A student editor resigns

Matthew Giffin wrote an article. The student at Middle Tennessee State University and former editor-in-chief of the student-run Sidelines published a profile on Oct. 27 about a fellow student's concern for friends in Tel Aviv.

The story was posted to the newspaper's Instagram account. Comments starting flooding in. Readers called out how the article listed the number of deaths of Israeli citizens — but made no mention of Palestinian deaths.

Giffin then pulled the story from the Sidelines website and announced in an opinion piece his resignation as editor-in-chief. He called the situation “folding to antisemitism" and and implied that he was being censored.

Leon Alligood, MTSU journalism professor and faculty adviser for Sidelines, stressed the article was posted by Giffin with no oversight, a typical practice of editorially independent student newspapers which treat young writers as full journalists. The publication of the story —and ensuing backlash — is yet another example of how the conflict is roiling college campuses across the U.S., especially for student reporters.

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