LETTER: Responsibility of the press

Editor,

In the past week, The Utah Statesman has published an essay by Yasir Kaheil purporting to address the relationship of the Jewish religion to the current difficulties in the Middle East in general and Palestine in particular. I find the essay offensive in tone and in fact.

  I full well recognize that universities have long been at the center of the political and social dialogue that shapes our world. Papers such as The Utah Statesman have a duty to foster a thoughtful exchange of viewpoints and meaningful discussion about critical issues through their opinion columns. Such a discourse makes the university a better place by encouraging the free and honest expression of individual viewpoints.

Every student and staff member has a right to express his opinion. It is, after all, our differences that make us strong, and it is our opportunity to address those differences that make us free. We are a nation of a thousand peoples, hundreds of subcultures and hundreds of religions, and we are a nation where we value those differences.

  The marketplace of ideas should be free, but it should also be responsible. It is incumbent on those who operate the press to exercise discretion when advocacy fails to conform with the facts and in so doing disparages any group of people based on race or ethnicity, and in this case an attack tied to a discredited reading of the past.

  I am pleased that The Utah Statesman published the letter of professor Steve Siporin. As his letter makes clear, as a matter of ethical journalism and in light of the crude characterizations of the Jewish religion and its adherents made by Mr. Kaheil, the editors of the paper owe its readers an explanation of why it felt compelled to publish the essay in the form in which it appeared.

Kermit L. Hall