The Oregon Commentator is a student publication at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded on September 27, 1983, and first published on October 24, 1983, it is a self-described "conservative journal of opinion," modeled after such publications as Harvard Lampoon and Reason Magazine. The magazine's ideological stance is libertarian.
The journal is an independent journal of opinion for the campus community. Founded by a group of student journalists on September 27, 1983, the Commentator provides students with an alternative to the views of other student publications, professors and student groups.
The Commentator is the second-oldest publication on campus, after the Oregon Daily Emerald. It is a member of the Collegiate Network, a group of conservative and libertarian college publications, although its operating budget is funded by student fees. Its aim is to serve as a contrarian outlet for students resistant to the prevailing trends on campus, including opposition to the mandatory nature of the non-academic "incidental fee."
The Oregon Commentator is operated as a program of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO) and is staffed by volunteer editors and writers. The paper is funded through student incidental fees, advertising revenue and private donations.
In addition to its print magazine, the Commentator publishes its content on its website [1], where it also maintains a group-run blog frequently linked to by national news outlets. In 2008, the Commentator blog took second place in the America's Future Foundation's inaugural College Blogger Contest[1][2].
The student group was founded in fall 1983 primarily by Dane S. Claussen, later a journalism/mass communication professor and now Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, and Richard E. Burr, now with The Detroit News' editorial pages. Other co-founders included Robert Davis and the late Michael Rust, with faculty advisor Paul S. Holbo.
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Since its inception, there have been attempts to shut it down. For example in 2004 the group lost its funding after satirizing a prominent transgendered student. The magazine's funding was restored soon after the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education became involved[3].
In 2006, a member of the Commentator appeared on The O'Reilly Factor to defend the First Amendment rights of its rival publication, the Student Insurgent[4]. The Insurgent had recently caused a large furor after publishing naked illustrations of Jesus.
The Commentator has faced problems on campus regarding its libertarian content, including entire orders of magazines being dumped from their distribution racks.
In early November 2009 the Oregon Commentator published a book titled By the Barrel: 25 Years of the Oregon Commentator. The book was edited by Timothy Dane Carbaugh and produced by Guy Simmons. The book was the culmination of the publication's 25th year of existence on the campus of the University of Oregon. The book contains three sections:
The book is sold in the University of Oregon bookstore on campus and online by both the bookstore and the Commentator itself.
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