Letters to the Editor
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Nancy...
Judging from the call letters of WDUQ, I'm guessing that this is a college radio station run by the university, staffed mainly by college journalism students. I'm guessing that the university has a radio station primarily for the purpose of recruiting/training students in the nuts and bolts of broadcasting.
I worked at one of these stations for four years (91.5 FM WUEV, Evansville, IN). The University of Evansville was a Methodist school, but the newscast and several other programs were underwritten by the Catholic Diocese of Evansville. I was actually the news director for two of those years, and we won the Best College Radio Newscast at the Indiana SPJ awards every year, so we must have been doing something right.
Guess what? The Diocese didn't give a rat's ass what we put in our newscast. Not ONCE did we get any flak from them. The University Public Relations Office, however, was CONSTANTLY trying to meddle...
I really don't get what the big deal is here. Nobody's infringing on journalistic freedom; they're just saying, thanks, but no thanks, to some money. The station license is held by a Catholic University, and agree with it or not, the Catholic Church considers both contraception and abortion to be gravely wrong. Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the nation. Would you be so up in arms if they refused money from Phillip Morris on grounds that they're well-known to be the largest tobacco company in the nation, and that their products are known to cause cancer?
Even in the world of commercial radio, just 'cause you got the money, honey, doesn't mean we have to sell you the airtime...