Lansing — Many students at Michigan State University are aware that the school and administration tends to have a liberal bent, but why does the State News also choose to peddle anti-conservative sentiment in so many of its politics and education stories?
MSU’s student newspaper should serve the student body of MSU, not peddle political and bureaucratic propaganda. Yet in an article from April, the State News decided to investigate why many conservative-leaning students were “putting their professors on blast.”
Their main evidence was that a student named Jackson McIntyre posted a picture on X of a multiple-choice question from his class. The question asked why white people were overrepresented in ice hockey, and students could then select one of four options to explain the discrepancy: “economic inequality,” “racial discrimination,” “both,” or “other.”
McIntyre explained: “Race doesn’t determine your income, there’s no discrimination in professional sports. If you’re the best congrats you play professional, if you’re not you don’t play it’s as simple as that.”
The State News went on to list other MSU professors who have been targeted by conservatives before. Behavioral Science Professor Alexa Veenena wrote to students after the 2024 election and claimed that it was “unbelievable” that “so many Americans are so utterly naïve and would fall for this and support misogyny, racism, xenophobia, hate, and violence.”
She continued to write that “you must be as devastated as I am,” making the blatant assumption that all who surround her act and think exactly like her. I have been in these exact situations: A professor assumes their whole class is in agreement, so they start on an ultra-leftist tirade without any room for dissent.
Instead of acknowledging the discomfort many conservative-leaning students feel in the classroom and on campus, the State News instead went on to defend these professors and find a random “expert” to claim that students posting about their professors is “a bit like McCarthyism,” despite also recognizing she “doesn’t deny that there are professors who shove their politics down the throats of their students.”
And if professors, MSU admin, and the State News want to push the narrative that education is front and center, then why do professors like Shlagha Borah cancel class in the wake of the 2024 election, citing the need to “grieve” and claiming the she cannot, in good conscience, go about her day “like everything is alright.”
There are so many more examples of ways the State News perpetuates anti-conservative bias and sentiment. Many times, instead of doing their due diligence, they parrot talking points of administration officials, professors, and prominent Democrats.
While reporting on the Michigan House Republican Education Budget, for example, they reeled at how the plan would cut a dollar of government funding for every dollar spent on DEI initiatives at MSU. The author seemed not to understand that the school could simply claw back that funding by eliminating unnecessary policies. And, despite it being the House Republican plan, they decided to interview a House Democrat about it.
As of June 30, 2024, the MSU’s Finance Office reported the university’s financial assets totaled $8.5 billion. I think they can work around a slight budget cut, make the necessary improvements, and continue properly educating the next generation. The State News wants people to believe otherwise.
Maybe instead of being dedicated to professors driven by political agendas, the State News could actually report on what is affecting students and how to better our campus environment, not act as a glorified PR firm for the Left.
Eli Raykinstein is a junior at Michigan State University studying political science.
