Last February I wrote an article looking at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a a nonprofit organization that tracks alleged violations

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
of free speech at colleges. Today, FIRE posted an interesting link on its Twitter account.
Apparently, two student journalists at The Breeze, the independent student newspaper at James Madison University, are facing charges from university police after they entered a dorm room to interview students about a crime alert.

The Breeze
The Breeze reported:
Judicial Affairs has charged two Breeze journalists for alleged disorderly conduct while reporting, possibly violating their constitutional rights.Tim Chapman, editor-in-chief, and Katie Hibson, a contributing news writer, were notified by e-mail Thursday afternoon of the charges: trespassing, disorderly conduct and non-compliance with an official request.
Judicial Affairs Director Josh Bacon was out of the office Friday and unable to comment. He has previously said that ongoing cases are confidential.
Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center, said the charges go against the First Amendment rights not just for journalists but for everyone.
“We all have the rights to ask questions if we want to,” Goldstein said. “It’s a pretty straight forward case.”
On Sunday, Hibson, a sophomore media arts and design major, was investigating the Oct. 14 trespassing incident in Hillside Hall, which The Breeze learned about when JMU sent a “Timely Notice” e-mail Sunday morning. Hibson said she was invited into the residence hall Sunday afternoon when she identified herself as a reporter. She said she was invited into the building by resident Ariel Spagnolo, who Hibson said was no more than 15 feet away as she interviewed people. After identifying herself to Resident Adviser Maria Lane, Hibson said she was asked to leave, which she promptly did.
Hibson returned to Hillside later in the afternoon with Chapman, a senior media arts and design major, while accompanied by a resident who also works on The Breeze staff. After trying to interview residents, Hibson said Hall Director Sarah Woody and Lane asked them to leave the building, and Woody then called police.
The fact that judicial officials not only had the audacity to kick these reporters out of the dorm, but also have a legal view so skewed as to believe they can justify pressing charges is truly mind-boggling. As student reporters, both Chapman and Hibson have ever right to enter any dormitory on campus, especially when accompanied by a student who resides in that dorm.
In my time at The Post, I’ve had to enter unfamiliar dorms on numerous occasions, but, at least for now, the residence life officials haven’t made an issue of it. There is nothing wrong with a reporter, who has identified themselves as a reporter, asking questions. In fact, it’s our job. The funny thing is, in far to many cases, universities try to stifle the First Amendment freedoms that our tuition dollars are paying them to teach us about.
The case at James Madison seems pretty open and shut. The school’s Student Handbook, disorderly conduct is any disturbance “that interrupts the orderly operation of the university and/or infringes on the rights of community members.” The student reporters did nothing to violate this policy, and left when they were asked.
Part of me really hopes James Madison’s administrators continue to pursue this case so a judge can set the public precedent that blatant violations of student journalists by colleges and universities are not acceptable. Whether that happens or not, these journalists should be both supported and commended.





list was on point.
the mainstream media has finally let the story die. Which means, now is the perfect time to take a look at how some of the country’s newspapers covered his death. Now I’ll admit, I haven’t seen every single MJ front page, so forgive me if I leave someone off the list, but here are my Top Ten Michael Jackson front pages based on visual appear, portrayal and presentation of information, and uniqueness.

timeline of headshots- showing how Jackson morphed over time.
Jackson.
images.
1. The Columbus Dispatch
Ok, so the headline isn’t EXACTLY accurate.

