Here's another reason why college newspapers should probably leave the satire to the professionals: a satirical piece titled "What about the good things Hitler did?" which appeared in a Rutgers paper has sparked a boatload of controversy. The fake opinion piece was published in The Daily Medium—a snarky, satirical paper which bills itself as the “Entertainment Weekly of Rutgers”—and it was attributed to Aaron Marcus, a Jewish student activist whose relatives died in the Holocaust. “To say anything praiseworthy of someone like Hitler and to have people actually believe it was coming from me, even in a satirical manner, is just really painful for me and my family,” he told My9TV.
“I'm a firm believer in freedom of speech—but I'm not a firm believer in impersonation and libel,” he added, noting he's still decided whether to file a lawsuit. "I am currently seeking legal counsel in dealing with the matter," he told blog The Right Views. "The Medium has a right to freedom of speech, but they do not have a right to attribute an anti-Semitic Diatribe that praises Adolf Hitler under my name and image. This was a deliberate attempt to spew anti-Semitic hatred and tarnish my image and reputation."
Rutgers President Richard McCormick addressed the controversy in a statement: "A recent article in the Medium, purporting to be written by student Aaron Marcus and using Mr. Marcus' photograph, is extremely offensive and repugnant. No individual student should be subject to such a vicious and provocative and hurtful piece, regardless of whether the First Amendment protections apply to such expression."
Marcus had been interviewed by Rutgers non-satirical school newspaper The Blaze in December in a piece about anti-Semitism on campus—Marcus told them this week that this was yet another incident which suggested the campus is “mainstreaming anti-Semitism,” noting The Daily Medium previously always used aliases with their pieces.
