No Newspaper Is Good News to Press Thieves

At College of the Canyons, student journalists have a name for student politicians: newspaper thieves.

Student politicians have a name for the journalists: hacks. And they’ve taken to publishing their own protest paper. It’s called The Truth.

And you wondered why professional reporters and lawmakers can’t get along.

“There were attempts on campus to mediate,” Dean of Student Services Glenn Hisayasu said with administrative understatement. “They didn’t resolve their major differences.”

Or their minor ones.

It all began last fall, when, under cover of darkness, persons unknown stuffed an unsanctioned--and nearly unintelligible--insert into hundreds of copies of the Canyon Call in response to an editorial it carried.

The editorial included such words as “reprehensible” and “impeachable” in describing recent efforts by student politicians--especially Student Body President Allison Korse--to pay for an overhaul of the community college’s aging student center by raising student fees. It urged students to vote against the proposed fee hike.

The insert was slipped into the papers sometime after they were dropped off by the printer on the cold evening of Nov. 19 but before they were placed on racks the following morning. Aptly dubbed the Rapid Response, the flier alleged bias and blindness over the student fee issue, and generally rotten journalism from “you Einstiens (sic) at the Canyon Call.”

Begrudgingly noting that the Call had won a recent series of collegiate journalism awards, the flier declared: “The competition must have been really weak.”

Ouch.

Clearly, the fight was on.

Canyon Call Editor John Woods accused Korse of masterminding the illicit insert. Korse denied any knowledge of the guerrilla-style caper. So Woods sought due recourse in Santa Clarita Small Claims Court--for $660, the price an advertiser would have paid to place an ad the size of the Rapid Response.

“I wasn’t going to settle out of court for anything less than an apology that we could publish in the newspaper,” said Woods, a 26-year-old who plans to transfer to San Diego State next year to study journalism.

“All we know is, the morning we got to school, some papers had [the flier] in and some did not,” said Korse, a 23-year-old who is searching for a four-year Christian college with a good political science program.

The debate raged on over how to fund a renovation at the student center. The campus became increasingly divided.

Members of both the administration and student government refused to do interviews with certain Canyon Call reporters.

Administrators tried to persuade Woods to drop his suit and and pursue the matter through an in-house grievance process. Woods accused the administration of “coddling” the young pols.

Then, on March 5--the week before the suit would be heard by a judge and on the eve of a campus vote over the student fee increase--1,000 papers vanished with nary a trace, and with them another editorial urging students to vote against a fee hike.

The journalists were up in arms. This was a free speech issue. This was about freedom of the press. This was about low-down thievery.

“I’m not trying to compare it to Watergate,” said journalism advisor Jay Berman, “but stealing newspapers, vandalizing newspapers--I take that very seriously.”

They begged Hisayasu to step in. He agreed.

As students cast their ballots, Hisayasu said he took the matter to the advisor of student government. A short time later, “Students did come forward,” along with several stacks of the missing Canyon Calls.

One student senator has since resigned, but without admitting any responsibility, officials said. And an administrative investigation is continuing.

Even with the newfound papers--containing another pointed, vote-no editorial--students passed the measure.

And then, last week, the case of the illicit insert went before the court.

Alongside Korse sat Hisayasu and the president of the college’s board of trustees, according to several present. Alongside Woods sat Berman, the journalism advisor. Plaintiff and defendant represented themselves, standard procedure in small claims court.

Korse argued that the case should be thrown out because, among other reasons, one department of the college cannot sue another without permission of the board. Woods said this wasn’t a case of one department suing another, but that he, personally, was suing Korse for taking out an ad without paying for it.

The verdict came back late Monday, with little elaboration: Korse was not liable. She said she was thrilled.

According to Woods and Berman, the court commissioner stated that the facts were not in dispute, and that he was ruling on technicalities. So, invoking the time-honored tradition of the political spin, the journalists quickly claimed that they, too, were happy.

But it’s not over yet.

The newspaper alleges that the vote may have been influenced not only by the missing papers, but by the pencils handed voters. According to several students, the voting pencils were stamped, “Vote Yes.”

Said Hisayasu with characteristic restraint: “The relationship between student government and the student paper tends to be somewhat problematic.”