Indiana Lieutenant Governor-elect Micah Beckwith uploaded a photo of the front page of the Nov. 7 Indiana Daily Student issue to X Nov. 12. The post read: “Your tax dollars at work. They called him a ‘moron,’ a ‘fascist,’ and a ‘threat to democracy’ (even though we aren’t a democracy, but I don’t expect students at IU to know that.) This is WOKE propaganda at its finest and why most of America looks at higher education indoctrination centers like IU as a complete joke and waste of money. This type of elitist leftist propaganda needs to stop or we will be happy to stop it for them.”
The cover in question was a picture of President-elect Donald Trump’s profile marred by different phrases. Some of the phrases included “fascist,” “a danger to the United States,” “moron” and “has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions.” The photo’s cutline reads, “His former allies say he’s unfit for office. He still won,” affirming all these phrases were said by people who formerly supported him.
Despite this, Beckwith falsely accused IDS of saying these things.
This isn’t the first time Beckwith has attacked Indiana University. In an interview with Indiana Public Media, Beckwith said he thinks the state should control who teaches at IU. He said he feels like students and faculty cannot express conservative perspectives at IU for fear of backlash.
According to IDS, the publication is editorially independent. It generates all its revenue through advertisements and events. “While the IDS is not directly funded by IU, the Media School committed to allowing the IDS to operate in a deficit for three years in 2021, and the university covered the IDS’ nearly $1 million debt during the summer,” the IDS wrote. Additionally, the publication operates out of an IU property and pays a tax to the university.
IDS said IU issued a comment regarding Beckwith’s claims. “The Indiana Daily Student is editorially independent from Indiana University,” an IU spokesperson said.
Although Beckwith’s claims may seem like the mere ramblings of a disgruntled politician, they have real merit. Journalism, now more than ever, is vital to protecting democracy.
According to the Pew Research Center, nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) say the freedom of the press – enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – is extremely or very important to the well-being of society. However, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, assaults on journalists in the U.S. have risen by more than 50%,
At The Post, we operate similarly to IDS. We are also editorially independent from the university and enjoy the privileges of being financially independent as well. We published our own election results edition Nov. 6, which also had a controversial cover.
Given the central image of anguish and despair regarding the 2024 Election Results, we knew the cover would generate discourse. However, we decided to run with it because the photo was a genuine reaction to the proceedings. We had photographers all over Court Street trying to capture as much as they could, and a lot of what they saw was what we had on the cover.
Going forward, The Post stands with IDS and every other student media outlet that is fighting to be heard. Keep fighting and keep producing quality journalism. The nation needs it.
