There’s been some unfortunate literature floating around the South Oval this week.
On Monday, fliers containing outrageously racist language were inserted into several copies of The Daily after the paper was delivered to newsstands.
On Tuesday, The Daily received word that some fliers had appeared on campus bulletin boards.
On Wednesday, more fliers fell out of newspapers that had been sitting on newsstands for a while.
Throughout this time, the only mention of the fliers that appeared in The Daily was a brief on Tuesday that stated that the fliers had appeared, Daily personnel had nothing to do with the fliers and they were investigating the incident.
We still are. We want to know who is responsible for this, and we encourage anyone with any information to call (405)325-2521. We’ve been talking to the OU Police Department, OU Information Technology and administrators.
We have some information. The fliers have been traced to a man who regularly posts on a white supremacist Web forum. One of his posts contains language directly copied in one of the fliers. Another mentions his desire to start a flier campaign after a university’s Spring Break.
So why haven’t we reported this?
There are several reasons, but it comes down to this: that is exactly what this hateful individual wants us to do.
The Daily only knows of 21 fliers that were distributed in the paper this week, plus handfuls more in a housing parking lot and on campus bulletin boards. That means that, even if every flier was seen by five different people, only a couple hundred people were exposed to the flier, and this on a campus of more than 20,00 students.
The Daily’s print circulation is 11,000. OUDaily.com gets about 3,500 hits a day. If we were to print a story about the racism of a single individual equipped with a stack of fliers, we would exponentially increase his exposure.
The Daily is in the business of disseminating information, not propaganda — or misinformation, for that matter. And the fliers this individual is spreading, along with the Web sites he posts on, are full of lies presented as facts.
We believe that giving further publicity to this person while we’re not able to provide our readers with relevant information about who he is and what his motives are would be irresponsible and potentially harmful.
The individual responsible for these fliers has made it clear that one of his goals is to spark a media furor with his hand-cut fliers. On the white supremacist Web page that he frequents, he wrote, “I spent 20 dollars on printing and have over 1,000 fliers ready to be placed in the classroom, bathrooms, library and cafeteria. It will be a quick hit and run. It feels great to lift the veil of pc crap on campus. Hopefully the media will mention the ‘racist’s’ fliers.”
The Daily has no interest in helping this individual propagate his hateful, false views. And until we have more reliable information about who he is what kind of consequences he may be facing for his actions, we don’t plan on giving him any more space in The Daily or on OUDaily.com.
That said, we’re open to feedback about our decision to keep this sort of propaganda out of the pages of The Daily. If you think we should have handled the situation differently, or you were in some way affected by the situation, we want to hear from you.
You can e-mail me at meredithsimons@ou.edu or call The Daily’s newsroom at 405-325-3666.
— Meredith Simons, editor-in-chief
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TheJR 3 years, 1 month ago
Great story, great points.
mld1979 3 years, 1 month ago
I wish more media would stop indulging people like this. Good decision.
geraldguidry 3 years, 1 month ago
Obviously, I disagree with how this situation was handled...
So you are saying that no story was run on this because you did not feel that if "only a couple hundred people were exposed to the flier" it is not worth news? How many people does the daily know about having sex in the stacks? Obviously more than 21 individuals with the possibility of a couple hundred if it got not only one but two stories in The Daily.
"The fliers have been traced to a man who regularly posts on a white supremacist Web forum. One of his posts contains language directly copied in one of the fliers. Another mentions his desire to start a flier campaign after a university’s Spring Break." Are you serious? How is this information not enough to write a story about it? He planned on starting a campaign and that's not worth noting? He even says that he printed 1,000 of these leaflets to be placed in the "classroom, bathrooms, library and cafeteria." This campaign is not worth noting?
I can understand that the paper did not need to re-print the information in the flier but the information within it is not the problem, it is the message that is trying to be massively conveyed and the act of one individual (that we know about) bringing hundreds of them on campus.
When the news begins to decide what should and should not be reported and people begin to sit quietly by while things like this happen on our campus then it will never stop and people will never know. Who ever was responsible for this situation did not know that his actions were even disapproved of by anyone on campus until now, possibly.
I honestly doubt that if one of our more popular African American football players or basketball players had received one of these leaflets a story would not have run. I'm happy to know that "a racist individual is not a story" but a pregnant one in the dorms is. The girl that gave birth in the dorms received two separate stories about her: one about the delivery and a second to simply check up on her. I believe that this shows a clear definition in The Daily's priorities. Unknowing pregnant girls and sex in the library make the front page but a plan to mass distribute over 1,000 hateful and racist leaflets in various locations on campus at a specified time gets an explanatory defensive editorial as to why a story was not run on it.
I don't pay 20,000 dollars in out of state tuition to attend a university that tolerates such actions and inactions as this.
JWade 3 years, 1 month ago
Well done... but can I get you guys to upload a pdf of one of the flier.... Thanks, that'd be great...
... My curiosity overwhelms me...
greenforest 3 years, 1 month ago
OMG!! Oklahoma is in the bible belt, but what bible is being read here? Ok everyone knows in this God forsaken state the KKK is rumored to be headquartered and have several meeting locations around Norman, but fliers? That is a slap in the face to all participating in recycle mania!! AHHH I wish people would think before doing things like this because it is not only foolish, but it is also an embarrassment to our school and country. We do have international students that attend OU and for future exchange students, who would want to be involved in any type of exchange program at a university with this type of activity. It matters ore than you would believe. My last comment is to the person who made the flyers, because I know that he or she is reading this, remember "the meek shall inherit the earth".
Riotus 3 years, 1 month ago
Utter garbage. The job of news agencies is to inform the public of pertinent goings on in their area, not decide for us what we should and should not hear. You are contradicting yourself by even posting this, nitwit. If it's not news, then continue burying your head in the sand and hoping this whole thing will blow over. The university has video footage of this man committing these acts, the issue could have been handled simply and easily by just getting the OUPD involved earlier. Instead, the university attempted to stonewall the student who brought it both to your and OU's attention, and have created a PR problem for themselves. A minimal amount of effort could have seen a positive resolution, but instead the university and the OU Daily has just taken another step to reinforce the racist, redneck image that Oklahoma has in the minds of many people outside our great state.