Why is the Los Angeles Times giving a platform to endorsements of thuggish behavior?

Last Friday, the Times ran an op-ed by controversial gay activist Michelangelo Signorile complaining that Mark Foley had not been previously outed and calling for the press to out public figures when it “is relevant to a larger story.”

On the following day, the Times published a column by Meghan Daum that appeared to endorse the protestors at Columbia University who interrupted a speech by Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist and reportedly physically assaulted him (via Patterico). “[C]onsidering that most young people are considered to be politically apathetic,” she writes, “you have to credit the Chicano Caucus and the International Socialist Organization for trying.” And even after acknowledging that Gilchrist and others were struck in the melee, she writes, “I’ll give them an A (OK, maybe a B+) for trying.”

Signorile and Daum have every right to their views, but the Times is under no obligation to provide a platform for them.