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Dailys stolen from campus drop sites

More than half of The Michigan Daily's 16,500 copies were removed yesterday from their normal drop sites around campus, including locations in Mason Hall, the Michigan Union and the Chemistry Building. In place of the missing 8,700 newspapers were fliers denouncing the publication as racist.

"The Michigan Daily has been cancelled today due to racism," the signs said.

The fliers cited the editorial page's criticism of the United People's Coalition, a minority-composed party running for the Michigan Student Assembly, and a cartoon critical of affirmative action as two examples of the Daily's allegedly racist tendencies.

A source who requested to remain anonymous said a dark red car pulled up in front of the Fishbowl door of Angell Hall yesterday morning at approximately 7:30. The source said the car's trunk was full of newspapers and that four to five people got out.

"There was a group of people, some of whom were possibly members of Alianza, who entered and removed all the newspapers," the source said. Alianza is a Latino/a student alliance group on campus.

Several attempts were made to contact Alianza members. None of them could be reached for comment.

Preliminary estimates by the Daily put the financial loss at $10,000, based on the cost of the press run, advertising losses and other expenses.

Department of Public Safety spokesperson Elizabeth Hall said the incident is "under investigation."

"It's being considered as a larceny," Hall said.

Daily Editor in Chief Ronnie Glassberg said all advertisers would either have their ads re-run or receive a refund. Glassberg said the Daily will actively pursue a criminal prosecution against the perpetrators.

Glassberg also said the perpetrators should not be brought up under the University's Code of Student Conduct "because of The Michigan Daily's longstanding opposition to the code of non-academic conduct.

"We will also look at pursuing this as a civil matter."

Lisa Baker, associate vice president for University relations, would not speculate on the possible punishment the perpetrators could face.

"I condemn (the theft)," Baker said. "If a person wants to express their views, there are other ways of doing it. Removing a newspaper, or any publication, from the racks does nothing to air an opinion."

Co-chair of the Board for Student Publications and attorney Joan Lowenstein said she felt extremely angry when she learned of the theft. She compared it to book burning.

"This (theft) was not a method of expression," Lowenstein said. "It's really exercising a very punitive form of censorship."

The incident is one in a nationwide series that began in 1993 when the University of Pennsylvania's student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, had its circulation of 14,000 papers stolen in response to a conservative columnist's controversial racial views.

Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., said that 37 largescale thefts occurred nationwide in the `93-'94 schoolyear, and that 29 occurred in the '94-'95 year.

Goodman said few of the incidents ever repeat themselves, and that administrative and legal reaction is key to preventing a recurrence.

"If school officials immediately come forward and say this action cannot be tolerated ... that usually stops it from happening again," Goodman said.

Michael Fribush, general manager of The Diamondback, the University of Maryland's student newspaper, said that when a large number of its papers were removed from circulation in 1993, his newspaper made a successful effort to pass a state law against the theft of newspapers.

Fribush said about half of The Diamondback's 20,000-21,000 circulation was stolen. He said the provocative role of a newspaper must not be forgotten.

"When you're at a newspaper, whether you write about race or write about anything, if you get complaints, you know you're doing something right," Fribush said.

UPC vice presidential candidate Johnny Su said that even though a quote from a Daily editorial that alluded to his party was mentioned in the fliers, he does not consider the Daily to be racist, merely irresponsible in its coverage of small MSA parties. He said he knows nothing about the thefts, noting that just because an excerpt from a Daily editorial was used as an example of alleged racism, the party should in no way be connected to the thefts.

"I have no idea who took the papers," Su said.

Althea Capul, an LSA sophomore running with UPC, said the removals were "unethical."

"The Daily has a responsibility to be open-minded and as fair as they can be, but they're still a newspaper and have a right to say what they want about student parties," Capul said.

"The removal of the papers is deplorable. It just makes for bad feelings all around. It's just plain petty."

-- Daily Staff Reporter Matt Buckley contributed to this report.