BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — For Marissa Meador, the co-editor in chief of the Indiana Daily Student, Indiana’s incoming Lt. Governor’s public rebuke of the paper earlier this week came as a complete shock.
”Beckwith’s comments implying that he would try to stop publication of the IDS is concerning to us,” Meador said.
On Tuesday, Lt. Governor-Elect Beckwith lambasted the paper on X, formerly known as Twitter, for what he calls “elitist leftist propaganda,” and demanded the paper stop or “we will be happy to stop it for them.”
“We believe it’s our first amendment right to publish without prior review or control from state government,” Meador said.
Beckwith also accused the paper of running on taxpayer dollars—something Meador said is not true.
”We are funded with advertising dollars and other revenue like donations from alumni, mainly,” Meador said. ”We pay around a $30,000 tax each year to the university…We aren’t receiving any direct money from IU, and certainly not taxpayer funds.”
In a follow-up interview Beckwith conducted with the newspaper itself, he said he would protect the paper’s right to free speech if the paper, in his view, was being fair. He went on to say in part: “…Mike [Braun] himself is very concerned that you can’t actually have a free and open education if you have one side suppressing the other side, and that’s what we’re going to get to the bottom of…”
Beckwith’s comments became a point of contention during the latest State Budget Committee meeting this week.
”It’s factual that politicians and donors are interfering in IU’s decision-making process,” State Sen. Fady Qaddoura (D-Indianapolis) said.
”I think we should have some input because we are funding quite a bit of money into these institutions,” State Sen. Ryan Mishler (R-Mishawaka) said.
But IU President Pamela Whitten rejected the notion outside forces have influenced rules surrounding free speech on campus.
”We have to have policies in place that protect free speech but prevent the disruption of the university activities,” President Whitten said. ”Our strategy has been very much tied to lifting ourself up in terms of creating new policies; our trustees have created a new policy, working to make sure that everyone understands that we are now living in a day that we will respectfully enforce those policies moving forward as an institution.”
But some lawmakers, like State Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis), weren’t convinced.
”Free speech is not a plague; free speech is the price of democracy, so, I’m disappointed in what she did,” DeLaney said in regard to the university’s decision to change the rules surrounding Dunn Meadow.
In an interview following the meeting, DeLaney called Beckwith’s comments “remarkable.”
”I’m shocked by what Micah Beckwith said,” State Rep. DeLaney said. ”The Lt. Governor’s job is to conduct the Senate and run around and [do] a few little things on agriculture; he needs to get back to doing his job when he gets there—he isn’t even in the job, and he’s threatening.”
”We will absolutely fight to defend our right to free speech if that were ever to come under threat,” Meador said.
A spokesperson for the Beckwith Campaign said he has committed to a future interview on the matter next week.
This is a developing story.
