After Unofficial Satire Publication “Imperial Tribunal” Prints Weekly, EST Puts Pressure on King’s Administration
| Photo Courtesy of The Imperial Tribunal
The Empire State Tribune (EST) has elevated concerns around the recent IMP Weekly printed by the satirical publication, the Imperial Tribunal. The Imperial Tribunal is not an official student organization at King’s and, therefore, does not reserve the right to use college facilities. Editors observed that the EST racks were empty, had no more issues of the Weekly and that they had been replaced with the unauthorized publication. The Imperial Tribunal has denied that they threw out any EST issues.
On Wednesday, Paul Glader, Chair of the Program in Journalism, Culture and Society and EST Co-advisor, reached out via email to Dean of Students David Leedy to voice his concerns around The Imperial Tribunal’s infraction upon EST.
“The neophyte satire publication called the Imperial Tribunal has been a funny presence on social media in the last year. I mostly ignore it as I don’t fully appreciate satire that borders on ax-grinding, mean-spiritedness and intentionally peddles a lot of factual inaccuracies,” Glader said. “What I won’t ignore, however, is outright disregard for TKC policies and procedures. I have a copy of that publication that someone designed and printed to look like the EST Weekly and placed on the EST news racks around campus. That publication is not a student org and is not approved - per TKC handbook rules - to distribute content on campus, particularly not on the EST racks.”
The IMP Weekly in reference | Photo courtesy of EST’s Weekly Editor Gabriela Kressley
Leedy’s reply to the email explained the administration’s response to the incident.
"While I honestly enjoy the satire, ignoring TKC policy and procedure is a concern. For this reason, in keeping with our standard practice, Student Services removed and disposed of the latest print issue of the Imperial State Tribune after it was distributed on campus without permission.”
The Imperial Tribunal’s IMP Weekly made multiple attacks on EST. The top headline read, “New Report: Nobody Reads The Weekly,” and opened by saying, “This Weekly has been in this tray for 6 months. You didn’t bother to read it.”
EST received the following apology from the Imperial Tribunal:
“The Imperial Tribunal would like to apologize to the EST for trespassing on its newspaper racks. We had hoped our lighthearted admiration would be seen and accepted by the EST as a gesture in support of freedom of speech and freedom of the press on campus, but it is clear that we violated the established authority the EST has over the distribution of physical media at King's. As a penance for our sins, we would be happy to offer the EST some advice on the management of their paper, free of charge."
“The Empire State Tribune (EST) is the official student online newspaper and printed magazine of The King's College. The EST has a Faculty Advisor and student managers and editors whose work may be eligible for academic credit. The EST has access to school facilities and IT infrastructure and is eligible as an approved Student Organization to receive College funds annually,” page 24 of The King’s Student Handbook states.
The Student Handbook sidenotes, “The Empire State Tribune’s print materials (the EST Weekly and EST Magazine) do not require approval by Student Services prior to circulation, as these have their own approval process.”
The EST also follows The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, which can be found here: https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.
EST reached out to the Student Press Law Center on Thursday regarding the issue and will update this article if a response is received.
A previous version of this story said IMP members removed EST materials from their news racks. This updated story notes that EST staff and advisors have reason to believe IMP members removed the EST material, but the IMP has denied these claims.