Illini editors suspended for printing cartoons

The letters just keep coming.

They span the gamut of emotions: outrage, sympathy, support,
indignation. There are hundreds of them.

More than a week after controversial cartoons of the Prophet
Muhammad appeared in the campus newspaper at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Daily Illini’s inboxes are
still flooded with mail from readers supporting or condemning the
decision to run the drawings.

The cartoons, first printed in a Danish newspaper last
September, have incited both peaceful protests and violent
demonstrations worldwide in recent weeks as European and other news
outlets republish them in the name of free speech.

The set of 12 drawings, including one of the Prophet Muhammad
wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, are offensive to Muslims,
whose religion does not allow the depiction of prophets.

While many European outlets have reprinted the cartoons, few in
the U.S. made the same choice. The Philadelphia Inquirer and Austin
American-Statesman each printed one of the images.

At the collegiate level, Northern Illinois University’s
newspaper has published the drawings, along with student
publications at Harvard University and Illinois State
University.

Now, in addition to sorting through the mail, the Daily
Illini’s top editors are sorting through tough internal
problems as the impact of an international controversy comes
crashing home.

At the request of the Daily Illini’s student staff, the
publisher suspended Editor in Chief Acton Gorton and Opinions
Editor Chuck Prochaska, who decided to print the cartoons without
consulting other editors.

A student task force will investigate the discussion, or lack of
communication, that preceded the Feb. 9 printing of the
caricatures.

Gorton and Prochaska may lose their jobs if the staff decides it
would be in the best interest of this college community, which lies
140 miles south of Chicago in the twin cities of Champaign and
Urbana. The two cities have a combined population of about
100,000.

According to a question-and-answer piece that ran in the Daily
Illini last Thursday, Gorton and Prochaska began planning to print
the cartoons at least two nights in advance.

“At 5 p.m. the night of publication, the completed
opinions page was shown to only a few members of the editorial
board and executive team, and it was made clear … there would be
no changes,” the staff wrote in the piece.

“The editor in chief has the final say on content.
However, the … editor in chief holds great responsibility, and in
this instance Gorton did not act responsibly.”

Though many on the seven-member editorial board saw the layout
for the next day’s opinion page, they were not asked what
they thought, Metro Editor Nick Escobar said Thursday.

Daily Illini staff declined to comment further after the
weekend, citing legal concerns.

Six of the cartoons ran alongside Gorton’s mugshot, byline
and a column he wrote saying that while “these cartoons are
bigoted and insensitive to the Islamic faith … this serious
controversy has not been addressed by the press. By refusing to run
the cartoons, Americans have no idea how “˜offensive’
they are.”

The editorial board has no binding authority, and is not always
asked for input on decisions, Gorton said.

“I didn’t do anything unusual. … Everyone on my
editorial board looked at the page as it was being designed, as it
was being copy edited,” he said.

There was talk in the newsroom about how to phrase parts of the
column, Gorton said.

Copies of the next day’s pages are printed out as they are
designed, and float around the office in the hours after, he
added.

Gorton said he asked the night editor to tell anyone who wanted
to discuss the issue to contact Gorton.

“Everybody definitely had an opportunity to raise some
sort of concern or flag or something. … Nobody said anything at
all,” Gorton said.

The Daily Illini staff still has not settled on what follow-up
material to run, Escobar said.

In the meantime, readers have filled the vacuum with their
letters.

“Free speech is not a license for irresponsible
journalism,” stated a submission signed by about 20 campus
and community organizations.

“While the Daily Illini’s reprinting of the Danish
cartoons within its Feb. 9 opinions section may not have violated
our law, the decision did violate human decency.”

Alumnus Mark Linder wrote, “The Daily Illini’s …
publication of the original cartoons that have been at the center
of worldwide controversy means that people will be better informed
about what exactly has been used to stir up intense anger in many
parts of the world. One hopes it will also lead to more useful and
respectful discussion about the interplay of freedom of the press,
freedom of expression of opinions (including controversial ones)
and freedom of religion.”

Gorton said the discussion the cartoons have generated in
classrooms and elsewhere is the kind of debate for which he was
hoping when he decided to print the drawings.

Gorton said that in the weeks before Feb. 9, he spoke to many
students who asked about the cartoons, which they then had the
chance to see after they were published.

“(I) finally decided that there’s an opportunity
here to fill in the hole that the mainstream media is not giving a
complete picture about,” he said.

Gorton says if the staff agreed to take him back, though he
doesn’t anticipate that will happen, he would gladly accept
the offer.

For now, he is waiting.

He has cleared out his office and turned in his keys. The
password to his old e-mail account was changed. He is learning how
to live outside the Illini Media building on East Green Street,
away from the place that gave meaning to his college days.

“I’ve given up a lot of my energy and life toward
making that newspaper work well,” Gorton said.

He is a fourth-year communications student, but for the past few
years, he’s focused more hours and thought on the Daily
Illini than on school.

“I have so much time, I guess I’m just going to work
on bringing my grades back up.”