The Forum’s embattled Editor-in-Chief, Kurt Fischer CMC ’01, distributed a number of blue leaflets on Monday written in response to serious charges leveled against Fischer, as reported by The Collage newspaper  on Monday, February 12. The leaflets were titled, "A Rebuttal to Collage Article Regarding Shutdown of Forum Newspaper." 

The charges included misappropriation of funds for a personal trip, unapproved expenditures that exceeded the budget for office equipment, use of Forum computers for the viewing of pornographic web sites in violation of the college’s Appropriate Use Policy, drinking alcohol in the office, pouring gin into Forum computers resulting in inoperability,  nepotism in the hiring of production and business editors, and excessive editorial license in altering stories and cutting stories from publication.

While The Collage cited the charges as allegations, made to the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College Board of Directors by Forum section editors, they failed to include any testimony from the accused.

The Collage article in question was written by News Editor Colin Cannell.  At no time did The Collage claim that the charges printed were true or verified by the paper.  On Wednesday Cannell said that he had attempted to contact Fischer before the article was printed but that he was out of town.  Cannell said that he had, "talked to all the section editors involved and people on the Board.  I couldn’t talk to Kurt because he was still on the plane [from D.C.]"

"These allegations are false. They are false allegations.  What’s upsetting is that 60 percent of them could have been corrected  by making a couple of phone calls," Fischer said this Wednesday.

The allegations were made by Aaron Meyer and Hastings Cameron,  CMC freshmen and editors of The Collage opinions section, along with freshmen section editors Dana Gavre and Thomas Devine. 

Fischer and The Forum’s opinion section have a history of acrimony going back at least to a past decision Fischer made to eliminate two pages of content the opinions section had planned to print. 

"A two page spread of the opinions section consisted of [a] masturbation  article, and one page consisting entirely of pictures of dildoes,"  Fischer explained. The article in question was a controversial piece by Cameron which extolled the virtues of frequent masturbation, suggested that increased masturbation might reduce the predatory image of CMC males, and advised the CMC administration to take steps to encourage masturbation. 

In his four page rebuttal, Fischer quoted the charges against him as they were printed in The Collage, and followed each with a response.

The trip to Washington D.C. that Fischer was alleged to have paid for with Forum funds was in fact paid for by the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, according to Fischer.  The trip was to attend a journalism conference, which included representatives from the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Harvard University, Stanford Univeristy, Notre Dame University, UC Berkeley, and CMC.  The stated theme of the conference was "the importance of conducting rigorous research and maintaining a critical and open stance when investigating stories."

The next issue that Fischer addressed was his purchase of $4,000 in new computer equipment for The Forum. According to The Collage, in his request to the ASCMC for these funds he produced a request that was "allegedly cosigned by a member of the Pub[lication] Board, which would be difficult since it no longer exists."  Fischer countered by arguing that he had discussed the purchases at length last semester with Publication Board head John Nugent CMC ’01, and that Nugent had signed off on the purchases before leaving for study abroad. In his rebuttal Fischer also states, "these expenses were split between yearbook and the newspaper staff to make better use of our resources and budget. The Forum has never exceeded its budget while I have been the Editor-in-Chief."

Fischer did not deny the consumption of alcohol during the production of The Forum, but denied consuming alcohol in the offices ofThe Forum, or introducing alcohol into the floppy drives of Forum computers. Problems with the operation of one Forum computer have yet to be linked to any damage, alcohol-related or otherwise, inflicted irresponsibly by Forum editors.  Information technology personnel are investigating the causes and extent of damage to this computer, with no results at this time.

One of the allegations made against Fischer was the charge that he or his suitemates used Forum computers to view pornographic websites, in violation of college policy.  Fischer states in his rebuttal that the start page of The Forum’s computers had been set to various pornographic websites, without his knowledge or consent. "Aaron Meyer confessed that Hastings Cameron was setting the default home pages to pornographic websites," Fischer claimed.  This confession, which according to Fischer was made by e-mail, was not documented and could not be verified.

In response to the allegation that Fischer’s suitemates were improperly given access to Forum offices and access to Forum computers, Fischer said that "none of my suitemates other than Joe Cericola, my business manager, have been in the office without me. Moreover, none of them have the code to the office other than Joe." 

Cericola is also involved in the allegation that Fischer filled the production and business positions with his friends and suitemates.  The business managers of The Forum all share a suite with Fischer.  The layout staff of The Forum, Sarah King and Travis Nagunst, do not live with Fischer.  King accompanied Fischer  to the D.C. conference.  In his rebuttal, Fischer says, "The business managers are my suitemates because they are the only ones who wanted that job.  Moreover, I value competence, and I don’t play favorites.  If someone wants to work hard for the newspaper, even if he is my suitemate, then I will gladly welcome that person onto the staff."

The charges of "flagrant disregard for journalistic integrity," with "articles changed and facts misrepresented," seem to stem from chronic tension between Fischer and his section editors about the paper’s content.  Fischer stood by his editorial decisions in his rebuttal and in interview.  "I made final decisions as to what to cut for space reasons. I did this without attempting to affect the overall idea behind a story. That is what editors do; that’s my job," said Fischer.  On Wednesday, Fischer added, "I knew there was tension even before I left for the trip."

Fischer flatly denied that printing ofThe Forum had ever been stopped.  "The newspaper was never pulled from the press by CMC. The newspaper came out on Friday. Before I left for my trip, I had the subscription ad removed from the newspaper and replaced with an article of my own. This did not cause a delay in printing, and we did not get overcharged for the printing of the newspaper. The removal of the ad was an editorial decision made by me without influence from the CMC administration. The newspaper came to campus on Friday at 4 pm, which was on schedule," Fischer said in his rebuttal.

ASCMC vice president Jen Casto, who created the special committee investigating the Forum, said this Wednesday that,  "The committee is meeting next week and won’t have any formal reports until Monday the 26." The ASCMC will take no further action on the matter until the investigation is concluded.