No Eds in Ads

REGARDLESS of the politics behind the ad, and regardless of how any of us feel about the Eastern dispute, we should continue to run Eastern ads.

As Advertising Managers of The Crimson, we must say that it would be an extremely bad business practice to pick and choose our advertisers to ensure that they are "politically correct." If this were The Crimson's policy, most advertisers would not want to risk becoming entangled in the internal politics of The Crimson by submitting an ad; they would simply take their business elsewhere.

Such a reputation could bring serious financial harm to the newspaper. The Crimson, as an editorially and financially independent institution, should not be subject to such constraints.

Beyond financial considerations, advertisements are just not the place where editorial decisions should be made. Opinions are expressed daily in staff editorials and signed pieces on this page. These opinions appear only on the editorial page because it is our policy to use the rest of the paper to objectively present news and information that affects the community.

Advertisements not only are a source of revenue for the paper, but they also help us with our goal of fully informing the community. We would risk losing our objectivity as a newspaper if we allowed our views to be extended to other parts of the paper.

THE staff came close to doing just that when it was proposed on Sunday that we, in effect, answer any future Eastern ads with a free ad supporting the union's position in their dispute. Fortunately, this motion was defeated.

This motion was not made for the sake of equal time; if we were to run an ad for the union, there would be no cries for a response from Eastern. In fact, we have run ads for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, but it was never suggested that we give the University equal space to present its side. The motion was made simply because the large majority of Crimson editors support the union's efforts, and they opposed the anti-union message that they felt was underlying Eastern's low fares.

Just as our news coverage provides for the dissemination of important information into the community, our ads provide an important opportunity for the community to gain a public voice. Any individual, organization or corporation can choose to purchase space in this newspaper to express an opinion. Barring libelous or inciteful material, we should print it. Censorship of news would not be tolerated. Censorship of ads would set just as dangerous a precedent.