Fullerton : CSUF Professor Seeks Metzger Tape Disclaimer

Cal State Fullerton history professor Cameron Stewart said Wednesday that he will seek action today that may lead to the university formally disclaiming viewpoints made on videotapes produced on campus by former Ku Klux Klan leader Thomas Metzger.

Stewart said he will ask the Faculty Council to petition President Jewell Plummer Cobb to require “notices at the beginning and the end of all tapes” that Cal State Fullerton does not associate itself with such viewpoints.

Metzger has been making “Race and Reason” cable TV tapes on Group W-provided equipment at Cal State Fullerton for the past two years. The university provides the site for “public access” television recording in exchange for use of TV equipment by Cal State Fullerton students.

Few on campus knew of Metzger’s racial-separation tapes until the student newspaper, the Daily Titan, published an expose last week. Since then, several professors and campus groups have demanded that the university halt the tapings. Cobb said that while she deplores the racially divisive tapes, free speech under the First Amendment prohibits banning Metzger and others from making controversial material.

Stewart said that because Metzger’s tapes show on the credit lines that they were produced at Cal State Fullerton, viewers may think the university supports such messages.

“I think there should be a disclaimer by the university on all these tapes,” Stewart said.