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Opinion

Princeton prof should learn to take a joke 

Monica Grainger
Opinion Columnist

Princeton University's student newspaper The Daily Princetonian is under fire, the Student Press Law Center reported, from students and at least one faculty member who apparently lack a gene identified by the Human Genome Project as being responsible for humor.

The paper's annual satire issue, published as The Gaily Printsanything, parodies hot topics from the year's news and some current events. Every page in the online edition gives the warning, "This article is a part of The Daily Princetonian's annual joke issue. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet."

Those warnings did not stop Professor Robert George, an outspoken critic of gay marriage, from pursuing a libel lawsuit against the paper. George was cross-parodied with Reverend Ted Haggard's gay sex and methamphetamine predicament in November last year, and claimed George's imminent resignation.

The Student Press Law Center reported the following statement made by George to the Philadelphia Inquirer, "I have the matter under review with a lawyer (and) I certainly do not want to do anything that harms Princeton University, which has been an extremely congenial home to me."

It is too late for that because the first consequence of George's lawsuit will be a chilling effect on the speech unique to a free press. The satirical edition physically harms no one and the warnings make amply clear that all the stories are spoof.

George is one of 70 signatories as of July 17, 2006 to the document "Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles." The document claims that the institution of marriage must be between man and woman in order for the intended net social benefits to accrue. The ten principles detail the types of beneficial marriage (life unions) and social benefits that come from the institution of marriage.

All ten principles, however, can be recast without reference to spouses' genders, forcing the policy recommendations, such as a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, to first leap a giant chasm of non sequitur in calling strongly for defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

The case law for libel regarding the nature of the published materials is favorable for The Princetonian, with a 1988 ruling in Walko v. Kean College of New Jersey stating, "A parody or spoof that no reasonable person would read as a factual statement, or as anything other than a joke … albeit a bad joke … cannot be actionable as a defamation," a Student Press Law news release said.

The Princetonian's parody is intelligent and well placed, making subtle satire an art form to imitate and appreciate. Maybe one day irritable cranks like George will evolve to a level of appreciation for this ancient art form popularized by everyone from Aeschylus, to our contemporary Stephen Colbert, of Colbert's Report.

Granger, an economics/political science senior, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu