More free speech lessons for prudes at UNLV

Oh, to be so young, so righteous, so willing to tell everyone else how to behave, so quick to high dudgeon.

In case you missed it while engaged in the debates over cap and trade, Afghanistan policy, health care reform and baseball's ump slump, the latest umbrage being taken down on Maryland Parkway at UNLV is over ... a hamburger joint ad.

The campus paper The Rebel Yell ran an ad for a place called the Burger Grind Bar & Lounge on East Tropicana. The joint's logo features a cartoon of a kneeling naked lady with body by butcher. You know, the standard market illustration of where the various cuts of beef are located on a cow -- rib, loin, rump, etc. -- only traced on a woman. The cartoon apparently is nicknamed Juicy Lucy.

This prompted graduate student Anthony Guy Patricia to pen an op-ed in the Yell calling the ad a "masterpiece of capitalistic garbage." Apparently on campus, capitalism is an epithet. The online version of this op-ed has attracted more than 160 comments, the most ever posted on an item on the paper's Web site. The comments called the ad misogynist, a degrading stereotype that objectifies women and reinforces male domination. They called for a boycott of both the establishment and the paper.

The Yell responded with an editorial explaining the separation of editorial and advertising, sort of like church and state. And a person I think is a law professor weighed in with an op-ed extolling the virtue of self-censorship.

After bemoaning that women in Las Vegas "are exploited in all sorts of ways for the amusement, titillation and the kicks of men in our patriarchal and misogynistic society," this is how Patricia ends his fusillade:

"As a doctoral student and a two-time alumnus of UNLV, I want answers: Who approved the acceptance and publication of such a reprehensible advertisement? Why was it accepted and published? And what are The Rebel Yell and The Burger Grind Bar & Lounge going to do to compensate those they have offended in the university community for their complete lack of judgment on this matter?"

Apparently being offended by someone's exercise of their commercial free speech right is now compensable and warrants show trials -- to be followed, one would presume, by a public auto-da-fé, which would only be appropriate for a burger joint.

If the people at The Rebel Yell truly had a sense of justice and equanimity, they'd've made him buy an ad.

In their editorial response, the Yell staffers say, "The fact is, The Rebel Yell runs on ad revenue. Take that away and we cannot train great journalists to speak the truth regardless of outside influence. Take that away and we cannot give students real-world experience in our advertising office.

"Take away an ad because it offends some people, and we would have to take them all out -- anything that could offend anyone." Take my word for it, someone is always offended.

In talking about the commotion the advertisement and Patricia's op-ed had roused on campus, the editorial reminded readers, "With every word you write -- every time you shout out against injustice or raise your voice in support of fairness and truth -- you become the reason we hold to our conscience.

"You may hate us now, but you are -- this is -- the reason we are proud to protect the First Amendment in all aspects of The Rebel Yell."

Sylvia Lazos -- there is a law professor by that name but she is not identified as such in the paper -- scolded the Yell, "Cultural historians argue that it is such commercial images that reinforce discriminatory stereotypes, such as that women can only be taken seriously as objects of desire. ... The best way to avoid heavy-handed campus speech codes is for all key actors in the campus community to exercise their free speech rights responsibly."

No need for speech codes if everyone knows their place and never steps over the line. We just all have to think alike.

Though this is not the most momentous debate ever waged, it is still another example of the power and wisdom of the First Amendment and its role in shaping society for the better.

By the way, the cartoon of Juicy Lucy is no longer featured on the Burger Grind's Web site.

Thomas Mitchell is editor of the Review-Journal and writes about the role of the press and access to public information. He may be contacted at 383-0261 or via e-mail at tmitchell@reviewjournal.com. Read his blog at lvrj.com/blogs/mitchell.