Rutgers University: Bias Investigation of Satirical Newspaper
Cases
Rutgers University - New Brunswick
Case Overview
In April 2011, as part of its annual April Fools' edition, Rutgers student satire publication The Medium published a fake editorial titled "What about the good things Hitler did?", jokingly attributed to another student columnist known on campus for his frequent commentary on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick denounced the article and announced that the school had launched an investigation of its publication as a possible "bias incident." Just days after ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵAPP¹ÙÍø sent a letter to Rutgers airing our concerns and hours after ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵAPP¹ÙÍø publicized the investigation, Rutgers notified ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵAPP¹ÙÍø that the administration would not punish The Medium, stating that "students are not punished for exercising their right to free speech, including speech in student publications."