Colorado State University Student Newspaper Under Fire for Bush Editorial

The Colorado State University student newspaper is under fire after publishing a two-word editorial statement about President Bush.

The Rocky Mountain Collegian published the editorial on its Sept. 21 opinion page, saying "Taser this .. (expletive) BUSH."

University officials released a statement explaining their concern for response to the editorial, and that it has no control over its student media.

“While we understand (the editorial) is upsetting and offensive to many people, CSU is prohibited by law from censoring or regulating the content of its student media publications,” CSU said in a written statement.

The newspaper’s editor-in-chief wrote a letter to readers to explain that “our intentions were not malicious.”

“While the editorial board feels strongly with regard to first amendment issues, we have found the unintended consequences of such a bold statement to be extremely disheartening,” wrote J. David McSwane, editor-in-chief.

The editorial board, which consists of seven student editors, voted in a split vote to run the editorial statement, McSwane said.

Click here for the report on MyFOXDenver.com.

WARNING: Contains expletive. Click here to view the editorial headline.

Click here to visit the student newspaper's Web site.

The university plans to investigate the editorial, said Jeff Brown, CSU's director of student media.

"We find it unnecessary and unbefitting the proud 116-year tradition of the Collegian. We are conducting an internal investigation into the decision-making process used…in choosing to run today's staff editorial comment."