Shelving Controversey
Excerpt from Quill; SPJ Report
January/February 1996

Lehigh University changed its mind and now is interested in publishing a book on changes at the Globe-Times of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, after initially shelving the project as "sensationalist"that could offend potential donors to the school.

Author Walter Brasch, journalism professor at Bloomsburg University and president of the SPJ Keystone State chapter . wrote "Betrayed: Death of an American Newspaper."The book chronicles the decline of the family-owned newspaper that was sold in 1991 to the Express in nearby Easton.

"It's very similar to a newspaper publisher talking to a reporter saying "It's a good story, but we don't want to run it because we don't want to offend our advertisers,"Brasch says. After a contract is signed, it is extremely rare that an administration gets involved because of academic freedom and First Amendment issues."

Selections of this book:

Prologue
Acknowledgements
Introduction