Recently, there have been a lot of questions regarding one of The Leader’s advertisements.
The University at Buffalo ad first appeared in Issue 11 and has been printed in subsequent issues, including this one.
While the Editorial Board wishes the representative at UB had phrased the ad differently, The Leader is a student-run organization that has always strived to operate like a business. This means that we reserve the right to accept or deny the ads that we choose.
Given the current state of advertising and the newspaper industry, we only turn down ads for extremely good reasons (advertisements containing illegal substances, for example).
Further, it seems necessary to clarify that The Leader is not a part of the Marketing and Communications department. While this office’s main focus is to attract prospective students and engage the current campus community, The Leader’s is to objectively inform our peers. We are by no means obligated to promote Fredonia as the best and only option for education in the SUNY system. UB is another school within SUNY and a valid option for students pursuing higher education.
The bottom line is that UB paid for a spot in the newspaper. The Leader operates in a free market, which, as defined by the American economist Murray N. Rothbard, is when “Each exchange is undertaken as a voluntary agreement between two people or between groups of people represented by agents.”
The keyword here being voluntary, denying The Leader the right to pick and choose which clients they can and cannot accept advertisements from is essentially censorship. Journalists have a long history battling gatekeepers of this nature. It is an accepted part of our career path, fundamentally ingrained in our DNA.
The advertisement was by no means intended to offend or degrade Fredonia. It was a business transaction that was decided upon by The Leader staff.
And if Fredonia ever has any interest in placing an ad in the school newspaper, we would be happy to oblige.