (1927), Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), and R. A. V. v. St. Paul (1992). I am glad to see The Forum is following this fine tradition.
The marketplace of ideas is alive and well at Clemson University. The Forum provides an important voice for those that share its perspective, and is an important tool of persuasion to those that do not. I wish you the greatest success and good relations with the University and your fellow media organizations. I have enjoyed your content to date, and I look forward to many more years worth of issues.

Sincerely Yours,

Kurt Mueller
Editor Emeritus, The Tiger Town Observer

Dear Clemson Forum,
Today while walking into the library I was confronted with a group of students who felt that it was in my best interest to give your paper a read. If forced to label my political views I would fall in the bracket of “moderate.” As a result I was struck very quickly by the extreme take that your paper has on issues. After realizing the state of the paper, I returned to the “newsies” and returned the copy of your paper they handed me. I did this for several reasons which is the reason for my letter.
It is abundantly clear to me that your paper takes little effort to offer dissenting views on any topic. As a result, knowing that your paper is clearly liberal, I know what I will find in your paper and what each article will say before I read it. It would be difficult to for me to call your paper’s articles anything more than editorials. It would not be difficult to find any of your articles’ content or thoughts posted on an internet blog. I don’t mean this to be offensive or verbally aggressive but rather give my thoughts on the matter. I could skim through your paper and read the headlines of the articles and know your paper’s thoughts on each of the subjects. None of the articles showed even a shred of evidence to attempt to be objective.
I questioned why you would do this. It is no secret that Clemson is comprised of a majority of conservative based individuals. When your paper is considered in accordance with this I come to the conclusion that your paper is in many ways attempting to do little more than anger conservatives on campus by presenting an opposing opinion that is so radical that it offers little evidence of a bridge between the two views.
But this doesn’t seem very logical to me. When a paper does little to attempt to present objectivity in its writing it becomes almost useless. I do not mean to say that the liberal view on campus should not be presented with the same esteem or credibility as the conservative one. However, I do mean to say that that until you present both without taking shots at the conservative view it is hard to respect your opinion.
In one of your most recent articles you comment on “my favorite conservative ‘news’ source.” Putting the word “news” in quotes does little more than take a stab at conservatives. And from reading this first line I already know the basis for the next 1,000 words. Making snide comments about the opposition does not prove you to be right. In fact it does more to hurt your case by seeming to say that your argument is so weak that it must be reinforced by slander.
I feel as though I have just wasted my time though because the chances of you putting this letter in your paper, as it represents a dissenting view from one your paper always supports, are very slim. I hope that you will still take what I’ve said into consideration.

Drew Powell