The month The Lantern published under protest
The front page of the Oct. 2, 1991, edition of The Lantern is remarkably different from any other front page of the newspaper before or since. “Publication Under Protest,” the banner headline proclaims. Beneath that is a front-page editorial signed — literally, in handwritten script — by 15 editors. At the top, though, one name is printed and signed larger than any other. It is that of Debra Baker ’91, the paper’s editor.
Just one news story appears in this edition. It’s also on the front page under the headline “Lantern editors threaten walkout over prior review.” Editors filled the balance of the “news hole” — the space dedicated for stories, as opposed to advertisements — with the text of the First Amendment, 10 times in all.
Faculty and administrators were weighing a policy of mandatory review of the paper’s content before it went to press. To the editors, this flew in the face of decades of editorial independence and was an affront to their First Amendment rights. “Under the new policy, the ultimate decision would not lie with the editors. It would not lie with the staff members who have put blood, sweat and tears into this paper. It would lie instead with people outside of the Lantern. It would strip us of editorial control of our own newspaper,” they collectively said in the editorial.
The “Publication Under Protest” banner headline would remain at the top of the front page until Oct. 28, when the lead story captured an outcome: “Lantern protest over; 10 editors leave.” Faculty had voted to approve the review policy the day before. Baker sent a parting message to readers in a front-page column, in which she implored students to pay attention. “Remember, when you give up rights, you don’t get them back. The little things that we give up every day are beginning to accumulate. One day we will wake up and realize we have given up a lot more than we ever thought.”
Today, Baker is a lawyer and managing director at GrowthPlay, a consultancy for law firms and others providing professional services. A recognized leader in business and law, she also serves on the advisory board of the Northwestern Law School Center for Practice Engagement and Innovation.
Here is an excerpt of an interview Baker gave Tom Knox ’10, ’10, a former Lantern managing editor:
I was a Watergate baby — I grew up with “All the President’s Men,” Woodward and Bernstein. I wanted to change the world, I wanted to have that kind of impact, and I believed journalism was the way to do that.
“It had a seminal impact on my life, and there were some sobering moments around it. People’s jobs were on the line — full-time salaries. From a human standpoint, the fear was real.”
We were really well trained at the Ohio State journalism school — we learned a lot of case law there. The policy changed, and from our point of view the policy was wrong. We as an editorial staff had come to the [conclusion] that wasn’t right. For me, it was a make-or-break decision. I was willing to resign over it. Things in life are gray — prior restraint is gray — but sometimes you have to do those big things in order to not lose ground around the margins.
I did not go out and say, “Let’s have this big giant protest.” It was staff and students who said, “We’re not OK with this either.”
It had a seminal impact on my life, and there were some sobering moments around it. People’s jobs were on the line — full-time salaries. From a human standpoint, the fear was real.
I was coming at it from absolutism. I decided, “This is what we have to do.” It was risky. The implications were pretty steep. And then it just kind of happens. Once an event like that happens, you’re kind of in it.
Not everyone was on board, and that’s OK. I hope I was respectful at the time. It’s one of the great lessons of life: Do the best we can with the information we have. And the best I could do in that situation was stand up, decide what’s right.
I don’t want to say it was easier for me, but I didn’t have the same stakes given that I was about to graduate. Others on the staff who went and started a new paper, The Independent, took greater risks and really demonstrated the importance of what we were trying to do.
I’m the exact same person [today]. The idea of being a change agent is something that got me into The Lantern to begin with.
I’m lucky; I get to do something I love every day. I don’t get a byline, but it’s the same thing I was doing in 1991 and the whole time at Ohio State.
