Student Newspapers and Quality

The ever watchful FIRE Torch brings the story of the student newspaper at Grambling State University n Louisiana, which was suspended for "quality issues".

The News-Star in Monroe, Louisiana reports that administrators at Grambling State University have shut down production of the school’s student newspaper, The Gramblinite, until the administration can guarantee greater “quality assurance” of the paper.


University Provost Robert Dixon sent a memorandum to the newspaper staff informing them that the newspaper was "suspended for the remainder of the month of January." Dixon later told student editor Darryl Smith that the paper was not suspended per se, but was also not allowed to publish any more issues until university officials could better control the paper’s quality.


Smith said the administration has been critical of the paper’s accuracy in the past, and The Gramblinite staff also recently dealt with an incident where a student journalist plagiarized a large portion of a news story from The News-Star.

So the student newspaper had a plagarism problem, but so has the Washington Post, the New York Times and a few other major dailies across the country. They have also had stories fabricated and other "quality issues." However, the government did not come in and shut them down.

But it is a student newspaper right? Well yes, but that does not justify the state closing them down just because they have poor quality. If the quality of hte newspaper is so bad, then people will stop reading it. That is called market forces and they work real well.