Rutgers University: Bias Investigation of Satirical Newspaper

In April 2011, as part of its annual April Fools' edition, Rutgers student satire publication The Medium published a fake editorial titled "What about the good things Hitler did?", jokingly attributed to another student columnist known on campus for his frequent commentary on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick denounced the article and announced that the school had launched an investigation of its publication as a possible "bias incident." Just days after FIRE sent a letter to Rutgers airing our concerns and hours after FIRE publicized the investigation, Rutgers notified FIRE that the administration would not punish The Medium, stating that "students are not punished for exercising their right to free speech, including speech in student publications."