JuicyCampus.com a clue to start acting responsibly

March 31, 2008 —

JuicyCampus.com is a controversial Web site that has been making the rounds in national and university newspaper headlines recently. The site, which posts rumors of college students and professors for all to see, has drawn the scorn of many student governments, faculty associations, as well as the media itself.

It's alarming when universities - the very places where free speech and open debate should be encouraged and promoted - are the ones fighting so hard to restrict free speech on the Internet. Student governments across the country are racing to restrict access to JuicyCampus.com at their universities, and when they aren't able to ban Web sites, they are passing resolutions condemning the site's posting of popular lists such as: "Most likely to have gotten pregnant during spring break" and "Best rack on campus."

Ah, now that's the student government mentality we all know and love. There's nothing like a condemnation to start off your week, making you feel like you "made a difference." Let's not admire ourselves too long, however. Next week calls for pissing away what amounts to four student full-ride scholarships on a dance - or a concert - we just can't decide which!

Sarcasm aside, this is a serious issue. When are people going to realize that they do not have the right to "not be offended?" Free speech isn't free only if you like what's being said. God forbid JuicyCampus.com makes some students act responsible. It'll be tough though, it's hard to live without those drunken-dancing Facebook pictures.

Anne Milgram, the attorney general of New Jersey, is "investigating" the site for consumer fraud. It's just another underhanded way of trying to shut the site down. New Jersey is home to one of the more popular universities profiled on the site, Princeton. Some people are genuinely libeled on the site, and for them I wish nothing but vindication; however, there is a difference between illegal and offensive. It's unfortunate that not that many people see that. Another public official, Albert Torrico, an Assemblyman from California, wants Milgram's California-counterpart to investigate the site as well because he says it's hurtful.

When it comes to offensive materials, obscenity, and immoral activity, it is hard for some people to pay more attention to legal lines than to moral ones. Everyone who hates JuicyCampus.com is searching for a tool to use to shut the site down. They're using libel, the New Jersey attorney general is using consumer fraud, and student governments are using Mao Zedong-like blanket-bans. They're throwing everything they can think of at the First Amendment.

This all parallels what I stated in an earlier column: the nation is raising a generation of ultra-sensitive crybabies. Complete with hate-crime laws, speech codes, and the most politically correct-conscience in history, we aren't heading in the right direction, folks.

On top of that, we're stuck with 200 years of Supreme Court rulings that too often examine the consequences of certain rulings in lieu of what they should be examining: the constitutionality of those rulings. The First Amendment starts with "Congress shall make no law..." That's "NO law," not "some," not "when we deem appropriate for safety and social order," it's "no." You don't like it? Then amendment it, don't change it with a judgment.

Grow up. Hold your head high. Start acting responsibly. Once that happens, JuicyCampus.com can't touch you.