The Badger Herald
Encyclopedia
The Badger Herald is a newspaper serving the University of Wisconsin–Madison
community. Founded in 1969, it is one of America's first independent daily student newspaper
s. The paper is published Monday through Friday during the academic year. Available at newsstands across campus and Downtown Madison, Wisconsin
and published on the Web, it has a print circulation of 15,000.
The Badger Herald, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation run entirely by University of Wisconsin–Madison students and funded solely by advertising revenue. The Board of Directors, which operates the company, is composed of nine UW students and three non-voting advisers, including noted First Amendment
expert Donald Downs
and former Republican
congressional candidate John Sharpless.
The staff consists of more than 100, about half of whom are salaried employees. The office is located off-campus at 326 W. Gorham St., less than one block from State Street
. The paper is printed by Capital Newspapers, Inc.
, home of the Wisconsin State Journal
and The Capital Times.
The Badger Herald was founded in 1969 by a group of four students seeking a conservative alternative to the UW–Madison's primary student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal
, which editorialized against the Vietnam War
and had close ties to leaders of the radical campus protest movement. When anti-war activists detonated a truck bomb outside the University's Army Math Research Center
on August 24, 1970, damaging several campus buildings and killing a post doc physics researcher, The Daily Cardinal editorially supported the bombers, saying "If Robert Fassnacht had died in Vietnam ... he would be a line in a news story – a number. And that is the reality that some of us have already died to change will struggle to change." While such attitudes were wide-spread on college campuses at the time, the Daily Cardinal -- along with other college newspapers -- helped coordinate and encourage activism against military research. The Daily Cardinal would later become more moderate in response to pressure from local media, the UW Board of Regents, staff members leaving, declining advertising revenue, and the radicalism of the 1960s and early 1970s dying down around the country.
Still, The Badger Herald formed in direct response to the then-radicalism of The Daily Cardinal and the campus. After several months of fund-raising, scrounging for desks and typewriters, and renting a walk-up office two blocks from the University's Bascom Hill at 538 State Street, the first issue of The Badger Herald was published on September 10, 1969. In the late-1970s, the Herald moved to 550 State Street. When the Herald moved to its present-day offices at 326 W. Gorham Street in 1998, the editors kept much of the furniture, including the original desks and homemade light board.
Founding editor Patrick S. Korten received financial support for the new paper from nationally known conservative writer William F. Buckley after it ran into financial trouble in 1971. Buckley raised money for the struggling paper by giving a fund-raising dinner speech in Madison, with proceeds going to the paper. It is the only speech Buckley ever gave free of charge.
During the 1970s the paper remained solvent through advertising sales to businesses on the populous UW campus. The Herald has consistently refused offers of a subsidy from the university in order to maintain its editorial independence
.
During that era, the paper maintained a consistently conservative editorial policy - one that has since been abandoned - on a campus that was considered so liberal that it was called "The Berkeley of the Midwest". The paper received regional attention and sparked a series of campus protests in 1976 and 1978 by publishing controversial opinion pieces titled, "Mao, Death of a Tyrant", "Top Commie Bites Dust", "Can Africans Rule Themselves?" and "Confronting the Lavender Menace or: The Case Against Homosexuality".
In 1977, the Badger Herald used its editorial muscle to help members of the Inter-Fraternity Council and other moderate to conservative students electorally wrest control of the Wisconsin Student Association, the campus student government, from left-wing campus radicals. This effectively signaled the end of 60s-style campus radicalism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The Herald was the first newspaper in the state of Wisconsin to publish the work of Pulitzer Prize
-winning editorial cartoonist, Jeff MacNelly, having signed the exclusive area rights from his syndicate in 1976.
The Badger Herald was first published as a weekly newspaper, went twice weekly in 1974 and went daily in 1987. Early on it established itself as a serious presence on campus, and by the early 1990s, overtook the much-older Daily Cardinal, in circulation and advertising revenue. By 1992, the once upstart conservative alternative campus newspaper had become the dominant newspaper on the 40,000 student University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. Today, the "Badger Herald" is still perceived as more conservative than the rival "Daily Cardinal".
In 2001 The Badger Herald published an advertisement by controversial conservative writer David Horowitz that argued against reparations for slavery
. Weathering several protests and disruptions in circulation, the Herald refused to apologize for publishing the advertisement. After a flurry of national news coverage, the paper's status as an independent student newspaper stood firm.
The Herald’s position was lauded in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Wisconsin State Journal. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorialized that the Herald is "living proof that the Constitution is a living document".
On February 13, 2006 the The Badger Herald's editorial board published a controversial cartoon
that depicted Muhammad
. In the accompanying column titled "Sacred Images, Sacred Rights", the board said it considered the cartoon "offensive" but also deemed it "clearly newsworthy" and a "vehicle of facilitation in the grand marketplace of ideas". In May 2008, a controversial cartoon of David Horowitz
, originally published in the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee school newspaper, the UW–M Post, that depicted the conservative writer who is of Jewish-American heritage with a hooked nose, was republished on the front page of The Badger Herald. The coverage of this article, that was accompanied by the controversial cartoon, followed the pattern of The Herald's decision to reprint images considered taboo.
In February 2010, the Herald accepted a text ad on its website from Bradley Smith with the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust, a Holocaust denial
organization. The Herald Editor in Chief at the time, Jason Smathers, defended the decision based on the belief that the community was strong enough to see and reject the ad. After a strong push back from the university community, of which at least 25 percent is Jewish, the newspaper said it regretted the pain the decision caused but ultimately kept the ad up for the entirety of its month-long run. In March 2010,the United States Holocaust Museum used the newspaper's decision in a form letter soliciting donations from members.
The Badger Herald today publishes a comics page
five days per week. Long-running comics include White Bread & Toast (since at least 2004) and Rocky the Herald Comics Raccoon, about a witty, whiskey-swilling roustabout known for his sarcastic observations.
publishes each weekday during the academic year and has a circulation of 10,000, making the University of Wisconsin–Madison one of the few universities in the United States with two daily student newspapers. The campus also hosts two bimonthly newspapers: The Mendota Beacon
, founded in February 2005, and The Madison Observer, founded in April 2003. In addition, the campus was the birthplace of the satirical weekly, The Onion
, the comedy newspaper The Madison Misnomer
, founded in 2007, and the conservative journal, Insight and Outlook, a precursor to the Badger Herald.
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
community. Founded in 1969, it is one of America's first independent daily student newspaper
Student newspaper
A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
s. The paper is published Monday through Friday during the academic year. Available at newsstands across campus and Downtown Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
and published on the Web, it has a print circulation of 15,000.
The Badger Herald, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation run entirely by University of Wisconsin–Madison students and funded solely by advertising revenue. The Board of Directors, which operates the company, is composed of nine UW students and three non-voting advisers, including noted First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
expert Donald Downs
Donald Downs
Donald Alexander Downs is an American political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison known for his work on the First Amendment.Downs received his Ph.D. from the University of California - Berkeley and his B.A. from Cornell University...
and former Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
congressional candidate John Sharpless.
The staff consists of more than 100, about half of whom are salaried employees. The office is located off-campus at 326 W. Gorham St., less than one block from State Street
State Street (Madison)
State Street is a pedestrian mall located in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, United States, near the Wisconsin State Capitol. The road proper extends from the west corner of land comprising the Capitol westward to Lake Street, adjoining the campus of the University of Wisconsin - Madison at Library...
. The paper is printed by Capital Newspapers, Inc.
Capital Newspapers
Capital Newspapers is a partnership between Lee Enterprises and The Capital Times Company that operates 27 publications and several web sites in Wisconsin. The corporate name of the company is Madison Newspapers Inc...
, home of the Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin State Journal
The Wisconsin State Journal is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin...
and The Capital Times.
History
The Daily Cardinal
The Daily Cardinal is a student newspaper that serves the University of Wisconsin–Madison community. The sixth oldest daily student newspaper in the country, it began publishing on Monday, April 4, 1892...
, which editorialized against the Vietnam War
Opposition to the Vietnam War
The movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
and had close ties to leaders of the radical campus protest movement. When anti-war activists detonated a truck bomb outside the University's Army Math Research Center
Sterling Hall bombing
The Sterling Hall Bombing that occurred on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus on August 24, 1970 was committed by four young people as a protest against the University's research connections with the US military during the Vietnam War...
on August 24, 1970, damaging several campus buildings and killing a post doc physics researcher, The Daily Cardinal editorially supported the bombers, saying "If Robert Fassnacht had died in Vietnam ... he would be a line in a news story – a number. And that is the reality that some of us have already died to change will struggle to change." While such attitudes were wide-spread on college campuses at the time, the Daily Cardinal -- along with other college newspapers -- helped coordinate and encourage activism against military research. The Daily Cardinal would later become more moderate in response to pressure from local media, the UW Board of Regents, staff members leaving, declining advertising revenue, and the radicalism of the 1960s and early 1970s dying down around the country.
Still, The Badger Herald formed in direct response to the then-radicalism of The Daily Cardinal and the campus. After several months of fund-raising, scrounging for desks and typewriters, and renting a walk-up office two blocks from the University's Bascom Hill at 538 State Street, the first issue of The Badger Herald was published on September 10, 1969. In the late-1970s, the Herald moved to 550 State Street. When the Herald moved to its present-day offices at 326 W. Gorham Street in 1998, the editors kept much of the furniture, including the original desks and homemade light board.
Founding editor Patrick S. Korten received financial support for the new paper from nationally known conservative writer William F. Buckley after it ran into financial trouble in 1971. Buckley raised money for the struggling paper by giving a fund-raising dinner speech in Madison, with proceeds going to the paper. It is the only speech Buckley ever gave free of charge.
During the 1970s the paper remained solvent through advertising sales to businesses on the populous UW campus. The Herald has consistently refused offers of a subsidy from the university in order to maintain its editorial independence
Editorial independence
Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clientele....
.
During that era, the paper maintained a consistently conservative editorial policy - one that has since been abandoned - on a campus that was considered so liberal that it was called "The Berkeley of the Midwest". The paper received regional attention and sparked a series of campus protests in 1976 and 1978 by publishing controversial opinion pieces titled, "Mao, Death of a Tyrant", "Top Commie Bites Dust", "Can Africans Rule Themselves?" and "Confronting the Lavender Menace or: The Case Against Homosexuality".
In 1977, the Badger Herald used its editorial muscle to help members of the Inter-Fraternity Council and other moderate to conservative students electorally wrest control of the Wisconsin Student Association, the campus student government, from left-wing campus radicals. This effectively signaled the end of 60s-style campus radicalism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The Herald was the first newspaper in the state of Wisconsin to publish the work of Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning editorial cartoonist, Jeff MacNelly, having signed the exclusive area rights from his syndicate in 1976.
The Badger Herald was first published as a weekly newspaper, went twice weekly in 1974 and went daily in 1987. Early on it established itself as a serious presence on campus, and by the early 1990s, overtook the much-older Daily Cardinal, in circulation and advertising revenue. By 1992, the once upstart conservative alternative campus newspaper had become the dominant newspaper on the 40,000 student University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. Today, the "Badger Herald" is still perceived as more conservative than the rival "Daily Cardinal".
In 2001 The Badger Herald published an advertisement by controversial conservative writer David Horowitz that argued against reparations for slavery
Reparations for slavery
Reparations for slavery is a proposal that some type of compensation should be provided to the descendants of enslaved people in the United States, in consideration of the coerced and uncompensated labor their ancestors performed over several centuries...
. Weathering several protests and disruptions in circulation, the Herald refused to apologize for publishing the advertisement. After a flurry of national news coverage, the paper's status as an independent student newspaper stood firm.
The Herald’s position was lauded in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Wisconsin State Journal. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorialized that the Herald is "living proof that the Constitution is a living document".
On February 13, 2006 the The Badger Herald's editorial board published a controversial cartoon
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
that depicted Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
. In the accompanying column titled "Sacred Images, Sacred Rights", the board said it considered the cartoon "offensive" but also deemed it "clearly newsworthy" and a "vehicle of facilitation in the grand marketplace of ideas". In May 2008, a controversial cartoon of David Horowitz
David Horowitz
David Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer and policy advocate. Horowitz was raised by parents who were both members of the American Communist Party. Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left before rejecting Marxism completely...
, originally published in the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee school newspaper, the UW–M Post, that depicted the conservative writer who is of Jewish-American heritage with a hooked nose, was republished on the front page of The Badger Herald. The coverage of this article, that was accompanied by the controversial cartoon, followed the pattern of The Herald's decision to reprint images considered taboo.
In February 2010, the Herald accepted a text ad on its website from Bradley Smith with the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust, a Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
organization. The Herald Editor in Chief at the time, Jason Smathers, defended the decision based on the belief that the community was strong enough to see and reject the ad. After a strong push back from the university community, of which at least 25 percent is Jewish, the newspaper said it regretted the pain the decision caused but ultimately kept the ad up for the entirety of its month-long run. In March 2010,the United States Holocaust Museum used the newspaper's decision in a form letter soliciting donations from members.
Comics
In 1976, when numerous newspapers nationally including the Madison Capital Times declined to run a series of Gary Trudeau's "Doonesbury" comic strips because of their controversial content, The Badger Herald negotiated with the syndicate and was the only paper regionally to print the cartoons.The Badger Herald today publishes a comics page
Comics page
The comics page of a daily newspaper is a page largely or entirely devoted to comic strips. Other features that frequently appear on the comics page are crossword puzzles and horoscopes. Other special pages in newspapers include the sports page and the society page....
five days per week. Long-running comics include White Bread & Toast (since at least 2004) and Rocky the Herald Comics Raccoon, about a witty, whiskey-swilling roustabout known for his sarcastic observations.
Shout-outs
One feature of The Badger Herald is its weekly shout-outs, in which students post stories, typically humorous, that have occurred around campus. Each Wednesday the best stories are published in the Classifieds section of the paper.Other student publications
The Daily CardinalThe Daily Cardinal
The Daily Cardinal is a student newspaper that serves the University of Wisconsin–Madison community. The sixth oldest daily student newspaper in the country, it began publishing on Monday, April 4, 1892...
publishes each weekday during the academic year and has a circulation of 10,000, making the University of Wisconsin–Madison one of the few universities in the United States with two daily student newspapers. The campus also hosts two bimonthly newspapers: The Mendota Beacon
The Mendota Beacon
The Mendota Beacon was a free, privately funded biweekly published newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin between 2005 and 2007. Its first issue was on February 12, 2005, Republican president Abraham Lincoln's birthday...
, founded in February 2005, and The Madison Observer, founded in April 2003. In addition, the campus was the birthplace of the satirical weekly, The Onion
The Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
, the comedy newspaper The Madison Misnomer
The Madison Misnomer
The Madison Misnomer is a quarterly undergraduate newspaper published at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin featuring comedy articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, and arts reviews....
, founded in 2007, and the conservative journal, Insight and Outlook, a precursor to the Badger Herald.