The question must be important to every advocate of a free marketplace of ideas. Issues of free speech were certainly raised by the students actions. But there is a lot more to free speech than the First Amendment. Once the press is protected from the government, it is important to ask what sort of behavior would be required of the press and the rest of us if we are to have a free marketplace of ideas, the ideal held so dear by all sides. Journalists understand this question.
Journalists accept the responsibility to fairly represent all points of view.
Like all professions it often falls short, but journalists recognize that their power, largely unrestrained by law, must be restrained by their own principled choices. If the ideals are of high importance, then failures are a serious matter. Various kinds of failure are possible. I do not presume to know the answers, and do not mean to be casting aspersions on the paper, but its financial status, its policies, and the depth of grievance felt by some students, are, as a result of this protest, new elements in our debates. The particular ad, with its cynical racial provocation, is only part of the discussion.