Editor’s Note

While this issue of Stanford Politics Magazine is not necessarily a special edition like the last, there is somewhat of a common theme among most of the articles.

The first asks a question that we should all, as effectively paying subscribers of the Stanford Daily, be asking: Should it be printing everyday? It seems, quite straightforwardly, that the answer is no. As a former Daily staffer myself and having some of my closest friends among its leadership ranks, it saddens me to see stacks of newspapers across campus every evening, untouched and ready to be replaced by new stacks in the morning. But it pains me even more to see the Daily scratching the bottom of the barrel for content to publish each day — from the abominable “Grind” lifestyle blog to the unoriginal and lazy paraphrasings of Stanford News press releases. What our campus needs and deserves is a rigorous, investigative student newspaper. Daniela Gonzalez and Lucas Rodriguez discuss how reducing print frequency could help the Daily become more capable of being just that.

The cover story, co-written by our former editor Truman Chen and Josh Lappen, calls out the Stanford Review and Stanford’s Cardinal Conversations initiative for perpetuating the myth that there is an intellectual void on campus that needs to and can be filled with mere “dialogue.” Promoting free speech is certainly valuable (and imperative), but promoting all speech as valuable is simply negligent as an educational institution. As a former advisor (briefly) to Cardinal Conversations, I couldn’t agree more that our student body deserves — and must demand — better.

Our last article argues that while national outlets like CNN, the Atlantic, and the New York Times are redoubling their focus on Silicon Valley, the local journalism industry is withering away, and that brings with it consequences. To billionaire entrepreneurs who express interest in fighting fake news and promoting the public interest, Emily Lemmerman offers a suggestion: fund real, local news.

Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna
Editor in Chief, Stanford Politics

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Contents

Does The Daily Need to Print Daily?

Daniela Gonzalez & Lucas Rodriguez

Anti-Anti-Fascism
The [Character] “Assasination” of Professor David Palumbo-Liu

Amber Yang

DIALOGUE AS ALIBI
Beyond the Marketplace of Ideas

Truman Chen & Josh Lappen

“Obama thought about leadership in much more comprehensive way”
A Conversation with Colin Kahl

Jake Dow

Silicon Valley’s Media Desert

Emily Lemmerman

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Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna, a senior studying political science, is the editor in chief of Stanford Politics.