Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

NEWSLETTER
Sign up for our twice-weekly newsletter!

Staff Editorial: Sink Juicy Campus

Like it or not, the gossip blog Juicy Campus is the latest hot topic on campus.

Juicy Campus users can anonymously post anything they want about anyone with no repercussions, and students have reacted strongly to the recent launch of its GW edition. They should. GW students should make a decisive effort to undermine the despicable site.

The site is a free-for-all of vicious rumors and trashy gossip. It appeals to the worst in all of us and it has no place on a college campus. Its anonymous nature breeds nasty posting, and there is no recourse for people whose names are dragged through the mud. The site even lacks a “delete post” option.

For those who defend the site as harmless entertainment – like the poster who cited LSAT practices and two jobs as the reason she likes to blow off steam on Juicy Campus – it is no longer harmless once the site crosses into the territory of naming names. People can be hurt by having their names associated with unsubstantiated, slanderous rumors. Punching someone in the face is not harmless entertainment, and neither is posting hurtful, defamatory gossip.

We applaud the student life blogs the GW Patriot and the Colonialist for their campaign to undermine Juicy Campus. Their creative, funny initiative to spam the site by posting random, banal information in place of gossip is inspired and shows ingenuity.

General student reaction has been encouraging, as most students agree that the site needs to be rendered useless. Juicy Campus is alive and well on other university campuses, and we are genuinely pleased that GW students are showing strong character by calling for everyone to spam the site into impotence.

We are firmly against censorship – what sort of newspaper would we be if we were not against it? – but we stand with the efforts against the site.

Juicy Campus deserves to go under.

More to Discover
Donate to The GW Hatchet