The sky is blue
and an ad is not an endorsement
This is a message from the editorial board of Central Michigan Life. Not Central Michigan University Life, not CMU and not University Communications. That distinction is important.
CM Life, like professional news organizations around the world, relies on our status as an independent publication to have the freedom to report the stories that need to be told. It is what identifies us as journalists with a responsibility to our community to uphold the values of accuracy, fairness and balance.
The alternative would be a public relations team, but CMU already has one of those.
Instead, we are in a position to conduct investigations and publish articles of our choosing. CM Life is responsible only to our ethics, our readers and the law.
That’s why we’re at the meetings of the Board of Trustees, translating the administrative jargon into real-life impact. That’s why we hear faculty concerns at the Academic Senate and student concerns at the Student Government Association, and we ask you what matters.
That's why we cover city and county government, attend meetings and interview municipal leaders.
We don’t do it because it’s easy – in fact, it’s not – we do it because it has to be done. We do it because when the provost resigns, readers look to us first.
We do it because after hateful, racist slurs were used on our campus, someone has to hold our trustees and administration accountable to the promises of change they made last spring.
While our online articles and copies of our print editions are available to you for free, we cannot run our organization for free. Our incredibly talented, hardworking and law-abiding advertising team allows us to continue.
They sell advertisements to all kinds of local, state and national clients whose payments make it possible for us to publish the stories that are central to the community’s needs.
It has reached our ears that not all of the ads are well-received. First, we would invite you to contact us directly, as the university has no role in who we sell ads to.
But second, we would remind you that advertising a political candidate like Vice President Kamala Harris is not an endorsement, it is legally protected speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
We could endorse if we wanted to, but it’s part of those pesky ethics that influence every professional decision we make.
So why are we running her ads? Because her campaign paid us to.
If former President Donald Trump’s campaign wanted to purchase an ad from us, we would sell them one. We would be happy to do so, and charge exactly the same rate as the Harris campaign.
Not only would it provide us with more revenue, but maybe, just maybe, we would stop getting pushback.
When your local news station runs an ad for a partisan candidate running for office, do you call them and complain? No.
When the New York Times prints an ad for a presidential candidate, do you call them biased and assume it’s an endorsement? No. No one does that.
It's also concerning and disappointing that other student publications are receiving similar treatment. Penn State recently removed the Daily Collegian's news racks and news papers without right or warning, planning to return the racks without the ads.
Former CMU advertising professor and decade-long guest lecturer Douglas Berry explained that the Harris-Walz campaign is advertising with us because our readership (at least in part) overlaps with the demographic they want to reach.
“They write the check that will be most effective for who their target is,” Berry said. “It’s the demographics and the psychographics … of the people you’re trying to appeal to.”
The numbers reflect that. A survey published by the Pew Research Center on Sept. 9 shows Harris leading among 18-29 year olds and college graduates. Our readership (generally) is her target demographic.
After 105 years of serving the CMU and Mount Pleasant community, we’re not done. It’s still true that running an ad is not an endorsement – just like 25, 50 and 100 years ago.
If you want someone advertised, buy an ad.
