Local News in Brief : Suit Filed Against CSUN
A civil liberties group has filed suit challenging Cal State Northridge’s policy requiring student journalists to submit controversial material for review by a faculty member before it is published in the student newspaper.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, was filed on behalf of James Taranto, who was suspended from the Daily Sundial for two weeks without pay after a commentary he wrote was published in the paper March 5, 1987. The article defended a controversial cartoon on affirmative action that originally appeared in UCLA’s Daily Bruin.
Taranto prepared the editorial page, where his commentary appeared beside the cartoon, which pictured a college student speaking with a rooster. When the student asked how the rooster was admitted to UCLA, the bird replied: “Affirmative action.”
The cartoon prompted vociferous protests from minority students at UCLA and led to a brief suspension from the paper last year of the Daily Bruin’s editor.
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