In recent days, news media representatives have contacted Mississippi State seeking official comment on recent front-page coverage given by the university's student newspaper, The Reflector, of an upcoming recruiting visit by photographers for Playboy magazine.
While Playboy has neither sought nor received institutional approval or endorsement of this project, or requested to use any university facilities or resources, President Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong is issuing the following statement in response to those media queries:
We support the constitutional right to freedom of the press; therefore, we do not exert editorial control over this independent newspaper. Nor should we.
Having spent 33 years in the U.S. Air Force defending the right to speak freely in a free society, I would be disappointed if this great university did not stand on those principles.
We believe student editors always have the responsibility to use good judgment that serves the student body and the institution. We also would hope that they continually exercise maturity and their best judgment consistent with their editorial and news responsibilities.
