10.20.16 Hillsdale Collegian by The Hillsdale Collegian

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

A4 20 Oct. 2016

Dear CNN, the st Amendment applies to everyone Newsroom: (517) 607-2897 Advertising: (517) 607-2684

The opinion of the Collegian editorial staff

On Wednesday, Oct. 19, CNN’s Chris Cuomo reported that “it’s illegal to possess” the emails released by WikiLeaks. The reporter then claimed the rules are “different” for the media and asserted that his audience would only learn about the documents through Cuomo and his fellow journalists. These statements are nothing more than half-truths to mislead the public and grossly exaggerate the media’s authority. Cuomo and CNN jumped to conclusions in stating that its viewers could not legally possess the emails of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign manager. It is illegal to possess

documents if they are stolen. However, WikiLeaks’ methods for obtaining the emails have not been verified, and the organization itself has called hacking claims “speculation.” CNN is mistaken in reporting assumptions instead of facts. This “we’ll take it from here” approach to reporting is condescending and implies that journalists are a special class of citizens. The privileges assigned to journalists by law are limited to protections from backlash. It is these laws that prevent journalists from lawsuits for reporting harsh facts about public figures, such as presidential candidates. However, they do not

entitle Cuomo and other news outlets to exclusive access. WikiLeaks is a public website. The documents it releases do not need to be “possessed” to be read. Anyone with internet access may legally read them. Cuomo’s statements are a deliberate attempt to prevent his audience from reading the documents and drawing their own conclusions. The people who consume the content that journalists produce are equally entitled to consult public sources on their own. Cuomo’s attempts to mislead the public, partisan or not, go against the basic principles of journalism. While the media may be granted ex-

ceptions under law, there is no rule barring the public from choosing alternate sources for information nor should there be. The growth of social media and independent journalism websites has enabled users to personally fact-check any story if they choose. The freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment does not declare the media to be this country’s only source of information. The Collegian does not encourage this type of reporting. Readers may freely seek the public sources of the stories they see printed in this paper or any other news publication.

You're my best professor if I'm your best student: a Parents' Weekend story

It ’s raining tests and papers By Joel Haines Mehgan Cain Courtesy

By | Mehgan Cain Satirist Hillsdale College’s Parents’ Weekend is a crucial celebration of the relationship between a college student and his parents. Entirely devoted to the adults responsible for their adult children, the weekend is punctuated by the familiarity of home that parents provide— without the free laundry. Additionally, it is a way to authentically introduce parents to their child’s world, all 400 acres of it. The wine and cheese mixer is an accurate picture of the place every parent’s son or daughter accidentally referred to as “home,” seemingly too early during freshman year. As parents consume warm Kroger Cabernet and cheese as orange as the leaves outside, one thing becomes apparent: the donations from last parents weekend did not go to catering spread. But more than that, mom and dad realize they are being—appropriately—

phased out as their children’s primary caregivers. Aristotle once said: “teachers, who educate children, deserve more honor than parents, who merely gave them birth, for the latter provided mere life, while the former ensure a good life.” Parents' Weekend proves more than anything this sentiment to be true, primarily through parent/teacher conferences. The subject-oriented, blind date between parent and professor is the perfect no-pressure introduction to classroom life for mom and dad. The informal, concisely timed 10-minute appointment perfectly emulates a casual, carefree conversation a parent would organically have with their grown son or daughter’s professor. Punctuated by the tapping pencils of professors restlessly willing these not-at-all forced Saturday morning interactions to fly by, parent-teacher conferences are the perfect way for the whole family—and faculty—to abolish their peaceful sleep-in day. Often giving birth to a mini-lecture on each professor’s respective field,

these miniature meetings allow parents to feel at ease about what they’ve spent the last 18 plus years worrying about: the significance of Catholic doctrine in “Dante’s Inferno.” Mom and dad leave these conferences feeling confident that they sent their children to a college with heavier parental involvement than most middle schools, and that their children’s minds are being molded by capable— likely fidgety—hands. Those behind the design of Parents' Weekend thought of everything., including sparsely posted, and confusingly timed, bookstore hours. Created to ensure at least three fruitless trips to the bookstore between Friday and Sunday, the irregular bookstore hours are the best way to make sure your mom cannot spend money on the “Hillsdale College Mom” sweatshirt she so covets. The bookstore hours are not the only flawless aspect of this three-day carnival of quality time; Parents’ Weekend brunch is quintessential. Parents’ Weekend brunch in the cafeteria is as charming as it is representative of campus life. From the completely natural conversations with the junior in your baby bio class whose name you forgot but whose parents you sat next to, to the lunchtime donation plea from Dr. Arnn, this meal will give your parents the real Hillsdale experience. French toast and intricate place settings will have your mom cooing how lucky you are to eat like this every day and will have you nervously laughing, unsure whether to tell her how much you miss her Hamburger Helperinspired cuisine.

Uproarious political talk from a room so like-minded it makes the droids in the Star Wars franchise seem idiosyncratic, will appease your father as he chuckles and comments loudly on how you need to marry the son of the politically compatible stranger he just met. However, the parent’s weekend brunch is not the only food related festivity that makes this weekend as special as it is wholly representative of campus life. After a silent Saturday night of the usual in-dorm board games and 10 p.m. bedtime, Parents’ Weekend tradition dictates a nice Sunday morning postchurch brunch somewhere in town. The bustling metropolis of Hillsdale, Michigan, offers three diverse and delicious options: The Coffee Cup Diner, The Palace Diner, and The Finish Line Diner. These three culinary institutions beckon your family, but their limited seating and tripled customer base will prevent you from eating without an hour to be seated. While you wait to be seated, however, your family can always check out the bookstore! Ultimately, Parents’ Weekend is the perfect way to share the wonderful world of Hillsdale with your mom and dad. From the seemingly endless schedule of college run events to the even greater abyss of down time during which your parents ask “so, what is there to do around here?” It is truly a celebration of family, faculty, and an alarming lack of home-cooked food. Most importantly, it reminds us all that parents are temporary, but college is forever.

While our presidential candidates bicker, Russia is Putin its foot on the gas

Russia will invade Latvia, By | Jacob Thackston Lithuania and Estonia.” Special to The Collegian They should fear. Putin has Amid all the recent conducted a number of snap drama over the Republican military exercises in the nominee’s burgeoning man- Baltic, and the state-owned crush on Russian President Gazprom gas company has Vladimir Putin, the actual the ability to throttle most threat of Russia is being of Eastern Europe’s supply of the crucial natural resource. overlooked. Russia occupies 20 percent And, as his occupations of of the Republic of Georgia, Georgia and Ukraine prove, has completely annexed the Putin is not afraid to expand Crimea peninsula, continues his borders – and the West is to unofficially support afraid to push back. Meanwhile, Russia is insurgency in Eastern flexing its muscle more and Ukraine, and has propped up the Assad Regime in Syria, which has used chemical weapons on its own people. And Russia shows no signs of slowing down. Putin has created a Russia in which he is unchallenged at home, all-powerful in his more on the international region, and among the most stage. After the recent ceasepowerful voices abroad. fire in Syria disintegrated Putin believes in what some and United States Secretary of his predecessors termed of State John Kerry nearly “Greater Russia” in that accused Russia of war crimes, he thinks of the former Putin reacted strongly. The Soviet Republics as merely Kremlin revoked several extensions of the Russian nuclear accords, deployed cultural sphere: “We are not anti-aircraft weapons to just close neighbors,” Putin Syria, dispatched 5000 said after annexing Crimea, paratroopers to participate “we are essentially, as I have in joint exercises in Egypt, said more than once, a single and even suggested that they might reopen military people.” Ted Bromund, a senior bases in Vietnam and Cuba. researcher at the Heritage A reporter on a state-run Foundation wrote in news program relayed a February, “I have met with a significant threat: “boorish number of Eastern European behavior toward Russia and Baltic diplomats and has a nuclear dimension.” politicians. All are convinced Russia completely changed

the calculus in Syria, and is now dictating the terms of the battle, with no fear of Western retaliation. Russia is putting up a strong face abroad in part because of its weakness at home. As the Economist pointed out, “The economy is failing. … Living standards have fallen for the past two years and are falling still. The average salary in January 2014 was $850 a month; a year later it was $450.” The Heritage Foundation is more blunt: “Democratic freedoms

"Trying to be friendly with Putin is like trying to befriend a wolf: you might not fail, but you can never feel safe."

he was widely mocked by his political opponents. President Obama called it a 1980’s foreign policy. Hillary Clinton said that “it's somewhat dated to be looking backward” toward the cold war and its foreign policy. As Secretary of State, it should be mentioned, Clinton brought a “reset” button to Russia that mistakenly read “overcharged” instead. Meanwhile, Philip Breedlove, the Supreme Allied Commander and commander of U.S. European Command, is arguing that Russia poses “a long-term existential threat” to America and her allies. Our current president’s policy – put in place in part by Secretary Clinton – has done nothing to stop Putin’s aggression, and trying to be friendly with Putin is like trying to befriend a wolf: you might not fail, but you can never feel safe, either. The next president must be strong against Russian aggression on the international stage and focus on hitting Russia’s economy. Our next president should use strong economic sanctions to chastise Russia’s abuses of international law, because Russia’s weaknesses are not external – where most Western pressure to date has been applied – but internal.

are in retreat, corruption is endemic, and the future is bleak.” In November 2013, Putin’s approval rating, according to the independent Moscowbased Levada Center, fell to 61 percent – the lowest since 2000. Less than a year later, after his annexation of Crimea and the staging of the Sochi Olympics, Putin’s approval rating was up to 88 percent. Putin’s position at home is strong, but his strength at home seems dependent, at least in part, on his strength and power abroad. When Mitt Romney called Russia our “number one Thackston is geopolitical foe,” in 2012, studying politics.

senior

Vladimir Putin at the World Economic Forum annual meeting Wikimedia Commons