[h=1]Letter from the Editor[/h] by Martha Shanahan on March 4, 2013
TUFTS DAILY EXCERPT
In addressing the paid advertisement entitled Faces of Islamic Apartheid that appeared in todays issue of the Daily, Id like to clarify and apologize on behalf of the Daily for the editorial oversight that led to the ads publication. It should be made clear that any ads that run in the Daily, including this one, do not in any way reflect the views of the paper, nor do they reflect the views of any member of the papers masthead. On a personal level, I would be deeply disappointed if anyone at Tufts truly supported the Islamophobic and violently offensive ideas this ad and the organization that purchased it promote.
While the Daily reserves the right to sell ad space to any organization that agrees to pay the posted fee, our collective failure to thoroughly vet the origins and content of this particular ad was indicative of a deep dysfunction in the way our system works. Our readers deserve better than a faulty system, and so effective immediately the Daily will begin a thorough reevaluation of how requests for our paid ads are vetted.
The Daily retains its editorial independence from the university and the TCU government by relying solely on advertising revenue from organizations both external and Tufts-affiliated that agree to pay our posted rates. Every ad that appears in the paper originates with an email from the advertiser to a representative from the Dailys business staff, whose positions are far removed from the content decisions made by the Dailys editorial staff. Members of the business department process each ad and the corresponding payment from the organization purchasing it. It is at this stage that the content and origin of an ad should first be evaluated for accuracy and fairness, and accepted or rejected based on whether it achieves the overall level of discourse that the Daily hopes to achieve with all of our content, paid or otherwise, as the newspaper of record serving the Tufts community. In this case, the ad was sent by a representative of the Horowitz Freedom Center, an organization whose advertisements in other publications have drawn similar reactions to the ones I have heard from multiple students to todays ad in the Daily. Its obvious that a clearheaded evaluation of the ad based on these criteria simply didnt happen. This is due, in part, to the lack of a defined protocol in the case that we receive ads that contain content of questionable acceptability. Its rare that a hateful organization like the David Horowitz Freedom Center requests that the Daily place an ad promoting its views in the paper. We receive and print several external ads in each issue of the paper and most of them are purchased by local and national businesses, or Tufts academic departments or student groups seeking to advertize events or classes.
END EXCERPT
What a disgusting display of abject cowardice
TUFTS DAILY EXCERPT
In addressing the paid advertisement entitled Faces of Islamic Apartheid that appeared in todays issue of the Daily, Id like to clarify and apologize on behalf of the Daily for the editorial oversight that led to the ads publication. It should be made clear that any ads that run in the Daily, including this one, do not in any way reflect the views of the paper, nor do they reflect the views of any member of the papers masthead. On a personal level, I would be deeply disappointed if anyone at Tufts truly supported the Islamophobic and violently offensive ideas this ad and the organization that purchased it promote.
While the Daily reserves the right to sell ad space to any organization that agrees to pay the posted fee, our collective failure to thoroughly vet the origins and content of this particular ad was indicative of a deep dysfunction in the way our system works. Our readers deserve better than a faulty system, and so effective immediately the Daily will begin a thorough reevaluation of how requests for our paid ads are vetted.
The Daily retains its editorial independence from the university and the TCU government by relying solely on advertising revenue from organizations both external and Tufts-affiliated that agree to pay our posted rates. Every ad that appears in the paper originates with an email from the advertiser to a representative from the Dailys business staff, whose positions are far removed from the content decisions made by the Dailys editorial staff. Members of the business department process each ad and the corresponding payment from the organization purchasing it. It is at this stage that the content and origin of an ad should first be evaluated for accuracy and fairness, and accepted or rejected based on whether it achieves the overall level of discourse that the Daily hopes to achieve with all of our content, paid or otherwise, as the newspaper of record serving the Tufts community. In this case, the ad was sent by a representative of the Horowitz Freedom Center, an organization whose advertisements in other publications have drawn similar reactions to the ones I have heard from multiple students to todays ad in the Daily. Its obvious that a clearheaded evaluation of the ad based on these criteria simply didnt happen. This is due, in part, to the lack of a defined protocol in the case that we receive ads that contain content of questionable acceptability. Its rare that a hateful organization like the David Horowitz Freedom Center requests that the Daily place an ad promoting its views in the paper. We receive and print several external ads in each issue of the paper and most of them are purchased by local and national businesses, or Tufts academic departments or student groups seeking to advertize events or classes.
END EXCERPT
What a disgusting display of abject cowardice
