I agree wholeheartedly with you. I was on campus and a journalism major for a brief time. (I realized that journalists can be nosy and decided that wasn’t for me 🥴) I read the IDS faithfully and find the timing of this move unsettling. Every time I hear coaches say how much they appreciate support from President Whitten I cringe. 😬 I’d like to believe IU can have both a good football team and free speech.
I graduated from this great university in 1964 and I read the IDS every day. Now that we are back in Bloomington, I still enjoy picking up a copy. If we can finance a top-rated football team, we can surely finance a top-rated student newspaper. Another reason to join the “No Kings” protest tomorrow. “No kings” at the national or local level!
There's only one positive I can think of.... I've never read IDS but now I'm going to read the issue they've posted online.
I want to believe that all of the right wing nutter attacks on free speech will go away. I'm hopeful they will. I can't imagine being an adult with an ego so fragile as to tell kids to shut up. This whole group of Gen X and Boomer white men (mostly. There are a lot of idiotic white women following) is out of hand and it's time for the rest of us to tell THEM to sit down and shut up.
One solution is to incorporate and fund a digital news organization that is independent of the university. Wealthy alums like you and Mark Cuban can help it get started. 😎
I have read many columns of yours over the years and really enjoy your insights. This was one of your best. Your personal life coupled with first amendment rights hit the nail on head. Continued success, Hal
Mark Cuban has come out against the administration's actions against the newspaper and for firing the advisor, actually.
He doesn't seem to lean right or left. I've watched a lot of interviews and he just seems to be a pretty average guy who hustled as a kid and worked his butt off as an adult. He's progressive when it comes to the cost of health care.
I was on campus during your tenure, albeit as a grad student. The atmosphere I experienced was one of wide-spread intellectual freedom. Can’t believe what IU has become, how far it has fallen.
Bob, certainly most of the fmr IDS student writers are doing what they do-writing in defense of their baby, their fmr paper. Home of the good ol days. But virtually every newspaper has cut back print costs, including every paper you’ve written for… if they still exist. And the “I guess they lean left” BS is just that. The IDS is hard left and you know it. And that is fine, expected on a major college’s campus, but let’s be honest about it. Right wing, left wing does not matter.
And IU may have the timing off, maybe has some culpability too. Of course. But this change was coming, financial pressures on the IDS—and every other student paper—have been there for yrs, and this cannot have been a surprise.
IU asked for a very reasonable request, IDS folks overreacted, and IU pulled the plug ON THE PRINT EDITIONS ONLY.
Bob, you are precisely on target. Of course, Braun and his appointees (who take their marching orders from Washington) are at the crux of the problem. Keep telling the truth.
Good article Bob! I may be incorrect, but I think the Purdue Exponent is still printed. I know Purdue has stopped helping distribute the printed copy. How long until it does what IU has done. And as a Purdue alum, I always thought Purdue is more conservative than IU. What happened? Its a damn shame.
It seems every university in the state is repeatedly capitulating to the powers that be in Indy at the statehouse. Ball State firing an employee over a what should be uncontroversial post is yet another example of this. Embarrassing is an understatement as a BSU alumni.
Thanks for writing this column I always thought the Constitution protected us against becoming a dictatorship. Evidently not true unless the Congress/Senate cares more for their country than their jobs. Very scary that the news is being supressed because of reporting undesirable leanings to the person in oower.
I agree wholeheartedly with you. I was on campus and a journalism major for a brief time. (I realized that journalists can be nosy and decided that wasn’t for me 🥴) I read the IDS faithfully and find the timing of this move unsettling. Every time I hear coaches say how much they appreciate support from President Whitten I cringe. 😬 I’d like to believe IU can have both a good football team and free speech.
I graduated from this great university in 1964 and I read the IDS every day. Now that we are back in Bloomington, I still enjoy picking up a copy. If we can finance a top-rated football team, we can surely finance a top-rated student newspaper. Another reason to join the “No Kings” protest tomorrow. “No kings” at the national or local level!
There's only one positive I can think of.... I've never read IDS but now I'm going to read the issue they've posted online.
I want to believe that all of the right wing nutter attacks on free speech will go away. I'm hopeful they will. I can't imagine being an adult with an ego so fragile as to tell kids to shut up. This whole group of Gen X and Boomer white men (mostly. There are a lot of idiotic white women following) is out of hand and it's time for the rest of us to tell THEM to sit down and shut up.
Well the NY Times has picked up the story. Things are about to get uglier before they get better.
https://www.facebook.com/share/1LhuMsd638/
One solution is to incorporate and fund a digital news organization that is independent of the university. Wealthy alums like you and Mark Cuban can help it get started. 😎
I have read many columns of yours over the years and really enjoy your insights. This was one of your best. Your personal life coupled with first amendment rights hit the nail on head. Continued success, Hal
Thank you, Hal.
Excellent, a very sad situation.
I’m sure Mark Cuban is fine with this.
Mark Cuban has come out against the administration's actions against the newspaper and for firing the advisor, actually.
He doesn't seem to lean right or left. I've watched a lot of interviews and he just seems to be a pretty average guy who hustled as a kid and worked his butt off as an adult. He's progressive when it comes to the cost of health care.
I did not know that Mark Cuban was right leaning....always thought he was one of the "good guys."
Bob, I'm an IU fan from birth. For the first time ever I'm going to write this without wanting to throw up: Boiler Up.
https://share.google/6bCt701uDdkxMRlH9
I was on campus during your tenure, albeit as a grad student. The atmosphere I experienced was one of wide-spread intellectual freedom. Can’t believe what IU has become, how far it has fallen.
Bob, certainly most of the fmr IDS student writers are doing what they do-writing in defense of their baby, their fmr paper. Home of the good ol days. But virtually every newspaper has cut back print costs, including every paper you’ve written for… if they still exist. And the “I guess they lean left” BS is just that. The IDS is hard left and you know it. And that is fine, expected on a major college’s campus, but let’s be honest about it. Right wing, left wing does not matter.
And IU may have the timing off, maybe has some culpability too. Of course. But this change was coming, financial pressures on the IDS—and every other student paper—have been there for yrs, and this cannot have been a surprise.
IU asked for a very reasonable request, IDS folks overreacted, and IU pulled the plug ON THE PRINT EDITIONS ONLY.
Bob, you are precisely on target. Of course, Braun and his appointees (who take their marching orders from Washington) are at the crux of the problem. Keep telling the truth.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Bob. Right away, I wondered what your take on the matter was.
Good article Bob! I may be incorrect, but I think the Purdue Exponent is still printed. I know Purdue has stopped helping distribute the printed copy. How long until it does what IU has done. And as a Purdue alum, I always thought Purdue is more conservative than IU. What happened? Its a damn shame.
It seems every university in the state is repeatedly capitulating to the powers that be in Indy at the statehouse. Ball State firing an employee over a what should be uncontroversial post is yet another example of this. Embarrassing is an understatement as a BSU alumni.
Thanks for writing this column I always thought the Constitution protected us against becoming a dictatorship. Evidently not true unless the Congress/Senate cares more for their country than their jobs. Very scary that the news is being supressed because of reporting undesirable leanings to the person in oower.