JuicyCampus does more than just 'bruise feelings'

I was just wondering whether Oliver Sherouse actually thinks that JuicyCampus.com falls under any reasonable definition of "free speech" ("Can't stand the mild warmth," Nov. 14).

I agreed with him when he said that the only thing stupider than the Web site are the people who get offended by it. If you take more than five minutes to JC it up, you'll find first and last names of alleged drug users, drug dealers and-with slightly less serious repercussions at stake-cheaters. JuicyCampus is facilitating libel and then knowingly protecting the rights of its abusers more than its victims.

While posts may have started out as "utterly dismissible spitballs," as Sherouse put so metaphorically, some are now spitballs of such girth and saliva that they could bring both the spitter and the victim the very literal prospects of being thrown out of school or into the court system. The site's doing more than "bruising feelings" in its current form and if it isn't changed it will soon lead to resumes, checkbooks, criminal records and all sorts of other personifiable things being bruised as well.

I'm hoping Sherouse just did shockingly poor research for this column. In that case he's just a slacker and not my nominee for JC's thread about who is the "retardedest kid who got into duke."

For my two cents, the JC should be wiped clean of all anonymous posts that clearly constitute libel and are complained about. They should abandon their anonymity policy. Offering such a policy does very little to meaningfully further the cause of free speech and instead provides a medium for serious defamation of character to occur. I think Jean-Paul Sartre was right when he said, "Hell is other people." And the only thing remotely funny about this whole situation is that we found ours in JC.

Sam Barton

Trinity '10