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CSU Republicans aren't beating around bush in newspaper flap

Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 9, 2007 at midnight

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FORT COLLINS - Republican students at Colorado State University launched their own publication Monday, two weeks after a student newspaper directed an expletive at President Bush.

The Ram Republic, to be published monthly, calls itself the "Conservative Voice of Colorado State University."

Editor Bobby Carson said the Republicans already were thinking about starting a publication when the campus paper, The Rocky Mountain Collegian, published a four-word editorial that directed a four- letter word at Bush. The Collegian's editor, J. David -McSwane, has since been reprimanded by the student publication board.

"That accelerated our efforts," Carson said of the Collegian flap.

Carson, 26, a senior majoring in political science, said The Ram will be unabashedly partisan. But the paper will not aim expletives at Democrats, he said.

"There's never going to be any profanity in our paper," Carson said.

The maiden edition includes a front-page article by Bob Beauprez, the 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate, blasting Democratic presidential candidates for their stances on the Iraq war and gay marriage.

It also includes an article by a former soldier who spent a year in Iraq, lauding the sacrifices of U.S. troops in the nation's wars, and a piece opposing gun control.

Carson and other Republicans gave out 1,000 copies of the magazine-size publication in front of the student union Monday. He said they plan to print more.

Kyle Furtner, 22, a senior majoring in math, welcomed The Ram.

"It's good to see the other point of view," said Furtner, who describes himself as conservative.

Furtner said he was turned off by The Collegian's attack on Bush.

"As soon as I read it, I threw the paper away," he said.

But Alisa Tonozzi, 22, a senior majoring in environmental health, said what the campus needs is not a partisan publication but "honest journalism" that reports both sides of issues.

Robert Mitchell, 21, a junior majoring in international relations, said The Ram is a reaction to the flap over "the F- bomb" that was overblown in the first place. "Let them print a newspaper," Mitchell said, noting Republicans have First Amendment rights to publish what they please.

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