ALABAMA — When student journalists at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa reported on the firing of Mike Price, the head football coach, the university community did not appreciate the coverage, said newspaper adviser Paul Isom. Price was forced out after school officials learned that he spent hundreds of dollars at a strip club in Pensacola, Fla.
On the day The Crimson White published a front-page story about Price’s firing,about 1,500 copies were stolen. Isom said he believes the theft was in protest of that story.
In one instance, 400 copies of the paper’s 14,000 press run were found in a garbage bin in the student union, Isom said. The student editors redistributed those papers but they were stolen again during the night, he said.
The newspaper reported the theft to the campus police, but according to Lt. Beth Turner, the police report regarding the theft was misplaced and the investigation was dropped.
Isom said the paper lost about $2,500 because of the theft.n
MICHIGAN — Almost the entire press run of a weekly newspaper at the University of Michigan at Dearborn was stolen in April.
Michigan Journal Editor Dan Godzina said he believes 1,400 copies of the paper were taken in protest of an article that reported that four fraternity members were found in possession of alcohol and marijuana.
The newspaper lost a combined $2,000 in printing costs and advertising revenue.
The university police are still investigating, but no suspects have been named.