Where's My Article?

For those who don't know, I write opinion articles for my university's newspaper, The Spectrum. I've been doing this for the last 2 years. It's a good gig. I get to write about issues that are important to me and the community and get paid for it.

There are limits to what I can write about. I have to suggest my ideas to my editor and they have to approve, usually making sure I'm not covering the same topic someone else is in the same edition. However, I have noticed lately that some of my work is missing. This blog explores my ideas about those articles and free speech.

recent articles for The Spectrum and a missing, broken link

What's Missing?

I write articles almost every week. Some topics are more agreeable than others. For example, I almost never hear back from readers about my game review, AI opinions, or reflections on mental health. My opinions related to politics and university venues, however, have received backlash.

The first article I wrote that received backlash was one on how stunned I was that a large campus student organization that is supposed to be inclusive jokingly posted a meme featuring a Tesla Cybertruck when Musk and DOGE were causing chaos and scaring the public that included students. I received an email from the organization asking me to defend my opinion and retract my article. While I did hear them out and respond to their email, I did not feel comfortable meeting the organization leadership in person. I also shared how my wording in the article was obviously opinion-based, which the freedom of speech and press protected. I did not retract my article.

The last year in America has been a breeding ground of fear of loss of rights. This is especially pertinent as government officials justified killing Alex Pretti because he was legally carrying (not firing or even holding) a firearm and Don Lemon's recent arrest for merely covering an ICE protest in a Minneapolis church as a journalist. When the student organization contacted me, I was thankful that my column editor at the time protected me and my rights. She told me that communication from the community and from readers showed an interest in my writing and that I was covering topics and opinions that were important.

After that incident, I was more aware of how my wording could or could not be protected as an opinion columnist. The next month, I wrote an article asking the NDSU faculty senate to team up with other nearby universities against Trump's attack on higher education funding, much like many of the larger R1s did at the time. While the article was published in the physical paper, it was nowhere to be found on the newspaper website. I wondered if it was a mistake or if it had received so much backlash that it was retracted without alerting me.

Something similar happened this fall. I wrote an article about the parking passes for NDSU and what the administration could do to make it feel less like an attack on graduate assistants and students living off-campus. It was also published in the physical paper, but the website still lacked it. A few weeks after its publication, my new editor told me they were trying to actively fix it, as the article was a broken link on the website. It's been about four months now, and the link is still broken. The picture doesn't load and looks different compared to my other articles on the site.

Again, I can't help but wonder if this is truly accidental or not. Like my other missing article, it is a hot topic with an argument aimed at university officials. It makes me wonder what I am and am not allowed to say before I am muzzled. I have often spoken out about (a)sexuality, American politics, disability, and race/culture. Are these topics safer because they are often not aimed at specific school staff or students? It's hard to say when I am mostly left in the dark about why these articles are missing or broken, hidden away from the readers of The Spectrum.

Back-up Options

What can I do if this happens again? Well, my first thought it investigating the website and publication process, something that would no doubt have a negative effect on my column editor and some other student workers. Being aggressive is not the way to solve it, though it might provide me some answers. Whether those answers are acceptable or ethical is another issue, though.

I also love having my blog. I started my blog to share my ideas with my family and friends outside of academia. I also can post freely on my blog without concerns from editors, having to follow a specific citation guide or writing style, and feeling more protected with my free speech than my academic forums that are connected to my professional life more. Still, I write for the news for different audiences and purposes than I do when writing for this blog.

Honestly, it feels like the best we can do at a time of fear like now is speak up about what is right, be careful with our wording, and do research before writing. With our freedom of speech and press at risk in America, we need to value it while we still can.

#IDMD #IDisappointMyDad #newspaper #Spectrum #missingarticles #freedomofspeech #freedomofpress #firstammendment #secondammendment