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TV show, newspaper censored for coverage of impeachment trial
School officials claim SGA president's father, a New York Times editor, asked school to restrict reporting
October 9, 2001
MARYLAND -- A high school's newspaper was asked to recall issues on Oct. 1, while its television station yielded to a request to edit some content later in the week - both stemming from their coverage of the student government association president's impeachment hearings.
The Black & White at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda reported on the impeachment hearings of Austin Lavin, the SGA president, in its Sept. 28 newspaper. Following the reports, community Superintendent Frank Stetson said he received a letter from Carl Lavin, Austin's father and The New York Times news editor for the Washington bureau. The letter raised concerns about the coverage from what Lavin saw as student privacy issues, although the impeachment case was heard by 70 homeroom representatives and was known by most students at the school. Stetson passed on the concerns to school principal Jerome Marco.
The Black & White received a request on Oct. 1 from school administrators to withhold the remaining 200 or so papers yet to be distributed. Lance Kramer, Black & White editor in chief, said that as a result of the request, he held the papers under "lock and key" for about a day before they were distributed.
Jan Bowman, the Black & White's faculty adviser, told Marco that she would give him two copies of the paper "to meet the letter, but not the spirit" of the request.
"Mr. [Carl] Lavin demanded that the papers be retrieved and that a letter to the editor by a teacher be blackened -- essentially to have the newspaper censored," Stetson said.
When contacted, Carl Lavin said he had no knowledge of any newspapers being recalled.
Marco did not return phone calls.
The privacy concerns extended to the school's television newsmagazine, Whitman Shorts, where testimony in opposition of Austin by teacher Bob Mathis was not allowed to air in its entirety as part of a segment covering the impeachment trial. Whitman Shorts aired a slightly edited version, without any comments from Mathis, with a disclaimer explaining why their coverage was not complete.
"He [Carl Lavin] placed demands on us; he wanted that tape," said Greg Malling, adviser of Whitman Shorts. "It's coming from above the school. It's his [Carl Lavin's] demands. He's demanding that the testimony not be shown."
Lavin said he sent a letter to Stetson expressing his concern that airing the television program may violate privacy laws, but Lavin did not say whether he demanded the tape not to be aired.
Stetson met with student journalists and their advisers on
Friday to clarify the week's events. Kramer said Stetson cleared
the air surrounding the censorship speculation and reassured students
at Whitman Shorts that they could air the segments they
had previously withheld.
© 2001 Student Press Law Center
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