Laura Thomas’s April 1 letter to the editor (“Supplement inappropriate”) betrays an appalling ignorance of the role of paid advertisements in our nation’s history of free expression.
She wonders whether any organization can pay for their message (she says “propaganda”) to be distributed with The Chronicle. I certainly hope so!
From the ads by civil rights groups which lead to the seminal First Amendment case, New York Times v. Sullivan, to the MoveOn ads in The New York Times last election season, paid advertising has allowed groups who can’t afford to print their own papers to utilize the mass media to get their message out.
In today’s increasingly consolidated media (even at Duke, nothing is more widely read than The Chronicle) paid ads are a way for dissenting voices to get heard.
The Chronicle is not, as Thomas claims, sacrificing its neutrality when it accepts paid political advertisements; that’s why these ads say “paid advertisement” on them. That’s why they are not written by The Chronicle’s writers and columnists. The ads are the speech of the groups buying ad space, not The Chronicle. Whether The Chronicle is accepting paid ads from pro-life groups, pro-choice groups or any other group, I applaud them for the service they are providing for free speech.
Ben Stark
Law ’06
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