H -°, L 7° | Tomorrow: 
H 17°, L 4°When The Badger Herald renewed its long-held stance of defending the First Amendment by allowing the placement of a Holocaust denial advertisement on our website, some called us anti-Semites — a charge that made the entire staff a little verklempt. Others claimed we lacked an organizational strategy regarding advertisements. And, yet, what the outsiders didn’t know is that we, much like the Dark Knight, realized the only way to unify this campus was to play the bad guy.
It’s Machiavellian, really. The preservation of the state (or UW) is far more important than the perceived attitudes of an individual or organization, and once we noticed campus apathy at Daria-like levels, we initiated Operation: Look Like Massive Assholes.
Needless to say, it worked. Letters to the editor came through the office in waves reminiscent of “Miracle on 34th Street.” Rallies against the newspaper caught the attentions of tens of passersby. Biddy Martin stood arm-in-arm with Student Labor Action Coalition, with every non-objectivist corner of UW allied in their collective hatred. Even Winn Butler was forced to admit that, in Madison, Wisconsin, the lions and the lambs were sleeping.
Of course, we’d be lying if we said we knew the response was going to be so enthusiastic. Once Operation: LLMA was a “go,” we figured we could swing one day of serious response — at most, around eight crazy nights. Yet, as if by some divine miracle, that one little ad fueled enough controversy to last for 30 full days. It was like a festival of fights.
Still, it’s something we hope never to have to endure again. For a month, one online advertisement seemed to dominate our lives. One Editorial Board member was even accused of having a Woody Allen movie poster just to look ironic. And sure, it generated some good discussion, but it’s not as if the student body didn’t quickly slink back into its beer-goggled, devil-may-care ethos. After all, the District 5 County Board race generated what? Fifteen votes?
We aren’t foolish enough to believe that there is any controversy behind the Holocaust. But maybe we were foolish enough to believe our campus was mature and level-headed enough to handle such a charge with rationality.
Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a cartoon of Muhammad to print.
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you guys should print a Muhammad cartoon. seriously.
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^^^ Agree with that BUT
You’re criticizing us for the district 5 county board race which you encouraged us not to vote in??????
Can you write an article on the definition of hypocritical?
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Oh, come on. I didn’t ever see or complain about the ad, but your last paragraph is needlessly inflammatory. Maybe we were foolish enough to believe our newspaper was mature and level-headed enough to avoid blatantly attempting to stir up controversy. Simmer down now, y’all. I know it’s a college newspaper and you live for the small controversies you get, but it’s time to let this one go!
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If satirizing Muhammad was only “stirring up controversy” there would be no need to publish cartoons about Islam. But what these ideas are actually stirring up is violence and death threats, which is a direct assault on the First Amendment and Western ideals.
Therefore it is imperative to publish such material in every forum possible as an assertion of our absolute right to free expression, no matter who it offends.
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12:13 has it right.
If you were such a believer in and proponent of the first amendment, you would actually have the balls to publish a Muhammad cartoon, rather than making a joke about it.
Jews and Christians are easy targets.
But before you cry “First Amendment rights”, publish the Muhammad cartoon, or publish support for some periodical that does. Then at least we’ll know you mean it.
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The Herald published a Muhammed cartoon in 2005. The editor in chief went on the O’Reilly Factor. Pretty sure they’d do it again.
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Badger Herald: your last issue of the semester is tomorrow, correct? As a gift to the graduating seniors, please print a giant picture of Mohammed on the front page. I will love you forever.
Show that you have bigger ‘nads than the Daily Cardinal!
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Yall must be new to campus they published the Danish cartoons years and got death threats and untold shit for it, but stood by it.
Jews and Christians are easy whiners
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This has nothing to do with the 1st amendment, Smathers even admitted that was a post hoc justification. Instead of being attention whores and continuing to belittle valid criticism you should either shut up or grow up and stop apologizing conditionally. We are sorry for our actions and we are sorry our actions offended people are not the same thing, you continue to put the burden of this on those offended instead of on yourself, the provocateurs.
By allowing the ad to run you did nothing to further free speech, the man that placed it is not denied entry of his ideas into the market place. Instead, you provided legitimacy to his ideas while detracting from the Heralds. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Additionally, Smathers in the forum that was held you showed yourself to be an insult to the J-school and your teachers. Your understanding of the concept of free speech seems to come only from gleanings of South Park and not the law and it’s history directly.
I hope for your own sake you stop playing the victim card and realize you created this situation and deserve every ounce of mud that has been thrown at you.