See what college papers around the country are saying about this week’s news

Facebook scheming alienates consumers

Following fierce protests from Moveon.org and thousands of its own members, Facebook announced this weekend that it would not move forward with the most egregious invasion of personal privacy in its short history.

But while those who successfully and admirably faced the company down on a poorly planned advertising scheme rejoice, there is no guarantee that Facebook will not sell itself again in the near future. Indeed, it appears that a website college students have come to love and trust is yet another corporation intent on making money and marketing coolness.

The most recent controversy arose out of Facebook’s use of Beacon, a system that tracks online purchases from various commercial websites and, in the case of Facebook, routes that information directly to individual profiles.

For example, a UW-Madison student could buy a book, a DVD, movie tickets and so forth, only for that information to suddenly enter the public record, available to anybody with access to their profile. In addtion, the information would appear on hundreds of news feeds simultaneously. Fortunately, Moveon.org led the charge in rightly assailing the practice as intrusive. It was right, and its actions appear to have prevented Facebook from acting as a go-between for bigger, wealthier companies feverishly seeking college-aged consumers.

-The Daily Cardinal (U. Wisconsin)

Pulling the trigger

Written in an age in which minutemen rose to dress and fight at a moment’s notice, the Second Amendment was no doubt motivated by a young nation’s concern for its own safety and stability. But now, when the United States is protected by the most powerful security forces on the globe, the Second Amendment is neither relevant nor useful. Rather, it has become an impediment to vital public policy, and it should be repealed and replaced with nuanced federal legislation.

-Harvard Crimson (Harvard)

CNN shouldn’t try to edit its own history

During last Wednesday’s YouTube/CNN presidential debate, the Republican candidates were posed a variety of questions about their positions on the economy, gun control, immigration and the war in Iraq. But one question, particularly relevant to voters in a time of war – both military and cultural – no longer appears on rebroadcasts of the event.

Ret. Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr rose from the audience and asked the candidates about their views on the controversial “”Don’t ask, don’t tell”” policy that is approaching its 15th anniversary. After lamenting that none of them answered his question even after pressing from moderator Anderson Cooper, Kerr sat down and the debate proceeded.

Before going off the air, Cooper told the audience that CNN had been subsequently alerted that Kerr served as a member of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans for a steering committee of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and that had the network realized this, it would have handled the situation differently.

While the network apologized, it went too far in pretending that the incident didn’t happen. Even though CNN erred in allowing a question from another campaign to get in without disclosing it, the question itself was topical and incredibly relevant to anyone who is running to become the next commander in chief.

Instead of acknowledging the mistake in future reruns, CNN has attempted to edit history by completely removing the question and the candidates’ responses. By doing so, it did a disservice to its viewers.

-Daily Illini (U. Illinois)