The First Amendment is a foundation to stand on, not a fortress to hide behind.

Journalists allow themselves to be used to publish lies under the guise of a free speech ruse, blaming the public's need to know. Liars, libelers, revisionists and propagandists do not expect that public to knock on their door, call them on the telephone, or email them to confront them directly. That is exactly what the public has the need to know: where those who corrode the First Amendment can be found for a direct dialogue. People who want the spotlight of notoriety on them often find the heat of that light is too much to bear, and they scramble back into the shadows again.

The messenger is as important as the message. While news is a business, it is hypocritical for journalists to claim that speakers of hate propaganda must be given their right to free speech, but then to say that only their newspaper or radio or television station is the place for response through letters to the editor. The media should not control the arena of discussion, limiting the boundaries to the pages of their newspaper, the confines of a radio or television station. People have a right and a need to know how to directly contact the messengers of hate and divisiveness; however their message is disseminated in paid advertisements, letters or editorials

David Horowitz wrote absurd reparations advertisement, published in some ill-informed college newspapers. Scholars have written that what Horowitz claims as fact is actually revisionist racist propaganda. By the 1980s, Horowitz decided that jumping on the Reagan bandwagon was more profitable than sticking to progressive politics. As a veteran student protestor, he hoped his advertisement would incite student reactions.

Horowitz went on a national college tour getting more free publicity for the book he was selling, and the organizations he runs. He returned to his old stomping ground at U.C. Berkeley but refused to answer questions challenging him, walked off the stage without a word, blinded by the light of public scrutiny.

Newspapers should have published Horowitz's telephone number 1-800-752-6526, email address dhorowitz@frontpagemag.com , and office address 9911 W. Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles. College students would have been able to engage in a more productive exercise of their First Amendment rights of speech and protest. Horowitz walked through the opened door and down the slippery slope of college newspapers accepting money, and publishing questionable advertising, without investigating the advertiser's credibility.

Bradley R. Smith opened that slippery slope door in 1991, when he began using college newspapers to sling his swill claiming that the Holocaust never happened. In 1998, he used The Oracle and 79 other college newspapers as pawns, duping them into believing he had a First Amendment right to falsely accuse Noble Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel of lying.

If the New Paltz College "Oracle" staff had done their jobs, they would have discovered that Smith is not a scholar but only a high school graduate, in the business of getting fellow antisemites to send him money. Instead they published first and never checked, risking their own credibility as responsible journalists, or being sued for libel by Professor Wiesel.

To actually honor the First Amendment, New Paltz College"Oracle" editors would have told readers where to reach Smith: 858-309-4385 or brsmith@telnor.net . Smith lives in the shadows of foundation of the First Amendment, his San Diego actual address is unlisted, but he can be reached at P.O. Box 439016, San Diego, CA 92134.

Boston University President John Silber wrote an open letter to colleges and universities regarding Smith's advertisement: "A university should have as one of its purposes to teach students the difference between the search for truth and false propaganda. No newspaper -- and certainly no newspaper on the campus of a university -- is under any obligation to advertise and perpetuate vicious lies."

Readers should be given all the information needed to respond directly to controversial newsmakers. State University of New York Board of Trustee member, Dr. Candace deRussy is quite controversial. She was accused of pressuring New Paltz College President Roger Bowen to resign. She criticized Black Studies programs, as quoted in the New Paltz College "Oracle" February 28. If students and faculty knew her telephone number, 518-443-5157, they could call her and tell her what they think. If they wanted to report their conversation in the "Oracle" that would be their choice.

Journalists erode the First Amendment when they control the arena for debate.