MSUM’s first student newspaper shut down for swearing and ‘mischief making’
As Minnesota State University Moorhead celebrates more than 50 years of The Advocate, a look back at its predecessor that ruffled more than a few feathers.
By Tracy Briggs, Oct. 5, 2022
MOORHEAD – American student journalists of the late 1960s were an entirely different breed – communicators created from cultural unrest. Surrounded by protests over the Vietnam War, women’s rights, and racial unrest, it was probably challenging just to write about who was on the homecoming court.
A modern-day “pen is mightier than the sword” where journalists challenged the status quo, rocking the boat like a dinghy in a hurricane.
And student newspapers in Fargo-Moorhead were right in the eye of the storm. Writer Rob Deckert summed up the new brand of journalism in a 1971 Forum story.
“Some called it a new awareness, some called it radicalism, some called it obnoxious arrogance. It generally meant one thing: trouble.”
Nowhere did this ring more true than on the campus of what is now Minnesota State University Moorhead, where “stop the presses” almost meant forever.