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Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court to refuse to hear a college newspaper censorship case that has prompted concern by free press advocates.

In her brief in opposition to the petition for high court review requested by student journalists at Governors State University, Madigan argued that the case present neither the context nor the issues deserving of Supreme Court consideration.

We represent, to them (non-comics readers), the type of people who read comics. When they see displays of personal insults slung at creators and other fans, over something as insignificant as a work of fiction, it lessens us all. It hurts the industry. It makes it look undesirable and a haven for the intellectually and emotionally stunted. And who'd rationally want to be a part of that? Can you blame potential new readers for not wanting to be a part of comics, knowing that's the behavior they'll deal with if they want to talk about the work?

You see, readers don't have to be a part of comics--it's entirely possible to like something without being wholly invested in it.

While I think James is right that fans are, more often than not, the public face of the medium (as opposed to the characters or, as in other creative media, the creators), I doubt that most outside of this culture think of the sniping, snarking message board troller as the archetypical fan. If I had to guess, I'd say that most think of a comic book guy as, well, Comic Book Guy, from The Simpsons, a physically disheveled, socially crippled collector of ephemera.

The part that I disagree with is the notion that there's some obligation to adhere to some set of standards on how one can express one's opinions. If Chris (or James) had stated that such behavior is an ideal that everyone should attempt to strive for, I would probably agree, but I don't see how the positing of such an ideal creates an obligation on anyone to uphold it. As I see it, an obligation has two essential features: (1) one takes on an obligation by assuming some role that carries with it certain clearly defined expectations; and (2) if those expectations are not met, there is generally some form of censure that can be leveled against the individual failing to fulfill his duties.

Hurricane Katrina brought back to the public attention the ongoing issue of race relations in America. The tragedy quickly shifted from concern for the people affected by the hurricane to the judgment that the federal government did not like black people. Obviously, the federal government has a vendetta against the blacks and chose not to respond to them quickly, right?

I guess we're assuming that the many people of various ethnic backgrounds in the Bush administration don't care about black people, either.

Today in the daily student announcements I saw the "Black Fact of the Week." I did not have a problem with this in itself. Surely it is important for us to understand the contributions of black people in our lives. However, this is just one piece of an ever-complicating problem on campus.

In case you don't know, there are quite a few groups on Facebook devoted to black people. Two in particular caught my attention: "Winthrop Does Not Like Black People" and "I Should've Went to a Blacker College."

In fact, I think there has been a surge in specialized programs for people of various ethnic backgrounds. For example, I've been looking into summer research programs in psychology. I've noticed that most of the programs are limited to students of ill-represented groups (i.e., ethnic minorities). I am only half black and I don't want to use that as my way to get into a program.

Ultimately, I think we need to achieve more equality. To be truly equitable, for example, we should offer programs that are specifically for whites. Yes, I just said that. I'm sure a lot of people just slammed the paper down and spouted a few expletives. But don't you see the logic here? It can't be a problem in one instance and not in another. Kids, that's called a double standard.

This happens far too often, though. Some blacks are happy with the programs that benefit them. Once a similar program starts that is geared toward whites, all of a sudden the program becomes racist. Like a person I know once said, if an Association of Ivorites was established on campus, people would be up in arms.

Phil-in' it

Sorry Phil, you can't coach what Kobe did Wednesday night. Bryant's jumper with 0.6 seconds in OT beat Denver.

The incident still is being reviewed by the university's School of Journalism. Director Walter Jaehnig said Monday that no disciplinary action had been taken against any student or faculty member in connection with the hoax.

A funny thing happened on the way to the obituary.

About 6.2 million Americans get something every year, and it's not just a birthday.

It's easy to see how the (New York) Times could see (former SIU Daily Egyptian Editor Michael) Brenner's foibled counterfeit as a humorous endnote. In an era where male prostitutes hold positions in the White House press core it's hard to see the ridiculous fraud of a small time student publication as anything dire. But the perjury of Michael Brenner represents a much more worrisome trend. His fabrication, the result of hyper concern over his career, was a calculated decision to disregard the ethical responsibilities of his position. That a student, more than a year away from graduation, would endanger, and ultimately ruin, his career as a journalist, keeping up his ruse for two years, is a telling indication that the education he received at SIU ultimately failed him.

But it's not just SIU that needs to recognize this failure but the institution of higher education in general. Brenner's act, while admittedly an outrageous one, is just an example of how educational institutions, beginning well before college, are concentrating so heavily on creating a work force, on the bottom line, that they're ignoring their responsibility to well roundedness of their students.

"They [campus police] didn't take it too seriously because the newspapers are free and they didn't consider it a theft," said Ashley Sorrell, editor in chief of the paper.

Jaw dropping moments of blood/violence when the creatures strike - characters get sliced in half in moments that are half "ewwwww gross" and half funny in the way that pop culture violence can be when executed well.

By designating the Daily Vidette as a public forum, Bowman has indicated his intent to guarantee that Vidette editors have the highest level of freedom of the press possible under the June decision in Hosty v. Carter, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a student newspaper must be designated a as a public forum for editors to have strong First Amendment protection. The decision only impacts students in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and is being appealed to the Supreme Court.

"We got kind of nervous," said Brea Jones, a news editor for The Orion, the student newspaper at CSU-Chico. "We are not certain that CSU or our university in particular is really interested in censorship, but it alarms us that they would apply Hosty v. Carter to California universities."

Jones said her paper is in talks with CSU-Chico's president to recognize its status as a "designated public forum," which would exempt the paper from any effects the Hosty decision may have in California.

But what about students or even seasoned journalists tempted to overreach and fabricate? The message from journalism teachers and newsroom chieftains must be consistent and communicated again and again: Facts must be the heart and soul of the news columns even if they occasionally cost the story or the front page a bit of sparkle.

As a student newspaper with relatively limited resources, readers should not expect The Diamondback to provide them with in-depth coverage of most national and international news events. For that, readers have plenty of professional newspapers to turn to. However, this story is one with enough impact and potential angles that it could dominate the pages of even more narrowly focused publications, including The Diamondback.

Week 10: 6-8; 42.86% (My first losing week.)

Although their experiences were starkly different, Sherwin and Chandra share a sense of reverse culture shock mixed with nostalgia for their host countries. By the time any given class graduates from Ithaca College, 24 percent of the students will experience what Sherwin and Chandra are going through, according to the Office of International Programs. They return to Ithaca after spending months in another culture overseas, after having a different adventure every day.

...

Students come back excited about their semester away but may have difficulty expressing their experience to their friends who weren't there with them. And students who studied in developing countries often come back feeling guilty about the privileges people have in the United States, said Rachel Cullenen, associate director of study abroad.

Oftentimes, sorostitutes feel validated when they discover that guys like them. But, sadly, they are so often deceived. Most men don't want this type of woman. They may entreat them as toys or trophies to be trotted out in front of their friends, but men don't want women who are decorated to death as partners in any type of meaningful relationship. However, it remains possible that these girls realize this and are perfectly happy with cheap, fleeting trysts. If so, I am even more saddened.

Lest there be any confusion -- as inevitably there always is -- what am I really saying? Is sorority life in any way "bad?" No, rather I think it can be a wonderful thing (though admittedly, I've never tried it). Are all sorority girls "sorostitutes?" Heavens no! None of my sorority friends are sorostitutes; but there's a lot of them out there who are.

My contention is not with sorority life. I'm worried about the girls who have nose-dived into sorority pop-culture to mask their insecurities. They aren't really interested in relationships. They just want to be loved, for all the wrong reasons.

Word that Sgt. Dan Kennings had been killed in Iraq crushed spirits in the Daily Egyptian newsroom. The stocky, buzz-cut soldier befriended by students at the university newspaper was dead, and the sergeant's little girl--a precocious, blond-haired child they'd grown to love--was now an orphan.

They all knew that Kodee Kennings' mother had died when Kodee was about 5. The little girl's fears and frustrations about her father being in harm's way had played out on the pages of the Daily Egyptian for nearly two years, in gut-wrenching letters fraught with misspellings, innocent observations and questions about why Daddy wasn't there to chase the monsters from under her bed.

It turns out Daddy didn't exist. And neither did Kodee.

In the course of checking out the details, a troubling problem appeared: The story wasn't true. What began as a nightmarish possibility became impossible to deny. There was no record with the Department of Defense of the death.

The father who was called Dan Kennings was not killed in Iraq. We checked with central command in Baghdad. There was no Dan Kennings in the 101st Airborne. No Dan Kennings in the entire Army.

On Friday, the day the story came to light, the Daily Egyptian newsroom was deluged with phone calls from national TV networks and reporters across the country. Eric Fidler, the newspaper's faculty adviser, said the widespread attention was a shock to the students.

"It's an awful lot of pressure for people who are in their early 20s and going to school to cope with," he said. "There's still a great deal of confusion over the facts of the case. We still don't know exactly what happened."

During a six-hour interview at his aunt and uncle's home in Evansville, Ind., 25-year-old Michael Brenner called himself a "bad journalist" and said he is gullible and naïve. In hindsight, Brenner says he should have realized that some things just weren't adding up.

"Looking back, it just seems so obvious," said Brenner. "The explanations and stories all sound so stupid now."

A clearly distraught Brenner told a story that at times contradicted Jaimie Reynolds' version of events and at times was inconsistent with his own version.

"The truth has some holes, but I'm not going to lie," Brenner said.

"We've seen no proof that Brenner had any knowledge the columns were fake," Editor Ellen Soeteber said. Still, she said, the Post-Dispatch plans to review his work for the newspaper "as a pro forma matter."

School officials are not sure what has contributed to so many pregnancies, but in response to them, the school is launching a three-prong(ed) educational program to address pregnancy, prevention and parenting.