The [Badger Herald] decided to run the $75 ad for one month on its website because it trusted that people on campus and throughout the community would be able to see through its lies. (Initially the ad slipped online without being noticed as a potential problem by ad staff, but was scrutinized shortly thereafter through a process with a board of nine students.)So, which is it?
The Badger Herald's readers are informed on the one hand that the paper decided to publicize the Holocaust denier's website beneath the header "Advertising" because its staffers didn't even know what it contained and then on the other hand subjected to a purportedly noble homily about free speech and "trusting the people."
What seems far more likely is that "trusting the people" and the rest of it was an ex post facto rationalization cobbled together after having entered into an ill-advised — unwitting, in fact — commercial contract with the Holocaust denier, who clearly won the upper hand.
Admitting to a dreadful business decision can't be that difficult.
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