The College Fix

A new council to enforce political correctness

However “progressive” you claim to be, you can always take bootlicking to new heights.

Daily Californian Editor in Chief Ritchie Lee published an editor’s note Thursday that says the independent UC-Berkeley paper screwed up 45 years ago when it allegedly failed to hire “two Latinx staff members” in return for a $25,000 subscription.

Also alleged in that long-ago story published in a Chinese American Bay Area newspaper, the Daily Cal “often does not accept stories which are of importance to non-whites” and “rewrites stories to fit ‘their’ concepts of non-whites,” among other sins of editorial judgment.

The criticism was recently found in the university’s Ethnic Studies Library, and it’s still relevant today in the newspaper’s efforts to make its office “an inclusive space,” says Lee.

MORE: Black university official says emphasizing ‘diversity’ misses the point

It’s not enough that it set up a “diversity scholarship”:

We will always remain proud of our progressive history of advocacy and social change, but the Daily Cal has its share of shortcomings and faults. Often, we have not gone far enough. …

In order for long-term change to happen, the Daily Cal needs to undergo an institutional transition after which every editor in chief will prioritize diversity with the same passion.

Before he leaves the editor’s chair, Lee plans to implement year-round recruiting to reach “underrepresented” campus groups (sounds like quotas) and set up a Politically Correct Council to approve and veto coverage decisions:

Within our office, we will implement a committee for staff who belong to underrepresented communities. The committee will serve as the formal channel for our staff to discuss issues surrounding diversity. They will meet to ensure that the Daily Cal is taking the right steps to turn our workplace into an environment that does not marginalize the community it serves to represent.

This is basically what The Wesleyan Argus proposed in response to activist-driven threats to defund the Connecticut campus paper, except the Daily Cal doesn’t get university or student-fee money.

MORE: Repressive Wesleyan student official says he’s ‘not a dictator’

And it won’t satisfy the UC-Berkeley activists (and their black-bloc allies) whose ultimate goal is to neuter the Daily Cal from exercising any editorial judgment that doesn’t pass muster with their activism.

There’s nothing objectionable about Lee encouraging students to write letters to the editor, but he’s basically inviting activists to hijack the paper’s coverage:

In addition, the news we tackle needs to be more real and relevant to underrepresented students. Our coverage must shift toward giving campus groups the opportunity to shine and spreading the word about issues that affect their lives.

This might be a good time for the Berkeley College Republicans – repeated targets of vandalism and doxxing – to demand their own seat at the table, specifically the “underrepresented” council at the Daily Cal.

After all, who’s more marginalized than campus conservatives?

Read the editor’s note.

MORE: Wesleyan activists demand ‘mandatory social justice workshops’ 

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter

IMAGE: Shutterstock